Hollywoodbets Sharks flanker James Venter says his side are still searching for a full 80-minute as they prepare to host Scarlets in their final URC round robin game of the season at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Saturday.
James Venter of the Hollywoodbets Sharks (Pic – Gerhard Duraan – BackpagePix)
Following their round 17 win over Ospreys last week, the men in black and white can now finish no lower than fourth, and, given third-placed Glasgow Warriors must still travel to Leinster on the weekend, there is a big possibility the side can leapfrog the defending champions ahead of the quarterfinals.
Venter, though, says the Sharks camp have directed their focus inward as opposed to concentrating too much on the uncontrollable.
“We won’t be focused on that [Leinster/ Glasgow] result at all,” he said. “To win the URC final, you’re gonna have to knock over any team on the day, and I think that’s what we’re preparing ourselves for going into these knockout games.
“We’re aiming towards an 80-minute performance to our standard and to our quality, and I don’t think there’s many teams that can keep up with us [if we can achieve that].
“That’s more or less what we’re striving towards. We know when we finally get that game, and when we string that 80-minute performance together, we’re going to be a very, very hard team to beat.”
Scarlets arrive in Durban with plenty to play for and fresh off a 32-19 win over the Lions in Johannesburg that has left them sitting precariously in sixth, just two log points better off ninth-placed Cardiff.
The 28-year-old Venter, who will ply his trade for Gloucester in the Gallagher Premiership next season, says there has already been much focus on the Llanelli club’s effectiveness on the ground this week.
“We’ve identified that the Scarlets are a disruptive team, whether they’re gonna hunt breakdowns to get turnovers or they’re gonna counter-ruck. We’re a team that likes to attack and build multi-phases, and if we want to play like that and play that attacking game, we’ve got to be at the top of our game at the breakdown.
“They’ve got some good players that are good over the ball, Marnus [van der Merwe], that South African, we all know him, it is something he’s good at. So we’ve definitely identified it and we’ve started this week with a lot of focus on our ‘pub fight [skills]’ and a lot of breakdown work.”
Kick-off is at 19h30 on Saturday.
