Sharks hunt second Champions Cup victory in chilly Bordeaux

After a tense victory over Harlequins in Durban last weekend, the Sharks are off to a much colder France where a wounded Bordeaux lie in wait at Stade Chaban-Delmas.

Neil Powell’s charges will be grateful for the winning momentum accompanying them on what is sure to be a tough trip. They started strongly last weekend, building up a formidable lead before ill-discipline saw them with a red and yellow card on the scoreboard, allowing Quins to creep back into the game before a late flourish saw the hosts pull the lead back in the end:

Bordeaux kicked themselves at the conclusion of their contest with Gloucester at Kingsholm in Round 1 after having enjoyed the lead for 76 minutes before the Cherry & Whites snatched the result out from under them:

Springbok and Sharks hooker Bongi Mbonambi reflected on last week’s result before considering the challenge which lies before his side:

“Last week’s game against Harlequins met our Heineken Champions Cup expectations, it was a good start from us but we know there’s a lot we can improve on,” he said from the team’s base in Bordeaux. “But yeah, the whole hype was met and as a team, we enjoyed ourselves out there and just looking forward to the rest of the competition.

“Any French team would be hurting after losing their first game because they’ve been in the competition for so long. We’ve had a review, looking at them and their games and I must say, they really have a good squad. Last week’s [22-17] loss was just a slip-up for them, they can’t be judged on that game and we know this match is going to be really tough.

“They have a good pack, a good backline, and we [the Springboks] played against their flyhalf and scrumhalf in that test match against the French, we know they’re going to be up for it, playing in front of their home crowd.

“It’s always tough playing in France so we have to be as well-prepared as we can.”

Mbonambi then turned his focus onto what will be a significant change in temperature come kick-off.

“There’s a big difference,” he said, grinning. “We’ve just come from over 30° summer in Durban and they say we’ll be playing in 0° on Friday evening which is a different kind of cold. But we’ll embrace it and enjoy the challenge.

“We have also had talks about the way we want to control the ball particularly in contact, in these cold conditions. You don’t want to lose possession in contact because that puts you under pressure and certainly not against Bordeaux who have a good attacking structure.

“So we want to control the ball, respect it more and put the opposition under pressure.”

The Sharks were fortunate to come away with the win after giving away the cards but Mbonambi assures one that the Sharks are under illusion as to how important discipline is.

“We’ve had a leadership meeting where we had a tough talk about discipline, and I put my hand up and apologised for it. It’s not my style of play or the way I want to play for the Cell C Sharks and I take 100% responsibility for that and will make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“What we also learned from that game was even if you’re a few points ahead, you can never relax, the teams in this competition are very good and they’ve been here for a lot longer than we have so we have a lot to learn.

“It will be the same this weekend, we’ll have to keep piling on the pressure if we’re ahead to make sure we come away with the points.”

This from Sharks Director of Rugby and interim coach, Neil Powell:

“We feel we are moving in the right direction, although there are things we can do better and we’ll identify them before the next game. We will need to show better discipline and there are other areas of our game we would like to improve on before Friday night’s game. But the amazing thing about this team is that all the individuals are making a step up and doing what we expect of them.”

Key stats:

Union Bordeaux-Begles

• Bordeaux made the most metres from their maul in Round 1 (47).
• Tom Willis beat more defenders than any other player in Round 1 (eight).
• Union Bordeaux-Begles have now lost three of their last four matches in all competitions.

Cell C Sharks

• The Sharks made the fewest carries in Round 1, with 60.
• Makazole Mapimpi made three clean breaks against Harlequins, the most of any player in the round.
• Scrum half Jaden Hendrikse made four kicks that were retained in Round 1, as many as any other player.