Crunch time for Sharks as Cardiff Rugby visit Durban

2026-03-27 - 08:21

It’s crunch time for the Sharks with the United Rugby Championship nearing the business end. There are just five matches remaining before the quarter-finals take place and coach JP Pietersen’s side are still well outside the top-eight. They’re down in 11th place with 29 log points, from five wins from 13 matches, six points shy of the eighth-placed Bulls. It is for this reason that they’re probably going to have to win most of their remaining games to have a chance of making it into the top eight. The good news is they will go into Friday’s fixture at home at Kings Park against Cardiff Rugby (7pm kick-off) with plenty of momentum and belief after smashing Munster 45-0 last weekend. On top of that, Cardiff, despite sitting in fifth place overall, suffered a 40-7 defeat by the Bulls at Loftus last weekend, so they appear to be short on form at the moment. Confidence from Munster win It is a game the Sharks have to win, especially with an away trip coming up towards the end of April for their next two games, against Ospreys (10th) in Wales and Edinburgh (13th) in Scotland. They then finish back at home against the two Italian teams, Benetton (12th) and Zebre (16th). Lock Emile van Heerden said the side had put the Munster match behind them and were fully focused on this week’s match. “We take confidence out of the Munster game, but our focus is now on Cardiff this weekend. “The log shows they’re a quality side. They’re in the top half. They had a tough game against the Bulls last week, but we’re expecting them to take it up a gear when they come to Durban.” Concern about Kolisi In a blow to the Sharks, they’re set to be without Siya Kolisi for an extended period following his picking up a calf injury on the eve of last week’s match. “He’s got a calf problem. We’ll see how it goes week by week. He feels good, but then some days he doesn’t feel so good. I don’t know what kind of calf [injury] it is, but we’ll look at it week by week,” said Pietersen. The Sharks are also without a few other Bok stars including Aphelele Fassi, Bongi Mbonambi and Grant Williams, but welcome back Ethan Hooker this week. Cardiff have beaten the Sharks three times in their last four meetings. Click here to read about the Sharks team that will be in action on Friday.