Bongi Mbonambi’s message to Sharks teammates ahead of crunch clash with Edinburgh

Springboks hooker Bongi Mbonambi feels it is important for the Sharks to focus on themselves when they host Edinburgh in their Challenge Cup quarter-final at Kings Park in Durban on Saturday.

It will be the second time these sides face off against each other at the same venue within a fortnight after the Sharks clinched a hard-fought 23-13 victory over the Scottish capital club in their United Rugby Championship (URC) fixture on March 30.

Important result

That was John Plumtree‘s troops’ second successive win in the URC – after they beat Ulster the previous week – and only their third victory of the season in that competition.

They then went on to clinch to a convincing 47-3 win over Zebre Parma last week and Mbonambi believes some introspection will help the Sharks to continue their winning run.

“We have to look at ourselves. We must make sure we know our roles and believe in the system and plan,” said Mbonambi. “Playing at home also gives us a bit of an advantage.

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“The mood in the camp is quite good. All the injured players who are coming back, you can see the difference they make. The road to the final won’t be easy. All we can do is focus on the next game and not look too far forward.”

Despite beating Edinburgh in their previous clash, the 33-year-old is wary of their opponents especially with former Sharks boss Sean Everitt in charge of their team as head coach.

Expecting a tougher challenge

Mbonambi expects Edinburgh to field a stronger team this weekend which means he is braced for a tougher challenge than their previous encounter.

“We know they will come here even better prepared than before. They will play a better team. We noticed last time that they were missing a couple of their key players,” explained Mbonambi.

“They had just returned from the Six Nations, so they will be fresh and more challenging this time around, especially with a coach like Sean Everitt. He knows how to prepare a team to come here. They are going to come back stronger.”

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