Rohan Janse van Rensburg says the Sharks need to leverage Durban’s sticky conditions to ambush Ulster at Kings Park on Saturday.
Ulster will travel to Durban to play a rescheduled Vodacom United Rugby Championship match that was postponed in October, due to an outbreak of gastroenteritis in the Irish side’s camp.
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The Sharks bounced back from their home coastal derby defeat to the DHL Stormers by claiming a bonus-point victory against the Lions in Johannesburg.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, centre Janse van Rensburg said that the Sharks got their preparation wrong for the Stormers, but have learned from it and will look to make the heated and humid conditions count against Ulster.
“There are a sequence of things you have to look at when it comes to the weather in Durban, particularly with how hot it gets,” said Janse van Rensburg.
“I think we as a team took a lot of learnings out of that week of the Stormers game. Our training was very intense that week, because we thought we would get the benefit from that. But it was a learning curve for us as a team and management. We have realised now that in a hot week like that one was, you have to manage the training sessions in a certain way. Particularly when you are playing the Stormers.
“Coming here to play us in this heat is going to require a massive adjustment for the Ulster team. That will be to our advantage. They have come from a northern winter and they have been in the cold. But from our perspective, we learned a lot from the Stormers game and I think we will be very different in this game from when we played the Stormers just because of the learnings we took.”
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Janse van Rensburg said that his five years in England with Sale Sharks has helped him cope with the humidity in Durban.
“A big thing I learned over there is how to play the conditions, because you are dealing with the wet, snow and even very hot weather,” he said.
“And funnily enough in Durban, we play in humidity, which is the same thing as the rain of England in terms of a slippery ball, so I feel at home when it comes to the game management required.”
Janse van Rensburg made no secret of the importance of this game, as the Sharks look to continue climbing the log and draw themselves closer to securing a home playoff.
“Teams like Leinster and Ulster are super well drilled, so the margin for error is way less. So when they come here, with the heat, we have to use that to our advantage.
“Every point matters now. Every point is huge to get closer to the top five. Any team that comes to Durban needs to work for their points. That’s something we put an onus on.”
Photo: ©INPHO/Tom Maher