Why Sharks should be wary of the Ospreys

There is an attempted Welsh invasion of South Africa looming in the last two weeks of the league phase of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship and the Ospreys are the vanguard of the assault as they face the Hollywoodbets Sharks in Durban on Friday night.

All four of the Welsh teams in the URC are heading to South Africa, and all of them except the last-placed Dragons have plenty to play for.

The DHL Stormers host the Dragons on Saturday, the Vodacom Bulls are playing Cardiff at Loftus and on Sunday the Emirates Lions host a Scarlets team that recently beat Leinster in Johannesburg.

The Sharks are loaded with Springbok World Cup-winners and the Ospreys are Welsh.

Wales is a struggling rugby nation at present and finished at the foot of the log in the recent Guinness Six Nations season.

So they should be easy pickings for the Sharks, shouldn’t they?

Well, maybe. Except that recent history, both that of the Sharks in general and the Ospreys when it comes to playing South African teams, suggests the Durbanites could be in trouble if they go into the game with that thinking.

All eyes on Friday 👀

📅 09 May 2025
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The Ospreys have won in this country before and it was them that ended what was, at the time, a confident Stormers challenge for a top four finish last season.

The Stormers, after a good win over Munster in their previous home URC game and after pushing mighty La Rochelle to the final minutes of a tight Investec Champions Cup knockout game, thought the Ospreys would be easy meat but they were outplayed.


That result galvanised the Ospreys, who ended up going from the lower reaches of the table to ending eighth, meaning in the playoff placings.

They edged out the Lions on the last day and perhaps deservedly so because they outplayed the Lions 36-21 in league play a week after the Lions' momentous away win over Connacht in Galway.

LONDON GAME WAS AN UNHAPPY MEMORY

They also beat the Sharks comprehensively in the game that might have been the one that tipped the Sharks over the edge to their calamitous second-last placed finish in the URC.

To refresh memories, it was the third game of a difficult tour that started John Plumtree’s second stint as Sharks coach.

His team had lost to Leinster and Munster in the first two games, but that was expected - Munster were the reigning tournament champions and at that point had never lost at home to a South African team.

Leinster had topped the log the previous season and were considered the top team in the competition.

But the Sharks should have been expected to beat the Ospreys, particularly as the Ospreys’ home game wasn’t played at their usual headquarters at Swansea or even their secondary home venue in Bridgend, but at a neutral venue at The Twickenham Stoop in London.

It was in fact in some senses a home game for the Sharks as they used the venue as their base when they beat Clermont in the Challenge Cup semifinal.

But the expected Sharks win didn’t materialise.

Instead the Ospreys ran out 19-5 winners and it was a major setback for the Sharks, who were unable to recover and lost their final tour game to Zebre, thus setting the team on the back foot and plunging them into a hole they couldn’t extricate themselves from.

The Ospreys also beat the Stormers in the Cape team’s first game of this season, making it two defeats in a row for the franchise that won the competition in the inaugural season and has yet to finish lower than fifth on the URC log (it’s where they are likely to finish this year).

So the Sharks should know full well what the Ospreys can do, and they also have a history of being set back by a Welsh team at their home ground of Hollywoodbets Kings Park.

It was a big defeat at home to Cardiff that ended the coaching stint at the Sharks of current Edinburgh coach Sean Everitt.

REGIONAL WELSH TEAMS ARE DOING WELL

The reality is that while Welsh rugby is clearly in strife, the regional teams that carry that nation’s hopes in the URC, with the exception of the Dragons, have made a good fist of it this season.

Cardiff are currently fifth on the log, Scarlets aren’t far behind them in seventh and the Ospreys are 11th, just three points behind the current eighth placed team, Benetton.

The bottom line then is that like the other two Welsh teams ahead of them, the Ospreys are coming to this country with something to play for.

A lot to play for, in fact, and they will still have memories of winning last year in Cape Town.

DHL Stadium is rated as one of the least hospitable venues of visiting teams.

Top that with the fact that while the Sharks did win their two games against tough opposition on their overseas tour, they relied chiefly on defence for those victories.

Their defence needs to start clicking, they need to start picking up momentum, for after this there’s just the final league game against the unpredictable Scarlets to come before the quarterfinal round, which will most likely see the Sharks hosting the dangerous and rapidly improving Stormers.

The Sharks team for the Ospreys match will be announced on Thursday.