Ken Borland

The Pumas, as a team, were a bit like the family that rushes to the airport, getting through gridlocked traffic, and then misses their flight because they lost their boarding passes, as they went down 19-42 to the Sharks in Nelspruit on Saturday.

The scoreline makes it seem like one-way traffic in favour of the Sharks, but in truth they found themselves in a real battle, especially in the second half, and it was only their clinical finishing that saw them win by a comfortable margin on the scoreboard.

But the Pumas made life very difficult for them, certainly giving as good as they got in the tight exchanges. But where the Pumas let themselves down was inside the Sharks 22, where they turned over the ball on numerous occasions. What was particularly frustrating was the number of penalties kicked to touch to set up an attacking lineout, but then the throw would fly off wildly or be dropped by one of the forwards.

In contrast, the Sharks maul was a soaring success, powering its way over for three of the Sharks’ six tries.

Having now played on successive weekends, there was always the likelihood of the Sharks finding better cohesion and rhythm, and when they did escape the tight forward exchanges and were able to find some space, their attacking play was impressive.

They settled their nerves with a try in the second minute, fullback Manie Libbok supporting a strong run by centre Marius Louw to score, and wing Madosh Tambwe scored probably the try of the game as he ran crossfield at first but then spotted a big gap in the Pumas defence and cruised through to go over from the halfway line.

The Sharks led 28-7 at the break thanks to hooker Dan Jooste scoring from a maul and Springbok wing Sbu Nkosi unsurprisingly getting on the scoresheet after an extraordinary, long pass from flyhalf Curwin Bosch that went behind the Pumas defensive line but curled its way back into the powerful World Cup winner’s hands.

Thanks to their efficiency in taking their chances, the Sharks always looked likely winners from there on, although they did have to weather a typical Pumas comeback.

The home side grabbed the first try of the second half through a superbly-worked move involving wing Neil Maritz and fullback Devon Williams, with outside centre Erich Cronje up in support to grab the first of his two tries, the second coming from a long pass straight from the base of a ruck by scrumhalf Ginter Smuts.

The Sharks had to absorb long periods of pressure inside their 22, but Pumas mistakes allowed them to break free and replacement hooker Kerron van Vuuren scored twice from rolling mauls to ensure a bonus point win.

Scorers

Sharks – Tries: Manie Libbok, Madosh Tambwe, Dan Jooste, Sbu Nkosi, Kerron van Vuuren (2). Conversions: Curwin Bosch (6).

Pumas – Tries: Francois Kleinhans, Erich Cronje (2). Conversions: Theo Boshoff (2).

“We are adapting well to the different interpretations at the breakdown,” Bulls consultant Nollis Marais said on Monday in respect of the journey the team has taken from initial teething problems in the rucks to it now being a strength of the juggernaut side who are now six points clear at the top of the SuperRugby Unlocked log.

Marais is the breakdown specialist on Jake White’s coaching staff and he admitted that it has not been an easy area to perfect so far this season.

“There have been different interpretations at the breakdown and we do a lot of research into what the different referees want and try and prepare the players for that. We’re getting quite good guidelines from the referees who assist us and I think the breakdown should just get better and better and by the second half of the competition we should be certain of what we’re doing.

“We adapted well to what referee AJ Jacobs wanted at the weekend, we conceded a couple of penalties early on against the Stormers and we knew it would be a physical battle at the breakdown because Steven Kitshoff and Jaco Coetzee like to go hard in trying to get the ball. But our plan worked and by the end of the game we were winning the penalties,” Marais said.

The Bulls are currently ranked as the top team in the competition in terms of turnovers won, and that has largely been due to the outstanding efforts of Duane Vermeulen and Marco van Staden, although Marais did point out contesting ball at the breakdowns is something every player is expected to contribute towards.

“The breakdown is all about team-work, from number one to 15, the whole team is drilled in that area and even Travis Ismaiel and Stedman Gans were involved in turnovers against the Stormers. But every week Marco does a review of the clips with me and at first he tended to chase every ruck, but now he gets better reads and is getting better and better at deciding when to try and steal the ball and when not to steal.

“As far as Duane goes, well you just can’t move Thor, can you? You need 15 players to move Thor. If Duane is at a breakdown then I know we’re going to get a penalty,” Marais said.

The Bulls are now preparing for a different breakdown challenge against the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday night.

“The Lions want to play quickly, so we have to try and make their ball slower. They can be very physical too, but then they’re just trying to make the game quicker all the time. So it’s very important that we don’t allow them quick ball,” Marais said.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt is well aware of the threat posed by the Pumas, having suffered at their hands before, and has warned his team that if they don’t get their act together in their Super Rugby Unlocked match in Nelspruit on Saturday then they will suffer the fate the Stormers were fortunate to escape last weekend.

The Stormers scored a controversial 78^th-minute try at Mbombela Stadium last weekend to pip the Pumas 42-37, their third try in the last 10 minutes, while the Sharks were hammered 41-14 by a ultra-physical Bulls side in Pretoria.

“I wasn’t shocked by the Pumas’ game against the Stormers at all because I’ve been on the receiving end of that before. It’s always difficult to play in Nelspruit, they are always desperate and the players want to attract contracts from the bigger unions. The Pumas probably deserved to win that game and they will see themselves as being unlucky. We won’t be underestimating them.

“We’ve seen what they can produce, we know they are fighters, they will come with tremendous energy like desperate soldiers, that’s what Jimmy Stonehouse is able to get out of them. To keep professional rugby alive in a smaller union they need success and they’re fighting for their livelihoods and their franchise. We need a united effort and we need to get go-forward,” Everitt said this week.

