Rugby
KweséESPN Staff 6y

Thomas du Toit can become the best tighthead in the world - Du Preez

Rugby, Super Rugby

Sharks coach Robert Du Preez heaped plenty of praise on tighthead prop Thomas du Toit following his man-of-the-match performance in Saturday's 24-17 Super Rugby win over the Stormers.

Du Toit had come under fire at the start of the campaign for struggling to adapt to the demands of the No 3 jersey following as shift from the loosehead side, but more than held his own against Stormers strongman Steven Kitshoff on Saturday.

The tighthead prop had a stand-out game, having scrummed with immense power and accuracy, running great support lines and scoring an important try.

"I've always said that Thomas has incredible talent and it was all about perseverance," Du Preez said.

"It would have been easy after one or two games that didn't go well and then to move him back to loosehead. But he showed in this match that he has the potential to be the best tighthead in the world.

"It was just a great effort from the boys, that's what was the pleasing thing for me. It was really tough out there, we played against a team that was also desperate to win. All in all, it was a good game of rugby."

Du Preez also expressed his delight after his team got back to winning ways and resurrected their chances of making the Supert Rugby playoffs.

It wasn't the most convincing of performances, as both the Sharks and the Stormers struggled to get going at Kings Park. But the win comes at a good time for the Durban outfit following two successive defeats against the Hurricanes and the Bulls.

The Stormers scored a try just before the break to lead 10-3 at halftime. But the Sharks bounced back and was able to win the arm-wrestle in the second half.

"We're very happy with the win, I felt it was a great performance by the boys. As bad as last week was (against the Bulls), this was outstanding," Du Preez said.

"I thought we were a little bit unlucky not to get points in the first 10 minutes of the game, but I think that early try after half time was the game-changer.

"I also felt that our defence was very good, I thought at stages we didn't come off the line as much as I would have liked, showing a bit more line speed, but there were some fantastic dominant hits and that's always a telling sign of a team's commitment and attitude.

"To come back from a loss like that to the Vodacom Bulls and come out and put in a performance like this, I'm very happy. We know there were a couple of tries we left out there, but I felt the boys played really well."

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