No-frills Stephan Lewies shows what the Sharks are about
The Durbanites' towering lock is finally playing like a Springbok again and is doing so by taking his coach's hardnosed philosophy to heart.
Stephan Lewies has been in excellent form for the Sharks this year. Photo: Steve Haag/Gallo Images.
When Stephan Lewies talks, he mirrors the Sharks under coach Robert du Preez.
This isn’t a side worried about how good they look on the field.
It’s about getting a job done, achieving results and, vitally, being accountable for poor performances.
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When the towering Lewies – a one-cap Springbok lock – and his teammates were hammered for their depressing 9-all draw with the Rebels, it easily the type of setback that could’ve derailed their campaign.
Instead, the Sharks pulled up their socks and improved immeasurably, culminating in a brilliant win in Buenos Aires the very next week.
Lewies and the rest of the forward pack has been at the heart of that.
“There were hard words after that game. I think even the media caught a bit of Robert’s feelings afterwards,” he said with a chuckle.
“We were also massively disappointed with that performance. So we went back and did the hard yards.”
Pleasingly though, the Sharks didn’t just view the Rebels tragicomedy as a wake-up call but also an opportunity to address structural flaws in their game.
“I think we also realised that we don’t really understand how hard it is to play with a red card so early in the game,” said Lewies.
“It was a good thing because we had a big discussion about what we’ll do in such a situation again. It’s actually quite simple, you just need to cut the needless errors.”
Lewies was actually one of the few men to emerge with credit from the Rebels game, shining on defence and delivering a superb showing in the line-outs.
After two years of seemingly endless injury setbacks, the 25-year-old has hit his straps in this campaign and is finally showing the form again that led to higher honours.
But the competition and rotation in the lock posision – where Ruan Botha and Etienne Oosthuizen have also made their mark – has played a part.
“That competition for a place has brought out the best in us,” said Lewies.
“We all enjoy and understand each other well. We’ve been around for a while now, so we know what it takes to be successful at this level. And that means we can’t have any egos about a rotation policy.”
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