Preview: Hollywoodbets Sharks vs Leinster

03/29/2025 11:32 AM

Today's massive Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash between the Hollywoodbets Sharks and Leinster at Hollywoodbets Kings Park should produce all the fireworks expected of a match of such epic proportions.

With the quarter-finals in mind, both sides are gunning for a top four finish and home ground advantage, and for the top-placed Irish and the fourth on the log Hollywoodbets Sharks, this match is a must-win.

Hollywoodbets Sharks head coach John Plumtree acknowledges what a contest his side are in for this evening.

"This week is a real challenge, Leinster are the best club in the URC at the moment and they continue to go from strength to strength developing their players, and for their wider squad to be so competitive, losing by just one point against a strong Vodacom Bulls team last week, is admirable.

"We know it's going to be a tough game."

In preparing for this week's big game, Plumtree explains that learning from last week's mistakes has helped them prepare for this encounter.

"When we looked at the Zebre game from a skillset point of view, we kicked poorly, we had something like 26 turnovers and that's too many because that allowed them too many opportunities to attack against our unstructured defence.

"Fixing that and controlling larger – and certainly crucial – parts of the game has been our focus this week. Last week we were guilty of not connecting quickly enough from transition play, so that's also been an area we've worked on.

"But the forwards were really good last week, they kept us in the match and the impact off the bench was really good again, so there are some real positives in that space.

"As a home game, this is very important to us, we want to win here at home in front of our fans."

Leinster came to South Africa missing a number of their internationals who had been involved in the Six Nations tournament, but that doesn't mean they are easy beats, and they came close to defeating the Vodacom Bulls last week.

Watching that match and learning from it shows just what a challenge the Hollywoodbets Sharks are facing.

"The big one is that they contest every part of the game, there are no gimmes," Plumtree points out. "We know we're going to be tested in all aspects of the game.

"That's going to be the big challenge for us, we have to make sure we're the same, that we don't allow them to dominate facets of the game."

What makes them so competitive?

"You have to have a quality squad if you want to do well in the URC, and they have continually made the finals in all European competitions, their succession planning around their players and coaching staff has progressed. Leinster are seen as the quality club in Ireland, one where most of the boys want to play. They're certainly the benchmark for a lot of teams in the URC who want to develop that type of depth."

Imposing their will on the visitors will be crucial to the Hollywoodbets Sharks' ambitions, and one area set to be fiercely contested is upfront.

"Last week's was probably the best forward performance we've had this year, but we're playing against a stronger side this week and the challenge for us is to transfer what we do on the training field to the match and being as accurate as possible, communicating well and making the best decisions so we can put on a performance we're really happy with."

Another explosive match-up will be in the midfield with Andre Esterhuizen returning to the starting line-up where he links up with Jurenzo Julius.

"Andre had a long-term injury and then had a cameo off the bench last week which was all part of the plan and it's good to have him back.  We're happy to keep developing Jurenzo, every week there's something new to work on which is normal for a good, young player.

"I'm looking forward to see how that combination goes this week."

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