- To emerge victorious come 23 January against WP, the Sharks must put the extra week’s grace to good use and summon their early 2020 Super Rugby form.
- Since the post-lockdown restart, results have been inconsistent, while away games against big boys have been poor.
- Curwin Bosch spoke last week about the pressure of living up to what they did early last year.
The Sharks, as a business, are fresh off the lot, with a big red ribbon and a "SOLD" sign on the windshield, ready to be driven out by new American owners MVM Holdings.
However, as a rugby team, they have a somewhat stale hue that was brought about by the five idle months of playless lockdown.
They have been trying to summon the form that took them to the top of the Super Rugby standings last year before the pandemic hit and rugby shut down the day after they beat the Stormers at Kings Park in March.
Results have been inconsistent, while away games against big boys have been poor.
They now must face those twin challenges ahead of their Currie Cup semi-final against Western Province at Newlands without any margin for error.
Somehow, they must find a way to invoke the spirit of early 2020, when they were playing champagne rugby and were the toast of the town.
According to their fulcrum flyhalf Curwin Bosch, the spectre of early 2020 did hover over their restart as they battled to find consistency in Super Rugby Unlocked and the Currie Cup.
"We wanted to continue what we had started in the Super Rugby season," he said last week before the cancelled league game against Province.
"We obviously lost a couple of players and a few new players came in but they fell right into our plans.
"There was definitely no pressure put on us from the coaches. If there was pressure on us, it was from ourselves.
"That’s because we are a young and competitive group, and we want to become better and be the best team in the competition.
"Our consistency may have been lacking in the last two competitions (Super Rugby Unlocked and the Currie Cup)."
One of the biggest factors in their inability to duplicate their 2020 Super Rugby performances in the restart was their away form.
The Sharks finished 2020 unbeaten at the Shark Tank all year, an impressive achievement for the youthful side.
However, they were swatted aside by the Bulls at Loftus and failed to pitch up against the Lions and Cheetahs at the Highveld.
"There’s no excuses for us putting in performances like we did against the Cheetahs and the Lions," said Bosch.
"That was just below par performances, from all of us, myself included.
"We spoke last year when we got together for the first time that we wanted to make Kings Park a fortress.
"One of our goals was to be unbeaten at home in 2020 and we achieved that goal.
"But now we must have the consistency to put the same kind of performances and energy in away matches like we do at home.
"We have spoken about it and we are aware that we’re not as good as we should be away from home."
To emerge victorious come 23 January against WP, they must use the extra week’s grace that SA Rugby gave them and muster a strong away performance to oust the semi-final hosts.