Sharks must show more discipline against Lions, says Buthelezi

Phepsi Buthelezi will return as captain for the Sharks in their Currie Cup match against the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday, and he says a meeting with one of the leading referees has clarified for the squad that they have to improve their discipline and be better advertisers for a free-flowing game.

The Sharks will be looking to maintain their grip on second place against the last-placed Lions, following their victory over the Free State Cheetahs in Durban last weekend. But although the Cheetahs played with 14 men for most of the second half due to a red card, the Sharks kept them in the game with their own rampant ill-discipline, conceding far too many penalties and two yellow cards of their own in the tense closing stages.

That has to change, according to Buthelezi.

“We had Stuart Berry, who refereed our match against the Cheetahs, come chat to us and give us feedback. He told us that the way they are refereeing is to promote running rugby, which will be good for the product when people come back to stadiums,” Buthelezi said.

“So that puts the defending team under the pump, but the biggest thing is our discipline. We can’t get sucked into silly errors.

“That just gave the Cheetahs life last weekend, so our main focus this week has been on keeping the number of penalties lower. That’s been a huge problem for us. It’s definitely a massive issue, something we’re constantly working on.”

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Along with the in-form eighthman, halfbacks Grant Williams and Lionel Cronje, who played so well in the win over the Bulls two weeks ago, return to the starting line-up.

Workhorse lock Le Roux Roets is going to take a break, allowing Gerbrandt Grobler to come in for his debut and Sharks coach Sean Everitt has rotated his hookers, with Dan Jooste starting and Kerron van Vuuren on the bench.

Though the Lions are out of contention for the semifinals, Buthelezi knows his team are going to have to put in a big effort to maintain their challenge for home-ground advantage in the playoffs.

“The Lions are obviously going to be desperate. They are a quality team who have just been unfortunate in terms of results. Things just haven’t gone their way,” the skipper said.

“We’re expecting them to have some main players back and they’ve been kicking a lot less lately, so that means lots of running and tackles. We are going to need to execute our game-plan, especially on attack, to put them under pressure.”

Sharks

Anthony Volmink, Yaw Penxe, Jeremy Ward, Marius Louw, Thaakir Abrahams, Lionel Cronje, Grant Williams, Phepsi Buthelezi (c), Henco Venter, Dylan Richardson, Emile van Heerden, Gerbrandt Grobler, Lourens Adriaanse, Dan Jooste, Khwezi Mona. Bench: Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Wiehahn Herbst, Thembelani Bholi, Jeandre Labuschagne, Sanele Nohamba, Boeta Chamberlain, Murray Koster.