Sharks hope Curwin Bosch can give Benetton a kick up the backside

Durban - It will be red faces all around if the Sharks return from Italy on Monday without a bag full of United Rugby Championship points given they are at their full strength and their opponents, Benetton, have 13 frontline troops doing Six Nations duty for their country in Dublin against Ireland.

When the Sharks first dipped their fins in the URC waters, last November, they had 10 players away with the Springboks in Australia and that certainly played a role in their one-from-four success rate.

Even then, the Sharks learnt quickly on tour and finished strongly, so now they are battle-wise plus have all of their Boks back which means there can be no excuses for the Sharks in Treviso on Saturday (kick-off 5pm).

Also, all of South Africa remember painfully how Benetton thrashed the Bulls in the Rainbow Cup final last June so, depleted or not, Benetton will not be taken lightly and the Sharks will be duly focussed.

ALSO READ: Greyhound track, hail, wind ... Stormers are going to ’embrace’ Connacht experience

Coach Sean Everitt says nothing will be left to chance and that is also why he has picked ace goal-kicker Curwin Bosch, who not so long ago was frozen out of the starting line-up because of poor form.

The Sharks need this win desperately to climb out of the bottom half of the URC log and the goal-kicking of Boeta Chamberlain and Tito Bonelli has been average, and that is not good enough.

“Curwin’s done well in the last few weeks and, as we saw when he came on against the Bulls, he kicked well for poles,” Everitt said.

“We haven’t been as good as we would have liked with the accuracy of our pole kicking. Hopefully, Curwin will take that challenge away,” he said.

“Also, the challenge in front of us is that Benetton has