Bulls coach Jake White reckons the Sharks team named to play Edinburgh on Friday night in the United Rugby Championship (URC) is “the strongest Sharks team for 15 years”.
The Sharks team for the United Rugby Championship match is bristling with current Springboks. It is the dream team that John Plumtree had wanted to field ages ago, but couldn’t because of a raft of injuries plus Springbok resting protocols.
Plumtree included 15 Boks in a 23-man squad captained by Bok bruiser Eben Etzebeth.
“I think it’s one of the strongest provincial sides I’ve ever seen coming out of South Africa,” White said. “Can you show me how they can make it stronger? Because I don’t know who they can pick to make it stronger than that.
“The only thing I think that will be interesting to see is how the returning players click based on the fact that they haven’t played for a while.”
Last week, the Bulls played Edinburgh, and he pointed out that South African teams are not used to the 4G pitch at the Hive Stadium.
“It’s a very different challenge when you play on 4G because South African teams don’t train and play as often on them as the Scottish teams do. Both Edinburgh and Glasgow have those pitches, so their players are used to it.
“But if you look at this Sharks team, that is an incredible provincial side they’ve put together. I’m optimistic about where we are on the log, but they’re only a couple of points behind us, and if you look at who they have to play when returning to Durban (two Welsh sides), they’re also in a very good position.
“I will watch their game in Edinburgh with interest, even though it won’t really have an impact on us, because we will still have to beat sides like Munster and Glasgow to win this competition.
“And who knows, we might also have to beat that Sharks team, which is the strongest Sharks team I’ve seen in the last 15 years.”