Mbonambi says Sharks have huge desire and belief to win Challenge Cup

By Ayanda Nyuswa

The Hollywoodbets Sharks will return to action this weekend for a fourth home game in a row as they welcome Scottish giants Edinburgh in the quarterfinals of the EPCR Challenge Cup. John Plumtree’s men have made the most of their run of three home games by winning all of them to steady their turbulent Vodacom United Rugby Championship campaign and qualify for the last eight of the Challenge Cup.

The Challenge Cup remains the best route for the Durban side to return to Europes elite club competition the Investec Champions Cup next season, with their hopes of finishing in the top eight in the United Rugby Championship being slim to none. The Sharks have a fresh memory of clashing with Sean Everitt’s team, as both sides met in their previous URC matches with the Durban side recording a 23-13 win at home.

Sharks hooker Bongi Mbonambi has been a mainstay in the team since making his retun from a knee injury in February, starting all three matches in recent weeks. Speaking to the media on Tuesday ahead of the last eight clash, Mbonambi believes the Sharks squad has a deep desire and belief to go all the way in the Challenge Cup.

“The desire and belief is very deep, it should be because at the end of the day you don’t want to get knocked out in the quarterfinal game knowing that you haven’t even achieve much, so the desire and the belief is quite big and as I said we are going to prepare as well as we can to make sure we give ourselves the best chance at success come this weekend,” said Mbonambi to reporters.

The double world cup winning hooker has credited the Sharks coaching team for guiding the team successive wins for the first time this season, as they turned the corner after putting in poor performances for most of the season.

“Definitely a tough start for us, everybody in the Sharks Rugby Union knows that, definitely not the start we were looking for. Obviously a lot of young players came in and getting given opportunities to play, and obviously us coming back from the world cup with a lot of injuries and a lot of players having maybe to rest up a bit. But jah things have definitely been picking up so far, credit to the coaching staff for getting the players to buy into the plan that they believed will work for us in the future. Definitely looking forward to building on this success.”

Picture: SABC Sport