Rugby
Nick Said, Special to ESPN 7y

Sharks aim for better ball retention against Stormers

Sharks forwards coach Ryan Strudwick wants his side to protect the ball in Saturday's Super Rugby home clash with the Stormers at Growthpoint King's Park, knowing the ability of the Cape Town side to turn over possession and counter-attack at pace.

The Sharks could take another giant step towards the quarterfinals with victory at home, but Strudwick says they will have to take better care of the ball than they have at times this season.

"Everyone wants to play this attacking game and that means ball in hand, but one of our weaknesses this year has been coughing up possession," Strudwick is quoted on the union's website.

"We are improving and our handling errors are coming down so hopefully this weekend we hold on to the ball more, so we don't have to tackle as much."

Strudwick expects a tough physical battle and a real bun-fight at set-piece time.

"The Stormers are tough, they rate themselves both in the scrums and line-outs - it is going to be a massive battle," he says. "And they try to dominate you physically from a set-piece point of view, so if we don't front up, it's going to be a long day at the office. But we have the pack to do that, as long as everyone steps up, we shouldn't have any issues.

"They have some dangerous players on attack, with some formidable forwards, big ball carriers. So if they get momentum going, they are dangerous. If we can stop their key players, it will be a bit more difficult for them to get their attack going.

"The teams that beat them, stopped their momentum, put them under pressure and the challenge for us is to do the same."

The Sharks left it late but turned on the style to beat the Sunwolves 38-17 in Singapore last weekend, finally finding their attacking verve this season.

"We are quite upbeat about scoring six tries this past weekend, the confidence is up and we want to score tries. We will go out there with an attacking mindset first and foremost this weekend and then look to stop the threat of their attack.

"We showed glimpses of playing great rugby and going forward, it's getting better and better. But if we're to make the play-offs and probably meet the Kiwi teams, we still have a long way to go if we want to beat them."

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