The defending Currie Cup champions are not planning too far ahead as coach John Plumtree seeks to refine his side's game before they consider their semifinal hopes this season.

The Sharks are currently in third place on the standings and appear set to be involved in a fierce scrap for a home semifinal with the Lions and Western Province who are both currently positioned above them on the log but Plumtree is adamant that there is far too much hard work still to be done before his team can start considering their title ambitions.

He explained: "With this group it's just one game at a time really because we've felt like we haven't really got our game going. so we not planning too far ahead."

The Durban side's Kiwi mentor said that injuries and Springbok call-ups have disrupted their continuity this season and confirmed that his goal in the next few weeks will be to get some consistency going ahead of the knock-out phase of the competition.

"We've had disruptions with players coming in and out, it's hard to manage that but hopefully we can get some consistency with selection and our playing group and run well for the rest of the season," said Plumtree.

That will start when they host the Pumas at Kings Park this weekend and although the team from Mpumalanga have failed to win a game yet this season they have been competitive nonetheless and Plumtree admitted that his team were quite lucky to escape with a late victory in Nelspruit earlier in the season.

He said: "The Pumas have been impressive in a lot of ways this season, they possibly should have beaten us in Nelspruit and they were only seven points behind the Lions with time up on the clock. They are a really good side and we have a lot of respect for them, the guys know that they're going in for a tough game.

"Hopefully we'll come with the right attitude against the Pumas this week - that's been the message to the boys," added Plumtree.