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FILE | Sharks players.
The Sharks want to put some pride into the jersey as they go in search of a top eight place on the United Rugby Championship (URC) log.
Lock forward, Emile van Heerden says the Durban side has been up and down this season and need to be more consistent as it prepares to face Cardiff at the Shark Tank on Friday evening in round 14 of the URC.
The Sharks have five rounds left to get themselves into the top eight on the log, and into the quarter-finals.
The problem is they find themselves in 11th place, six points off the pace.
Last Saturday’s 45-0 win over Munster in Durban was just what the doctor ordered, but now according to Van Heerden, they have to get a similar result against Cardiff on Friday.
He says, “The log can show it, they are in the top half of the log. I think Cardiff is a quality team, you can see that from where they are on the log, they had a tough game last weekend against the Bulls at Loftus.”
“We are definitely expecting them to gear up and come to the tank, but in saying that we have prepared well, and we want to take confidence out of last weeks game, but focus on this week having a new game and a new responsibility to put some pride into the jersey because we have been up and down this season but we really want to perform week in week out consistently, ” Van Heerden adds.
He put his name on the score sheet against Munster, courtesy of a behind the back offload pass from Bok scrumhalf, Grant Williams.
Van Heerden says it is not often that a lock gets to score but when the team is working hard, the rewards come through.
“This weekend we can take confidence out of the game but we have a new focus which is Cardiff this weekend, but I can just say as locks we don’t score a lot of tries, so I was on the right place at the right time. The team did all the hard work I was just on the right spot and it was a lovely pass from Grant.”
After Cardiff at home, the Sharks hit the road to face the Ospreys and Edinburgh, who have similar top eight aspirations.
The Durban side might be in danger of running out of games to stay in hunt for the top eight places.
