The Hollywoodbets Sharks picked up their first win of the European Rugby Champions Cup season by knocking over Saracens 28-23 at Hollywoodbets Kings Park in round two on Saturday.
In a some seriously wet and difficult conditions, the hosts survived several waves of Sarries attack to ultimately hold out and hand JP Pietersen the perfect start to his tenure at the helm.
“That’s the game of rugby – it’s unpredictable,” commented the former Springbok wing post-match. “I’ve been asking the whole week for fight, can we play for 80-minutes? Some patches we didn’t do well, but it just shows the character of the team and you can see how much it means afterwards in the changeroom.
“There was a lot of moving parts that happened during the week: players coming in, obviously the coach [John Plumtree] stepped down. But it’s quite easy for me, I was a player before and I understand what the players think and what they need. All players want is clarity – what’s the goal and the plan to go forward.”
New skipper Andre Esterhuizen, making his 100th appearance for the side and in the form of his life right now, played a starring role in racking up 33-metres with ball in hand and putting in 16 shots on defence. He even spent time amongst the forwards, as he has for the Boks this season.
For Pietersen, who was still a player when Esterhuizen debuted for the Durbanites, he couldn’t have been more pleased with the 31-year-old’s performance.
“I can remember Andre like yesterday when he made his debut, I was centre and he came on as wing in New Zealand against the Hurricanes. He and I played a lot of games together, he’s grown up so much. He’s become the ultimate all-round player – they call him ‘the hybrid’ now.
“I’m unbelievably proud of him, the way he leads, the way he was talking. His calling on the field is good, I didn’t need to step in much which means he’s a natural leader.”
On the former Harlequins’ midfield partnership with Ethan Hooker, the new Sharks boss says their raw physicality gives the Sharks an added dimension.
Said Pietersen: “They complement each other well defensively and on attack. Overall team-wise it feels like we’ve got 10 forwards on the field, so when the forwards don’t give you momentum we can rely on Ethan and Andre to do something in the midfield to give us a bit of go-forward.
“Like I said previously, Ethan is a centre that helps out on the wing. In my eyes I always see him as a centre.”
Although the Sharks will take heart out of downing the three-time European champs, they still have plenty to improve on in a campaign that has been hugely underwhelming so far. Pietersen is well aware of this ahead of a tough URC fixture against the Bulls to come.
“It wasn’t a perfect performance. We were under pressure, we lost some scrum penalties, we lost aerial battles, we lost lineouts where we needed to score. What we can work on is winning the aerial battle. When they score, how do we transfer pressure? Set piece, when we get into the 22, can we score maul tries? Those will be the work-ons for us.”
