News

Taione travelling with Sharks

May 20 2008

Tongan Epi Taione is the bolter in the Sharks' semi-final squad that flew out to Sydney for Saturday's Super 14 showdown with the Waratahs on Sunday.

Eyebrows will be raised in many quarters at the sudden return of the giant Rugby World Cup star after he had been released from his Sharks contract after his six-week suspension for a head lunge on a Hurricanes player, but coach Dick Muir has a plan to beat the Waratahs and the hefty flank is literally a big part of it.

Taione is set to slot into the starting line-up on the flank, at the probable expense of AJ Venter, as the Sharks try to redress the hammering they got at the breakdowns, rucks and mauls.

"In our defeat to the Waratahs in Sydney (a month ago) we were bullied in the loose, and we felt after that game that Epi had been seriously missed and that he could have done for us what Wycliff Palu (another monster Tongan and the man of the match) did for the Waratahs," Muir told the Mercury.

In a double boost for the Sharks, BJ Botha and Francois Steyn were passed fit to play this week and departed with the squad.

Where Steyn will fit into the backline puzzle will be very interesting given the excellent performances by each member of the Sharks backline, especially centres Bradley Barritt and Adrian Jacobs, while Jannie du Plessis scrummed brilliantly in Botha's tighthead prop spot.

But these are headaches a coach does not mind having.

Muir has picked fifteen forwards and nine backs in the squad of 24 that SANZAR permits for a semi-final trip, and the split gives an indication of where the Sharks anticipate the game will be won and lost.

Interestingly, Muir did not select veteran Johan Ackermann, and given the way young Steven Sykes played, and the intensity of the team's performance against the Chiefs, which the Sharks will try to replicate in Sydney, this is not surprising.

Muir said there were no major injury concerns from his team's sensational 47-25, semi-final-clinching win over the Chiefs.

He was not shy to admit that the Sharks would have preferred to meet the "vulnerable" Crusaders in the semi-finals instead of a Waratahs team that comprehensively beat the Sharks at the Sydney Football Stadium, a ground where the Sharks have not won since Hugh Reece-Edwards's team in 2000.

"If we come across the Crusaders we would be confident that we could beat them if we played well, while the Waratahs are the one team that has given us a hiding this year (25-10), so it is going to be an enormous challenge to reverse that result," Muir said.

"The Waratahs really outmuscled us in the breakdown area in that match and our strategy to kick more than usual was wrong and it played into their hands," Muir added.

"We used a specific strategy and it failed, so obviously we are going to play differently this time."

And that will almost certainly mean keeping the ball in hand and continuing the all-out attack mode that was too hot for the Chiefs to handle.

"The big thing for me from this match (against the Chiefs) is that it proved that we got our early season tactics wrong," the coach admitted.

"We started out the season too conservatively. We overplayed the card that we had to adapt to the conditions in Durban when it is so humid in February and March and play only low-risk rugby and grind out the wins. I take the blame for this. Yes, you have to respect the conditions, but I have realised that I should have backed the players and allowed them to express themselves more.

"As the season wore on, we found we were stuck in a conservative mindset and it has only been in these last two matches, where we have had to score at least four tries to survive, that we have broken the shackles."

Muir said he was thrilled by the quality of the seven tries scored by his team and again stressed his regret that the Sharks had not played to their strengths earlier in the season.

"The game underlined the fact that we have a group of players that can really play," he said.

"It was great to see those long-distance tries, with the ball being kept alive and forwards and backs interpassing."