THE HUNT IS ON

Having won their last four matches on the trot, and with only four rounds of the Currie Cup left to play, The Cell C Sharks are steadily zeroing in on the log leaders. As a matter of fact, a full haul of points against the top-of-thetable Cheetahs tonight could see Joey Mongalo’s charges move into joint first position on the table…

Following last Friday night’s thriller in Mbombela, the Cell C Sharks are now perfectly poised in third position on the Currie Cup ladder with a tally of 33 championship points, and applying acute pressure on the top two teams in the competition, the Cheetahs (38) and Pumas (35).

Joey Mongalo’s team displayed heaps of character to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, by scoring two tries in the last three minutes for a heart-stopping 2422 bonus-point win over the defending champions last weekend.

“The fight in the last 10 minutes or so was the one highlight from the game, but, aside from that, there wasn’t much more to write home about,” Mongalo suggested. “We are grateful for the result and pleased with the character we displayed.

‘However, we set high standards for ourselves and, from that perspective, the performance against the Pumas was disappointing.”

Mongalo emphasised that the Cell C Sharks had some work to do prior to taking on the Cheetahs at Hollywoodbets Kings Park tonight.

“The Cheetahs are the log leaders and a very, very good team,” he acknowledged.

“They will be hurting from our last match, so we expect no favours from them today.

“It is not so much a case of our team failing to deliver on their potential, but instead that we get it wrong when we play off script.

“There are two things that are nonnegotiable in our team – one is going off script, and the other is not putting in the effort.

“We are growing in cohesion and that is why we can still win games like the one agianst the Pumas; good teams can still win games, even though they might play poorly.

“The Pumas, however, showed how to play against us, so we need to continue to find creative ways to impose ourselves on the opposition going forward.”

With only two home games, as well as two away assignments, left, the Cell C Sharks’ intent tonight, in The Shark Tank, will be to stamp their authority on the Cheetahs from the word go.

The boys have shown that they could do it away from home, when they saw off the Cheetahs 24-17 in Bloemfontein almost a month ago, and they will be fizzing to deliver more of the same for the faithful today.

Next week the Cell C Sharks are heading to Welkom in the Northern Free State for what could prove to be a pretty tricky outing. The Griffons might be bottom of the table and heading for the wooden spoon, yet they did shock the Bulls earlier and pushed their most recent encounter, with Western Province, right down to the wire.

To be sure, Mongalo’s charges can ill afford to underestimate the so-called ‘Purple People Eaters’ next Friday, before hosting the Lions in a fortnight’s time.

The Cell C Sharks will conclude the regular leg of their Currie Cup campaign against WP in Cape Town on Saturday, June 10.