Sharks captain Ruan Botha says his team will look to dominate the Crusaders forwards during Saturday’s Super Rugby quarter-final in Christchurch.

In their final-round match against the Blues, the Crusaders conceded a penalty try from a 5m scrum, giving Botha hope that this is an area the Sharks can target.

‘We know they have a world-class front row and world-class locks, but personally I am of the opinion they haven’t been physically tested as a pack this season, so that is going to be a big challenge for us.

‘History is history, but you write your own path, and no team just rides on history. We are going there with the intention of winning so that we can finish off this season on a high.’

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Botha admitted that the Sharks’ inconsistency has made their potential path to the title more difficult than what it needed to be.

‘This is not the road we wanted to go, and if we could turn back time, there are a number of games we could have won that would have made it easier for ourselves.

‘We know how strong the Crusaders are. They are good at keeping the ball through multiple phases but we will back our defence.

‘The one thing they’ve done well this season is to keep the ball and they also have their small mini-plays with ball in hand. We need to put them under pressure and our defence is capable of doing that,’ Botha added.

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Photo: Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images