André Esterhuizen André Esterhuizen (left) is back in the Sharks side that will face Leinster in Durban on Saturday. Photo: BackpagePix
Image: BackpagePix
Leinster have been tight-lipped over whether they have brought over reinforcements for their United Rugby Championship match against the Sharks on Saturday (7.15pm kick-off).
But coach John Plumtree said on Thursday that it makes no difference.
“I have no more idea than the public about what team they will field against us, but we know their game model, we know they will come up with certain tricks to get an edge on us,” said Plumtree, who in 2014 was an Ireland assistant coach under Joe Schmidt, the current Wallabies coach.
“We can’t predict who they will select but just as important is that we know how they play,” the big Kiwi said.
“We know how they attack, we know how they defend and what pressure points will come our way, and also where we can potentially put them under pressure.
“Having said all of that, I am a big believer in focusing on ourselves. We are going to have to be much better than we were last week against Zebre.”
A notable weakness in the Sharks’ performance last week was their failure to deal with contestable kicks, and Plumtree said that this would have been noted.
“Leinster will go to the air, where we really struggled against Zebre. We won just two of our contestable kicks.
“If we are going to go up, we need to win at least half of them, if not more. We do have one of the best in the world playing for us in that regard in the form of Makazole Mapimpi.
“In fairness, Makazole hasn’t played much rugby over the past few weeks because of his suspension. but he has trained well during the week. and last week’s game is behind him now.”
Plumtree added that it helps that he has moved Ethan Hooker from centre back to wing to accommodate André Esterhuizen when naming his team on Thursday.
“Ethan can contest there. He is a big lad and good in the air.
“It will also be good to see how Yaw Penxe goes at fullback. Wing is his normal position, but I think there is an opportunity for him to play at 15 in the future.
“Our aerial game definitely needs to be better than it has been.”
Plumtree said Zebre made the Sharks pay dearly for their loose play in last week’s 35-34 win.
The Sharks scrambled across the line with a one-point win but if they don’t tighten up, Leinster will put them away with ease.
“When we looked back on that game, from a skill set point of view, we kicked poorly.
“We gave away 36 turnovers. That is way too many, and it gave Zebre too many opportunities to attack us when our defence was unstructured.
“We have to fix that up because we are playing a much better team this weekend.
“To beat Leinster, we need to control large parts of the game.
“If we give away turn-over ball on transition when we are not connected, we will be in trouble.
“Last week, we were guilty of not connecting quickly enough off transition, and there was some really poor decision-making. We were often too loose in the offload.”
Sharks Team
15 Yaw Penxe 14 Ethan Hooker 13 Jurenzo Julius 12 André Esterhuizen 11 Makazole Mapimpi 10 Jordan Hendrikse 9 Jaden Hendrikse 8 Siya Kolisi (captain) 7 Vincent Tshituka 6 James Venter 5 Emile van Heerden 4 Jason Jenkins 3 Vincent Koch 2 Bongi Mbonambi 1 Ox Nche.
Bench: 16 Fez Mbatha 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu 18 Ruan Dreyer 19 Corné Rahl 20 Manu Tshituka 21 Bradley Davids 22 Francois Venter 23 Siya Masuku.