Tapuai urges Sharks to put on a good show

Veteran midfielder Ben Tapuai will remind his Sharks gang that they need to make some amends in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC), even though their campaign in the more prestigious Heineken Champions Cup (HCC) has been going satisfactorily.

The former Wallabies No. 12 and his teammates from Durban face Edinburgh on Murrayfield’s synthetic turf in Scotland at 7.15 pm on Saturday for their 11th outing of the 2022/23 URC programme.

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He says they will “do what we can do” from a skills standpoint and try to adapt as quickly as possible to the unusual playing surface to improve their playoff hopes, despite their Springboks being rested in line with national imperatives.

“We know the importance of both competitions [URC and HCC] to us,” said Tapuai yesterday.

They [Edinburgh] may miss a few Scottish internationals, but we can’t read too much into that. The two teams are in the same situation — both are looking to go as high up the log as possible without their internationals.

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“Edinburgh are more experienced than us in the URC and they will know how to adapt to the situation. We are looking to put up a good performance and get as high as we can with two games in hand.”

His “Fear The Fin” outfit from the east coast of South Africa occupy a nervy ninth spot in the 16-team URC standings after six wins and four losses to date.

Two of those defeats came in their last five fixtures in the competition since the end of November, but eighth-placed Edinburgh have done worse in the same period and are only one point better off than the Sharks at present despite having played two games more.

While both teams have fought strongly in higher-level European competitions recently, the Sharks sit a hefty 27 points adrift of log-leading Leinster in the URC, 16 points behind the second-placed Stormers, 10 points adrift of the third-placed Bulls, and nine points behind fourth-placed Ulster.

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Irish powerhouse Leinster and the Bulls have played 12 fixtures so far, the Stormers and Ulster 11 matches, and the Sharks 10 games.

This means there is room for log improvement for the Sharks, but they will want to pick up those much-needed points sooner rather than later despite the absence of Springbok muscle at times.

Tapuai, who grew up in Melbourne and is of Samoan heritage, said Saturday’s challenge is made greater by Edinburgh having a clear advantage over them in terms of their playing surface. “The game is quicker on ‘3G’ because you are not sinking into grass. The bounce of the ball can go anywhere,” said the 34-year-old.

We have had some practice on it this week and, hopefully, everybody will be prepared for it. We have to do what we can do
The Sharks’ director of rugby, Neil Powell, will on Friday name his team for Saturday night’s assignment in the Scottish capital.

FIXTURES
Today
Ulster v Stormers ­— 9.35 pm
Scarlets v Bulls — 9.35 pm
Tomorrow
Benetton v Munster — 4.30 pm
Dragons v Glasgow — 5 pm
Leinster v Cardiff — 7.05 pm
Edinburgh v Sharks — 7.15 pm
Connacht v Lions — 9.35 pm
Sunday
Zebre v Ospreys — 5 pm