Smit: Strong start key

If you look back at the Sharks’ 2010 campaign across the two main competitions, the Super 14 and the Currie Cup, you come across an interesting statistic. From towards the end of March, they were nearly unbeatable, with their last 24 competition games – eight Super 14 and 16 Currie Cup – seeing just four defeats.

One was the Super 14 clash with the Bulls in Pretoria, the other three came in the Currie Cup, with the opening defeat to Griquas being followed much later by a narrow loss to the Lions in Johannesburg and then an under-strength defeat to Western Province in the final league match in Cape Town. In that time, they went unbeaten on home soil.

That though contrasted starkly with their record up that point in March, which read five defeats in five starts, and seven out of seven if you factor in the two pre-season friendlies. Losing had become a habit, but the win in Dunedin against the Highlanders broke the mould, and from there it was mostly up.

That disastrous start, which came about because of numerous contributing factors, not the least of them the confusion there was at flyhalf, accounts for why the Sharks didn’t feature in the 2010 Super semi-final phase. That they were good enough to be there by the end can be ascertained from their record of seven wins in their last eight matches in the competition, one of those victories being a surprisingly comfortable triumph over the eventual beaten finalists, the Stormers.

So it goes without saying then that the starting point for the Sharks if they want to follow up their recent Currie Cup success with what many would consider a long overdue hold on the Super Rugby trophy is to get right what they did wrong in 2010 by making a solid start.

Unsurprisingly, it was a subject for discussion at a Sharks press conference in Durban on Tuesday, with skipper John Smit stressing the need for his team to start well this time, and he is confident they can do that.

“Compared to last year we haven’t had nearly as much go wrong this time and we feel like a well settled team,” said Smit.

“It would take a hell of a lot for us to be in a worse off position now than we were at a corresponding stage of 2010. We had a lot of disruptions then, particularly at flyhalf. But we are feeling settled and are determined to start the competition a whole lot better this time.”

The Cheetahs beat the Sharks in the second game of last season, and the Sharks will not have forgotten that it was the Cheetahs who derailed what was shaping as a promising 2009 campaign with a surprisingly easy win over them that Easter Saturday.

But for Smit those memories are probably a good thing, for it will mean that they don’t underestimate opponents who don’t, like themselves, rank among the potential challengers for the title, but who he agrees will feel a lot more confident going into the new format competition than they were in previous seasons.

“It is true that this format will help the Cheetahs because they enjoy playing local teams and have had success home and away in this competition in local derbies whereas they have battled overseas. So starting well by winning a local derby in the first round will be very important to them. The thing is, after what happened to us last year, this match has some significance to us too.”

Smit is himself a lot fresher than he was a year ago, and he has shed quite a few kilograms since last season courtesy of a strict exercise regime.

“It is the first proper pre-season I have had in a long a long time. The operation was done at the perfect time because I had a good period away from rugby and then was able to do pre-season training,” he said.