Sharks still chasing their first 80-minute performance this season

The Sharks say they have still not had a perfect game, or even a near-perfect game, this season.

However, their final United Rugby Championship (URC) league phase match, played against Welsh side Scarlets, “could be this game for us”, said flanker James Venter.

The match will see the two sides, which are each on a three-game winning streak, clash at Kings Park Stadium at 7.30pm on Saturday. It will be the last regular-season match before the play-offs begin at the end of the month.

Sharks can overtake Glasgow

The Sharks are fourth on the URC log following their bonus-point 29–10 win over Ospreys in Durban last weekend and cannot be displaced. They can, however, overtake third-placed Glasgow Warriors, who are one point ahead but have a tough away fixture against table-toppers Leinster left.

The Durban side could catch second-place Bulls on points and wins if they took all five points against Scarlets, but Bulls have 116 more points difference than them so it will be unlikely they would lose to last-placed Dragons by such a margin as to drop down the table.

Scarlets are fresh from a confidence-boosting 32–19 win over the Lions in Johannesburg that followed an even more impressive 35–22 win against Leinster in Wales.

They will need to draw on this form because to lose could mean they fall out of the top eight and lose their play-off spot.

Sharks chase a perfect performance against Scarlets

Venter said the Sharks have slowly but surely started to click over the past few weeks, with wins against Ulster and Edinburgh in Europe before the Ospreys game.

“So this is a good opportunity for us to run out there, secure the five points and continue gelling and building chemistry,” he said.

“It’s easy to go out there and try tick boxes, but we still haven’t had a full 80-minute performance [yet].”

Venter said the Sharks’ 41–24 win over Munster and 28–24 win over Glasgow were close but even then there were issues in those games that were more than a little worrying.

“We want to play 80 minutes of rugby to the standard we can. I think that’s what we are looking for. We are one game away from clicking and being a really, really dangerous side.”

He said the Sharks were “putting in the hard work” and “nailing it” in training. “We are waiting for that 80-minute game so this could be this game for us. The Scarlets game could allow us that chemistry and that fluidity to go into the knock-outs with massive confidence.”