Bosch on Sharks exit: I fell into a trap

Playmaker Curwin Bosch has opened up on his recent struggles at the Sharks, and hopes a move to France helps him to find freedom on the field again.

French Pro D2 club Brive on Monday announced the signing of Bosch until 2026, bringing an end to a nine-year career for the three-Test Springbok with the Sharks.

Despite starting the season as the preferred flyhalf at the Sharks, the 26-year-old Bosch has mostly been used as a substitute this year, starting just one game since March.

He joined the Sharks straight out of high school and made his professional debut as a 19-year-old in 2016. He earned his 100th cap in the Challenge Cup quarter-final against Edinburgh at Kings Park this season, and played off the bench in the final against Gloucester in London.

Speaking on the Behind the Ruck podcast with former Boks Rudy Paige and Juan de Jongh, Bosch shared how having an obsessive personality has stifled his game, as well as switching between flyhalf and fullback.

“I haven’t been playing my best rugby the last couple seasons but I’m just looking forward to [joining Brive],” he said.

“In the most simple way I [can put it], let me go. Obviously the rugby played in the northern hemisphere there’s a lot of structure, a lot of detail, a lot of gameplan, which I enjoy.

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“But you can get sucked into just focusing on that and forgetting to do what you do best, and for me that’s seeing space and playing the space.

“I’ve just fallen into the trap of over-analysing my own game, over-analysing the opposition, and then you come on a Saturday and you’ve got all these things in your mind … but the space is the most obvious thing you need to look for.

“I’ve got a very obsessive personality and once I get into something and start analysing I go into this spiral of over-analysing and all that sort of nonsense. For me, just I dunno, let me go.”

“The last three seasons I’ve played a handful of games at 15 and I think every now and again it’s good; at 10 you’re in the action all the time,” Bosch added.

“At 15 you have a bit more space, a bit more time to make decisions and there’s no real structure to a 15’s play. A ball gets kicked to you and you need to find the space.

“If I probably had a bit more time at 15 these last three seasons it would’ve freed me up a little bit but in saying that, a couple of years ago when I was playing 15 all I wanted to do was play flyhalf!

“I’ve learnt a lot about myself these last three years, not to be so hard on myself. I definitely put a lot of pressure on myself and it’s probably the reason why [I struggled]; you start tensing up and looking for perfection instead of just progress.”