rugby news

what a great defeat the sharks had against the waratahs.we played extreamly well and we should keep it up.
Johannesburg - The Sharks have indicated they are keen to repeat their success as new Currie Cup champions next year in the Super rugby series.

This year in the Currie Cup, the Sharks received much praise for the way in which they played.

"We are going to continue with that style and only want to improve on a few things to become even more effective," said assistant coach Grant Bashford. 

"We are all excited about the rugby that we played and now we only want to improve on it," he says.

The Sharks are boosted this week by the return to training of their Springboks, who were in Britain on the Grand Slam tour. They will have a break from the 17th to the 3rd of January, after which the team will meet to commence training.

There will also be a training camp in January in Rustenburg, after which the Sharks will be involved in a tournament in Cape Town in preparation for the Super series.

The Sharks adapted well this year to the rule changes and, come next year, there will be stricter action taken against the attacking team at the breakdown points if they don't remain on their feet.

The Sharks are focused on mastering these subtle changes in the rules as quickly as possible.

Newcomers Jacques-Louis Potgieter, Meyer Bosman and Conrad Hoffman have also joined their new team and are now doing conditioning work with the rest of the group.

Bashford says the Sharks are also satisfied on the whole with their match programme for the Super series.

They will begin their campaign on 19 February at home against the Cheetahs, followed by the Blues in Durban the week after.

The Sharks will then go overseas for four weeks, taking on the Western Force in Perth and then playing the new kid on the block, the Melbourne Rebels, before going to New Zealand for matches against the Chiefs and the Crusaders.

"On previous tours we sometimes flew as much as four times between Australia and New Zealand. This is therefore much better, also because we first play in Perth, which doesn't make it such a long flight initially. It should be much easier to acclimatise," said Bashford.

"Everyone is also excited about seeing a new city (Melbourne) and playing there," he added.

Jean Deysel, who is getting married this week, as well as JP Pietersen, John Smit and Ross Skeate are still busy with their rehabilitation after longterm injuries.