Ken Borland

While the Sharks may be overwhelming favourites for Saturday’s Currie Cup final against Western Province in Durban, the memory of silly lapses that have cost them past finals in similar positions at the same venue will still be on the minds of the KwaZulu-Natal faithful.

The most famous of those was in the 2007 Super Rugby final against the Bulls, when a repeated failure to kick the ball out and a defence that was caught flatfooted allowed Bryan Habana to score one of his most celebrated tries and bring the Sanzar trophy to Pretoria for the first time. The deafening silence at King’s Park after victory was snatched from the Sharks at the death was something for the ears to behold.

Western Province will be hoping for similar magic from Habana on Saturday, as well as that other marvellous game-breaker Gio Aplon, while coach Allister Coetzee has also gambled by choosing the penetrative Damian de Allende alongside Juan de Jongh for his first Currie Cup start.

With the Sharks undoubted favourites on paper – Coetzee has had to call up six players from the U21s to cover for injuries – Western Province will almost certainly be trusting in their celebrated defence to ensure the Natalians do not get too far away from them, and then try to strike in the final quarter as they did against the Lions in the semi-final.

While many are predicting the star-studded Sharks squad, with a dozen Springboks, will simply swat Western Province aside, finals are not often like that and expected rainy weather in Durban may also be a leveller.

The visitors, denied a major cup for 11 years, are certainly going to be up for the game and nothing fuels motivation quite like being written-off as no-hopers.

But common sense suggests the Sharks should have too much power, skill and experience and only mental errors can deny them their seventh Currie Cup title.

Up front, Western Province have two animals (in an entirely complimentary sense) in Eben Etzebeth and Duane Vermeulen, but for the rest, the Sharks should have the edge in the forwards.

The Sharks’ Beast Mtawarira and Jannie du Plessis anchor the Springbok scrum, while the loose trio have all played for South Africa this year. Willem Alberts is the type of hard man who sends players to hospital, Marcell Coetzee is everywhere on the field at once and Keegan Daniel has the uncanny ability to pop up exactly where needed at the right time, as well as being a pinpoint link with his backs.

The second row is an area where Western Province may enjoy more parity, although Steven Sykes has functioned at a high level for several years for the Sharks and Anton Bresler is increasingly coming into his own as well.

Sharks half-backs Cobus Reinach and Pat Lambie may be small, but they can cause as much damage as those little Gremlins in the famous 1984 horror comedy film. Lambie, in particular, is a very clever player, using his boot well but also having sleight of hand and deceptive ability running with the ball.

He will be the home side’s general on Saturday and was instrumental in the Sharks’ 2010 Currie Cup triumph, scoring 25 points, including two tries, against the same opposition. It was probably the most complete performance by a fly-half in a Currie Cup final since Naas Botha’s heyday.

The rest of the backlines are fairly evenly matched, but Coach Coetzee was revealing his knowledge that Western Province will need something special to win the final by choosing De Allende, who was impressive at the end of the semi-final, instead of Marcel Brache, who was one of their stars through the Currie Cup campaign.

The entire Sharks back three of JP Pietersen, Lwazi Mvovo and Louis Ludik deserve to be part of Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer’s end-of-year touring squad and their ability to both dictate with the boot as well as counter-attack is an obvious strength.

In fact, the Sharks as a whole are the one team who seem to have perfected the art of mixing a territory-based game with one that demands a greater proportion of possession being kept in hand.

The all-round skills of the Sharks team, including the forwards, are also a notch above the rest of the teams in the Currie Cup.

The final might have come a year or two too early for what is undoubtedly a highly promising Western Province team, but on the day, with the pressure of finals rugby and the expectation of the crowd, the Sharks might, just maybe, toss it away. Especially if Western Province can summon the same sheer bloody-minded refusal to lose they showed in the semi-final against the Lions and earlier this year, as the Stormers, in the Super Rugby match against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld.

The smart money is surely, however, on the Sharks having the skills to turn the same amount of dominance as the Lions and Bulls enjoyed into the points that will clinch the oldest trophy in provincial rugby anywhere in the world.

http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-10-27-shark-attack-currie-cup-preview

There were plenty of Lions players with a heavy weight on their shoulders after Saturday night’s heartbreaking Currie Cup semi-final loss to Western Province.

The Lions, defending the title they had won in fairytale fashion last year, had dominated most of the match and seemed to have finally secured victory when flyhalf Elton Jantjies kicked an angled penalty to give them a 16-14 lead with less than two minutes remaining.

But then the ball was carried back into their own 22 from the kickoff and Jaco Taute put too much on his clearing kick, the ball sailing directly into touch to give Western Province a vital lineout inside the Lions’ 22. The visitors’ rolling maul once again carried too much momentum to be stopped and the Capetonians had the match-winning try with a dozen seconds left in the game.

While the loss will weigh most heavily on Taute and Jantjies, who missed three first-half kicks that denied the Lions vital reward for their dominance, it was also a sad end to an era. This Lions team that showed the courage to win the Currie Cup last year after they had been humiliated in SuperRugby, who stood up as a unit to get rid of their bullying coach, John Mitchell, and who shrugged off the awful news that they would not be playing in the Sanzar tournament in 2013, will now break up.

Already, Jantjies, Taute, lock Michael Rhodes and prop Pat Cilliers have been confirmed as heading to the Stormers, while two unsung heroes of the tight five, Franco van der Merwe (Sharks) and Jacobie Adriaanse (Scarlets), are also departing.

