Sharks star Bongi Mbonambi during their training session Kings Park Stadium. Picture: by Steve Haag Sports/Gallo Images.
Sharks hooker Bongi Mbonambi says there’s a big belief and desire within the team to win the Challenge Cup and ensure a return to the top-tier Champions Cup next season.
The Springboks–laden Sharks have missed out on qualifying for the European Cup via the United Rugby Championship because of a string of heavy defeats in the formative stages of the season, leaving the Durban-based side looking to the Challenge Cup as a pathway to the Champions Cup.
The Sharks have made it to the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup after negotiating their way through the pool stages and the round of 16 and with the competition now deep in the knockout stages where the margin for error is non-existent, the Sharks have Rugby World Cup-winning Springboks in their ranks who know their way around knockout games.
The likes of Mbonambi, Lukhanyo Am, Makazole Mapimpi, Vincent Koch and Ox Nche will tap into their experience of playing knockout rugby at the World Cup to help the Sharks go all the way in the Challenge Cup.
“Definitely, we will give some of our experience to the team, but I also think it’s all about just us,” said Mbonambi.
“Once we come here to the Sharks it’s all about the Sharks. It’s not about how many caps you have for the Springboks or what your name is … it’s all about the Sharks. We all do what we can to make sure that come game day, everyone is ready and prepared to give their best for the team,” he said.
The Sharks know if they win three games (in the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final) they will win the Challenge Cup. The desire to win European club rugby’s second-tier competition is burning deep inside the Sharks’ dressing room.
“We want to be successful in this competition, we know it’s not going to be easy,” Mbonambi said.
“The desire and the belief are very deep as it should be. At the end of the day, you don’t want to get knocked out in a quarter-final game knowing that you haven’t achieved much, especially with a team like we have. So, the desire and belief is quite big,” he said.
On Saturday the Sharks will take on Scottish side Edinburgh, who they beat comfortably in March in a URC clash, in the last eight of the Challenge Cup at Durban’s Kings Park Stadium (kick-off at 1.30pm).
Mbonambi is expecting this tie to be difficult because the stakes are so high.
“This one is a quarter-final and probably has more stakes than the previous games we played. This time is going to be much more of a challenge for us. The fact that it’s a quarter-final in a whole different competition makes it more difficult,” Mbonambi said.
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