Cape Town - Sharks No 8 Ryan Kankowski says their recent good run has come at just the right time ahead of their Super Rugby semi-final.

The Durbanites have won seven of their last eight matches to sneak into the semis where a clash against the Stormers at Newlands awaits them this Saturday.

And Kankowski feels this recent wave of success proves that they are now peaking at just the right time.

“The guys have been gelling which is good at this time of the competition, we came back from the June break in the tournament and we had enough time to get settled," he told the Sharks website.

“But it seems that we like making things tough for ourselves, we only seem to play when there’s a knife against our throat. We put ourselves under a bit of pressure but we came out on top. We just need to keep building on that.

“We’ve had a good couple wins and we’re building momentum, and going into semi-finals, I think everyone fancies their chance.”

The clash at Newlands kicks off at 17:05 on Saturday.

Teams:

Stormers: 15. Joe Pietersen, 14. Gio Aplon, 13. Juan de Jongh, 12. Jean de Villiers (captain), 11. Bryan Habana, 10. Peter Grant, 9. Dewaldt Duvenage, 8. Deon Fourie, 7. Rynhardt Elstadt, 6. Siya Kolisi, 5. Andries Bekker, 4. Eben Etzebeth, 3. Brok Harris, 2. Tiaan Liebenberg, 1.  Steven Kitshoff

Substitutes: 16. Frans Malherbe, 17. Deon Carstens, 18. De Kock Steenkamp, 19. Don Armand, 20. Louis Schreuder, 21. Burton Francis, 22. Gerhard van den Heever

Sharks: 15 Louis Ludik, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Tim Whitehead, 12 Meyer Bosman, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Charl McLeod, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Marcell Coetzee, 6 Keegan Daniel (captain), 5 Anton Bresler, 4 Willem Alberts, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Substitutes: 16 Craig Burden, 17 Wiehahn Herbst, 18 Steven Sykes, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Jacques Botes, 21 Odwa Ndungane, 22 Riaan Viljoen