Sharks must show desperation and pride against Dragons, says flanker Phepsi Buthelezi
United Rugby Championship
Sharks loose forward Phepsi Buthelezi wants his side to show some charecter against the Dragons in the Round-Two of the URC. | BackpagePix
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Sharks and Springbok loose forward Phepsi Buthelezi says the Durban side are determined to bounce back against the Dragons in Newport on Friday night after last week sinking to a 35-19 defeat to the Warriors in the opening round of the United Rugby Championship.
“It’s simple,” said Buthelezi, who has captained the Sharks in the Currie Cup. “We want people to see a proud and desperate Sharks team that will go out there, work hard for one another, and restore pride in the jersey.
“We were very disappointed with last weekend. We didn’t stick to the Sharks’ way of playing, the things we worked on in pre-season, and fixing that is the biggest focus for us going into Friday,” the 26-year-old added.
Buthelezi, a one-cap Springbok, felt that the Sharks lost shape when the experienced Glasgow pack turned up the heat.
“We need a response from our pack against the Dragons,” Buthelezi said. “We’ve worked hard this week. We need to revert to the system that we know works for us. When we move away from our basics, we play recklessly.
“At the URC level, when a team is close to your tryline, actions like that get punished.
“We have spoken about it, and I am excited to see how our pack responds.”
Buthelezi added that, at times, the Sharks tried too hard to make things happen.
“We drowned ourselves a bit. We felt we overplayed in certain areas, and that’s what Glasgow are good at exploiting. They forced us into conceding penalties and pinned us back in our half. That’s definitely one of the things we have addressed.”
Buthelezi expects the Dragons to provide a different challenge to the Warriors.
“The Dragons have got a bigger, more physical pack, so we know we’ve got our work cut out. We looked at their game against Ulster and thought they were very competitive despite losing 42-21. The scoreboard didn’t reflect the flow of the game.
“The Dragons are a proud team and with a new coach and around 40 new players, they’re a completely different side.”