The Bulls are the South African team to have laid down the early marker ahead of the Vodacom Super Rugby season that kicks off in a fortnight and after watching the Pretoria team deal with Saracens, the Sharks will aim at a quality performance when they play Toulon in France on Thursday.

In direct contrast to last season, when Jake White’s arrival as director of rugby created much hype and a few bold predictions about the Sharks’ chances long before the competition had started, the Durban franchise has been operating under the radar during the off-season.

The low key end to 2014, with the Currie Cup team bowing out in the semifinal stage as opposed to going all the way to the trophy the year before, has probably contributed to the low key build-up, as has the fact that the new director of rugby, Gary Gold, has until late last week been based in Japan. Consultant Brendan Venter has been overseeing the preparations for Super Rugby, but he is not known for making bold assertions to the media.

Gold had grand plans to bring in some big names from elsewhere to offset some of the player losses sustained by the Sharks last year, but although England capped Saracens lock Mouritz Botha has moved to Durban, and so has former Mpumalanga Pumas No 8 Renaldo Bothma, there haven’t been any major gains up to this point. Waylon Murray, who after starting his career at the Sharks then went on to play for the Lions and the Kings, is back in Durban and will be part of the group that travels to Toulon.

What has happened for the Sharks on the positive side of the balance sheet, and it is reflected in the squad picked for the trip to Toulon, is the return to fitness of Springbok lock Pieter-Steph du Toit. There will be much focus on his play in the early games as he comes back from a long injury lay-off.

Bismarck du Plessis was last week reappointed team captain, which was hardly a surprise after he led the Sharks to their first ever conference trophy and a place in the semifinal last year, but the Sharks will be campaigning this year with a leadership group that also includes Frans Steyn, Patrick Lambie and last season’s Currie Cup captain, Tera Mtembu.

Gold explained the appointment of the leadership group by saying that in modern rugby leadership was not about individuals but a group of leaders that share ideas.

Steyn, who is understood to have trimmed down considerably during his time in Japan, is prevented by his Japanese commitments from travelling to Toulon, and ditto for Ryan Kankowski. The squad for Toulon looks a bit thin on depth but it needs to be factored in that some star players, such as those already mentioned plus Willem Alberts and Jannie du Plessis, will be reintroduced to the mix once the Sharks arrive home.

While the Bulls, Cheetahs and Stormers have all played a minimum of two warm-up games, the Toulon match will be the first for the Sharks aside from a series of chukka runs against Durban club sides last week.

SuperSport