Ken Borland

Sharks coach Sean Everitt admitted that his team still has plenty of work to do on their efforts in the tight-loose, despite their comfortable winning margin of 42-19 over the Pumas in Nelspruit at the weekend.

The Pumas were typically robust and confrontational up front, but where the Sharks had a decided edge was in terms of their clinical finishing, and the sharpness of both their backline and the rolling maul. But were it not for the Pumas being extremely wasteful on several occasions when they were inside the Sharks’ 22, the match would have been a lot closer.

“We’re very happy with the result, especially since last year we lost here, and we showed a lot of energy for the full 80 minutes, but the breakdowns let us down and that still needs a lot of attention. Francois Klelinhans and Jeandre Rudolph are both very good on the ball, but we need to tidy that area up,” Everitt said.

Not that the Sharks coach was upset with his forwards though, because there were areas where they played much better than last weekend against the Bulls in Pretoria, and the Sharks were expert at mining that front-foot ball and turning it into gold.

“There were obviously things we worked on after the Bulls game and it was great to see the set-piece come through – we were rewarded for some good scrums and we didn’t lose a lineout. Plus our maul was really good and led to two tries for us,” Everitt said.

Stormers coach John Dobson admitted that the Bulls had played them off the park in their Super Rugby Unlocked match at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend, with play being called off at the 63-minute mark with the Bulls enjoying  commanding 39-6 lead.

Dobson pointed to the fact that the Stormers were about to enjoy their first put-in at a scrum when the match was ended due to lightning as a measure of how error-free the Bulls were, and their coach Jake White admitted that his team were certainly where they wanted to be at this stage of the season, and probably playing better than he expected.

“As a coach, one can always be critical of little things and we will learn from those and get better. But I’m looking forward to where we will be in two months’ time if this is the sort of improvement the guys are showing now. We are where we want to be, considering that we haven’t been together for long, only four or five weeks. So the future just looks good.

“But we have won nothing yet and we will prepare the same every week, and make sure we still keep our detail sharp. We have a good group of players and I’m looking forward to seeing how they grow. We managed to hold on to the ball and the first 40 minutes are the best rugby the Bulls have played in a long time. What I enjoy the most was the continuity we played with,” White said after the match.

The game was touted as being a massive forward battle, but predictions of an intense, tight match were made foolish by the Bulls forwards putting in an exceptional display.

“The forwards were outstanding, the scrum and the maul, but I was especially pleased with their ability to adapt and the interplay between backs an forwards was very pleasing. We knew the Stormers would use their forward pack to get out of trouble and our plan was to nullify them and get them to play out of their own half. The game hasn’t changed and it’s still your pack of forwards that wins you the game.

“Our pack was outstanding, the scrums were very good and the way they carried the ball, their offloading, and the way they played between the backs was great. They gave the platform for the backs to play. And then watching Morne Steyn and Ivan van Zyl and the impact they made was great, and I’m really enjoying the combination at centre between Stedman Gans and Cornal Hendricks,” White said.

The Bulls produced sublime rugby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night as they pummelled the Stormers 39-6 in their Super Rugby Unlocked match, the visitors being spared further humiliation by divine intervention as lightning forced the match to be abandoned after 64 minutes.

The decison to stop play was a surprise, given that the Bulls and Sharks played through a far more potent storm last weekend.

While a disappointingly flat Stormers side almost gave the impression that they had come to Pretoria for a holiday, the Bulls were outstanding and deserve credit for hammering their opponents into submission. The Bulls were accurate with their kicking game, their rolling maul was magnificent, the scrum put the much-vaunted all-Springbok opposition front row under pressure, and the razor-sharp backs were able to punch holes in the Stormers line with regularity.

And once the Bulls began dominating the breakdown, the Stormers were hapless, with a few forays into the home team’s 22 in the second half not bearing fruit, with Duane Vermeulen, in particular, enjoying a field day when it came to stealing ball.

Another veteran who enjoyed a sensational match was Bulls flyhalf Morne Steyn, who rolled back the years to the halcyon days of the late 2000s. He took full advantage of the platform laid for him by the brilliant pack and produced a masterclass of superb tactical kicking and slick distribution, including an outrageous behind-the-back pass that ensured the Bulls took advantage of an overlap they were about to waste for centre Stedman Gans’s first try.

He picked out with unerring accuracy destinations both far, with his long-range kicking ensuring the Bulls dominated territory, and close as his deft little chips over the defence created havoc. Steyn sealed a 32-6 halftime lead as he regathered his beautiful little chip off the left foot over the defence and sent impressive lock Ruan Nortje over with a perfectly-timed pass through a screen of defenders.

Having absorbed some pressure early in the second half, Steyn then produced a lovely little chip into space for Gans to rush on to, the livewire Sevens star bursting through fullback Warrick Gelant’s tackle to score his second try.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Johan Grobbelaar, Stedman Gans (2), Ivan van Zyl, Ruan Nortje. Conversions – Morne Steyn (4). Penalties –Steyn (2).

Stormers: Penalties – Damian Willemse (2).

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).