Ideally, given the make-up of their team with a relatively light-weight loose trio and a dazzling backline, the Sharks will want to raise the pace and stretch the Pumas; a tight, forward-dominated scrap is not what they want.

But in order to give themselves the opportunity of playing the high-tempo game they favour, their pack has to put them on the front foot first, which requires a big effort in the set-pieces.

“The fundamentals of the game stay the same and maybe we could do with a bit more synergy in our tight five. Our defence has done really well, the guys are getting off the line quickly and disrupting, but the problem is more at the breakdowns. We’re not getting enough offensive carries because our body height isn’t right and the guys need to work harder against players who are bigger than them.

“The basics don’t change, neither do the position specifics, and if you don’t get set-piece parity then you can’t play. But I don’t think a Sharks team I’ve been involved in has ever underperformed due to a lack of respect for the opposition or a lack of effort in terms of work-rate, we never underestimate anybody. Give the Bulls some appreciation for how they played, and we just didn’t execute our plan the way we would have liked,” Everitt said.

The Pumas are arguably an even more disruptive opposition though and the Sharks need to be desperate in order to have a timely return to winning ways.

Teams

Pumas: Devon Williams, Neil Maritz, Erich Cronje, Wayne van der Bank, Etienne Taljaard, Fiela Boshoff, Ginter Smuts, Jeandré Rudolph, Willie Engelbrecht, Francois Kleinhans, Pieter Jansen van Vuuren (captain), Darrien Landsberg, Ruan Kramer, AJ le Roux, Liam Hendricks. Replacements (from) – Marko Janse van Rensburg, Stephan de Jager, Brendon Valentyn, Phumzile Maqondwana, Chriswill Willemse, Neil Marais, Ali Mgijima, Dewald Maritz, Daniel Maartens, HP van Schoor, Kwanda Dimaza.

Sharks: Manie Libbok, Sbu Nkosi, Lukhanyo Am (captain), Marius Louw, Madosh Tambwe, Curwin Bosch, Sanele Nohamba, Phendulani Buthelezi, Henco Venter, Dylan Richardson, Hyron Andrews, JJ van der Mescht, John-Hubert Meyer, Dan Jooste, Ox Nche. Replacements – Kerron van Vuuren, Mzamo Majola, Michael Kumbirai, Ruben van Heerden, Thembelani Bholi, Grant Williams, Jeremy Ward, Yaw Penxe.

Kickoff: 16h30.

Like all good coaches, Jake White does not like to elevate certain pool games to greater importance than others, but there has been an obvious lifting of the ante this week as the Bulls have prepared for the arrival of their arch-enemies, the Stormers, for their SuperRugby Unlocked match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The importance of the match – between two of the favourites for the title; the top-of-the-log Bulls against the unbeaten Stormers – has been shown by White providing his most obvious example yet of his famous mind games since he arrived in Pretoria.

And White’s focus has been on the importance of the forward battle, with some sledges thrown the Stormers’ way over his perception that they will field a bench with six forwards and just two backs, the veteran coach implying that this was a betrayal of Western Province rugby’s running-rugby traditions.

But there can be no doubt that the Stormers’ greatest strength is their scrum and, in particular, the first-choice Springbok front row of Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi and Steven Kitshoff.

“The win over the Sharks was a good performance and a massive confidence boost, but this is a really big game on Saturday, just given the history between the two teams and the intensity of the clashes before. The Stormers pride themselves on their scrum and maul and the forward battle is going to be really important and we know we have to match them up front.

“Last week, both our game and the Stormers’ bad game against the Pumas showed that rugby has not changed, the forwards are always the ones who win the game for you and this Saturday will be one of those games too. What we learnt from the Pumas match is that the Stormers use their scrum to get out of their own half, and with that front row that works for you,” White said.

Bulls captain Duane Vermeulen was also certainly looking forward to the arrival of his former team.

“They have a quality pack, that’s where it’s all going to go down. Their forwards really pulled them through against the Pumas, the momentum they got from the scrums allowed them to kick to touch and set up mauls. They may have a 100% success rate at scrum-time, but how many times has the scrum gone down? I think there have been lots of resets, but they know how to scrum.

“We’ve lost a couple of scrums, but we will keep building. We’re trying to work on our consistency as a whole, we’re not there yet and we had a slippery start, losing at the death against the Cheetahs. It hasn’t been the consistency we want, but this is a North versus South derby and hopefully we play better as both individuals and as a team,” Vermeulen said.

Stormers coach John Dobson has been extolling the super powers of Kitshoff, his stand-in captain now that Siya Kolisi is injured, but it is the character of the men from the Cape that has probably been their greatest virtue so far in holding on for victory against the Lions and the great escape in Nelspruit.

Teams

Bulls: David Kriel, Travis Ismaiel, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Duane Vermeulen (captain), Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Jason Jenkins, Trevor Nyakane, Johan Grobbelaar, Jacques van Rooyen. Replacements – Joe van Zyl, Gerhard Steenekamp, Marcel van der Merwe, Sintu Manjezi, Nizaam Carr, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Marco Jansen van Vuren.

Stormers: Warrick Gelant, Edwill van der Merwe, Dan du Plessis, Rikus Pretorius, Leolin Zas, Damian Willemse, Herschel Jantjies, Juarno Augustus, Ernst van Rhyn, Jaco Coetzee, JD Schickerling, Salmaan Moerat, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Steven Kitshoff (captain). Replacements (from) – Scarra Ntubeni, Leon Lyons, Neethling Fouche, Chris van Zyl, David Meihuizen, Marcel Theunissen, Ben-Jason Dixon, Godlen Masimla, Tim Swiel, Angelo Davids, Tristan Leyds.

Kick-off: 19h00.