The loss of these players, and probably more in the near future, means the Lions will have to rebuild yet again.

“We’ve lost guys who we’ve worked on for two or three years to get to this level, and now we’ll have to get new guys to that level as quickly as possible,” coach Johan Ackermann admitted.

“This group has become so close, they really play for each other. For the first time in years, we have a number of players in every position and we would have gone into SuperRugby with some depth and with players going into their second or third year in that competition.

“But now this whole group breaks up and we have to start building up a new team again … I know those are words Lions supporters don’t want to hear, but we have to do it.”

The mere fact that the Lions finished the year as strong Currie Cup contenders, hosting a semi-final, and not as the clowns some haters like to portray them as, is amazing considering all the obstacles they faced.

“We could of fallen apart and finished sixth and gone into a promotion/relegation playoff, but instead our goal was to win the Currie Cup. I’m still very positive, even though we’re just disappointed now because that was a game we should of won. But I’d rather be losing in a semi-final than playing promotion/relegation,” Ackermann said.

The Sharks, having seen off the Bulls 20-3 in difficult conditions in Durban, will now go into the Currie Cup final as firm favourites.

Thus far in the competition, they have undoubtedly been the most cohesive unit, they have the best all-round players and they will have home ground advantage.

Ackermann predictably backed his former Sharks side to beat the Streeptruie next weekend, saying “they can’t get that lucky twice, Christmas only comes once a year”, but even Western Province coach Allister Coetzee was saying the Natalians would be favourites.

“We’ll be up against the best side in South Africa, the Sharks are unbelievably strong, to hold the Bulls to just three points is very telling. They are a real quality side, they are good on attack and defence and they have good kickers. Maybe we’ll need all 22 players on the field to beat them … ” Coetzee said.

If you believe their detractors, Western Province tend to “choke” in the big games, but their victory over the Lions showed there is immense character and patience in their side. Nothing seemed to be going for them for three-quarters of the match, but then, as the game entered the crucial final stages, they were able to up the tempo and be clinical on attack.

“It’s one of the best wins I’ve experienced with Western Province, the character of the team really stood out and they never gave up. In the latter stages of the second half, we found space and width and the bench gave us great impetus on attack.

“The team showed a great will to win and the side that capitalises on their opportunities normally wins playoffs. People like to throw out that ‘chokers’ term at us, but the connection in this team is incredible, both to each other and to the game plan,” Coetzee said.

To upstage the Sharks, however, Western Province are going to have to improve markedly up front. The Lions bossed them at scrum time and the Sharks front row, spearheaded by Springboks Jannie du Plessis and Tendai Mtawarira, will be looking to do the same.

The Sharks forwards were magnificent in stopping the big Bulls’ ball-carriers’ efforts to get over the gain line and they certainly have the backline to make better use of possession than the Lions did.

A sopping wet day in Durban was an equaliser, helping the Bulls’ strengths, but to win so convincingly just shows that the Sharks have the quality to rise to any occasion or conditions.

New Zealand captain Richie McCaw was delighted that his 100th Test victory was achieved in such compelling fashion as the All Blacks beat South Africa 32-16 in their Rugby Championship match at Soccer City in Soweto on Saturday.

The world champions scored 20 unanswered second-half points to end the tournament in style and ensure McCaw’s unique landmark was made even more memorable.

“It’s pretty special, a performance like that is why you test yourself and you have to be part of a pretty special team to win 100 Tests.

“The mental side is the most challenging thing in top sport, you have to pitch up regardless of what happened last week. We put in a good performance against Argentina and we needed to back that up if we’re going to keep progressing. I’m just delighted that we did that for the first time this year,” McCaw told a news conference after the game.

While the All Blacks had already clinched the inaugural Rugby Championship title with their 54-15 win over Argentina last weekend, Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer said their performance on Saturday proved that they are worthy world champions.

“They are a great team, we were beaten by a better side today. We obviously still have a long way to go even though we’ve come up from fourth to second on the rankings.

“There’s obviously a big difference between second and first on the rankings and even though the All Blacks might play badly, they always have one or two brilliant players who get them off the hook.

“It will take a special side to beat them and they will need some luck and a referee who gives them all the 50/50 calls,” Meyer said.

The Springbok coach acknowledged that his team had simply made too many mistakes after dominating the first half to secure a 16-12 lead at the break.

“At half-time, we were in the game, we’d played the right game and kept them under pressure. But just after half-time we had a turnover against the best counter-attacking team and that put them ahead.

“Dan Carter was then superb as he controlled the game and it was very difficult for us to catch up. They forced us to take risks and the mistakes came, but they were soft moments,” Meyer complained.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said the victory was an all-round effort.

“It was a great game of rugby, it’s not often you get a performance like that against a very good South African team. It was a great victory against a great opponent.

“The whole group is working well together, we’ve got the recipe for the cake right and the mental state is great. The team is well-led by Richie, who has won 100 Tests because he has great mental strength,” Hansen said.

The All Blacks took the game to another level in the second half and McCaw said the two tries they scored between the 41st and 53rd minutes had been the decisive moments.

“We didn’t get a lot of ball in the first half, but traditionally the time just before and after the break are key. We conceded a couple of penalties just before half-time, but straight away we struck back in the second half and that gave the team a lift after we had given ourselves a pretty stern talking to in the shed. From then on we were in control,” McCaw said.