No more time for talking: Sharks ready to host Scarlets

The Sharks are ready to put their words into action when they take on Scarlets in their United Rugby Championship match up at Kings Park on Friday evening (kickoff 7.10pm).

SA’s strongest team will get to lay down a marker as they host overseas opposition in the competition for the first time and they will be aiming to get a full house of points out of the match.

They will also want to put in an entertaining performance in front of their home fans, especially with stadiums expected to open up even more over the coming months.

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“People have been hyping it up for a while now that these overseas teams are coming to South Africa and now we have to put the words into action. It’s important for us that we put in good performances at home,” said Sharks coach Sean Everitt.

“There’s no use talking about it. Scarlets had a great win on Saturday against a top-three team, which is Glasgow, so we are wary of what they can bring.

“But we need to perform to get the support back and obviously when the stadiums are open we want to be playing well.”

Scarlets and the Sharks play a similar brand of rugby, so if conditions are hot and humid it could lead to a game in which the team that makes the least mistakes wins.

However, if it is a cool evening, it could become a very entertaining, attacking end-to-end game for the fans to enjoy.

“They are a very attack oriented team, although they do like to kick a lot as well and the reason why they are kicking is to get the ball back to attack,” said Everitt.

“We are also a team who likes to keep the ball in hand and often we’ve played our best rugby away from home. So I wouldn’t say we are hoping for a humid day, our guys get excited about playing ball in hand rugby as well.

“But at the same time we like to put the opposition under pressure, so the wind sometimes does nullify that. Anything can happen on the coast.”