Ox Nche is braced to step into the ring with a former Russian wrestler when the Sharks take on Gloucester in the EPCR Challenge Cup final in London on Friday night. DYLAN JACK reports.
When Nche packs down in the Sharks scrum at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, he is likely to be staring down a bronze medal-winning former wrestler in Kirill Gotovtsev.
The Russian is currently Gloucester’s go-to tighthead prop, having started 17 games this season, including the Challenge Cup semi-final.
Gotovtsev had an unusual journey to professional rugby, with successful spells in wrestling – winning bronze at the 2010 Russian Championships – and bobsled before taking up the sport.
The 36-year-old has earned 12 Test caps and represented his country at the 2019 World Cup, before joining Gloucester in 2021, earning a contract extension this year.
“I’m just happy that we don’t have to wrestle on Friday, honestly,” Nche said with a chuckle, when asked about his opponent. “I see that he was pretty much a state champion.
“Luckily, we don’t have to wrestle, we have to scrum.”
This doesn’t mean that the 2023 World Cup winner is taking anything for granted, as he is well aware of the threat that Gloucester pose at the scrums.
“You can never relax, not in this sport. Rugby can be a very humbling sport,” Nche said.
“I think it’s going to be a very good challenge for me, to scrum against a guy like that. He’s captained the Russian national team. He’s played in a World Cup and is a very good player.
“It’s going to be a big challenge. In the last few games, the scrum has won 13 penalties for them, so it is going to be a challenge for us,” Nche added.
“It’s something we are looking forward to and I think it will be a good test. Gloucester aren’t playing in the final because they got lucky. You can see the amount of hard work they’ve put in to do well as a unit.”
A core part of the Springboks’ successful World Cup title defence last year, Nche has played in much bigger games, but that doesn’t mean he or the other Boks in the Sharks’ squad are treating Friday’s with anything less than the respect it deserves.
“It’s a serious game. It’s something that we’ve never done as a union,” he said. “It’s going to be as big of a challenge for us [as the World Cup final]. We are taking it the same way, with the same intensity.
“We could be the first South African team to win a European title. For us, it would be an amazing reward if we did it.”
Nche is one of a handful of World Cup winners who will be adding plenty of experience to the Sharks’ lineup, with Eben Etzebeth, Bongi Mbonambi, Vincent Koch, Grant Williams and Makazole Mapimpi all set to be in action.
“We try to use our experience as much as we can, but there’s also a different way of doing things as well,” Nche said. “You are working with different guys in a different environment. You just try to keep players calm and focused on what they need to do.
“That’s our biggest task at the moment, to make sure that the guys don’t get bombarded on such a big stage to be playing on.”
Photo: Steve Haag/Gallo Images
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