Ken Borland

The Saracens rugby club – the one in London with such strong South African connections – once famously organised a camel race as part of the entertainment before a match they were holding at Wembley Stadium, but venue officials refused to allow it for any number of bureaucratic reasons. Perhaps if they had staged a dromedary race it would have been okay.

The Bulls are hoping such drastic measures to attract a crowd to Loftus Versfeld are not necessary for their last home game of the United Rugby Championship regular season, against Glasgow Warriors on Friday night. Amidst the drama of trying to nail down both a URC playoff spot and a place in the lucrative European Champions Cup next season, Bulls captain Marcell Coetzee spoke on Tuesday of the lift spectators have given the team over the last few weeks. He even dared to suggest the Bulls are going to embrace the pressure of two must-win games to end the round-robin phase.

“The last few weeks have really been must-win games and we’ve had phenomenal support at Loftus. The team has fed off that,” Coetzee said.

“We put ourselves into this position where we now have to fight for a playoff place, but we embrace it. At one stage we were bottom of the log, and the fightback just shows the quality and culture in our squad.

“Anything can still happen and Glasgow are a dangerous team. We’re not reading too much into their scoreline last weekend, but the Stormers showed how to break them down by being patient.

“The Stormers knew that sticking to their system would pay off, they created opportunities and then took them. We’ve created a few opportunities ourselves, but we have to make sure we take them,” Coetzee said.

Glasgow Warriors are the leading Scottish side in the competition, but they were hammered 32-7 last weekend by the Stormers in Cape Town.

Coetzee is only 30 years old so the star loose forward is still far too young to be pensioned off when it comes to international aspirations, but he says his focus at the moment is forming a tight-knit unit with Elrigh Louw and Cyle Brink.

“At the moment I just want to plough back into the Bulls team, helping guys like Elrigh, and enjoy my rugby,” Coetzee said. “We have a very good loose trio group, it’s lovely to be here and have all those guys behind you.

“Cyle has come into the system very well too, although he struggles a bit with the Afrikaans! He has added a lot of value and is growing every game, he also helps a lot at the breakdown. We are all busy making each other better,” Coetzee said.

Curwin Bosch has been through hell this season and so has Sean Everitt for backing him, but the Sharks coach said he was delighted the flyhalf has made a strong return to form, highlighted by some marvellous attacking touches in their hard-fought 28-23 win over the United Rugby Championship defending champions and log-leaders Leinster at Kings Park at the weekend.

Bosch made a shaky start to the game by missing two penalties, but he grew into the game and made a significant impact on attack, making some great line-breaks as the Sharks showed their ability to counter from deep.

“I’m very happy for Curwin,” Everitt said, “he’s been criticised a lot and I was too for selecting him. But he’s showing the saying that form is temporary and class is permanent is true.

“He showed his all-round game, his defence has improved and his tackle percentage is up in the 90s, when that used to be a glaring weakness of his.

“He also showed what he can do on attack. He countered well, he took the ball to the line and he made good decisions.

“I’m very happy where his game is at the moment and I’m very proud of him for how he has stood up,” Everitt said.

While the counter-attacking brilliance of fullback Aphelele Fassi, assisted by Bosch, stole the limelight, Everitt praised his forwards for their performance, which meant the Sharks were in control of territory and possession for most of the game.

“I was really happy with the way the front row and the pack stood up. We look to them for ascendancy, and they certainly gave us that in the mauls and scrums.

“Aphelele has been out with a lengthy injury, but he was in form when it happened and we probably rushed him back a bit. But the character he is, he just gets on with it, he’s not fazed by anything.

“He has certainly got x-factor and you could see his kicking game has improved as well. It’s really good to have him back and hopefully he will get higher honours in June when the international window opens,” Everitt said.

The Bulls had to come from a 13-0 deficit to beat Benetton Treviso 46-29 in their United Rugby Championship match at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend, and coach Jake White said he was most pleased by the adventurous rugby they played under pressure to do so.

The Bulls scored six tries to make it a bonus point win and only two of those tries were scored by forwards driving over from close range.

“What I was most pleased about was the brand of rugby we played, but we did not finish enough of our chances,” White said after the win. “There was a nice balance to our rugby, we used our forwards and our backs.

“You’re not going to win this competition by winning matches 13-9, you need to score tries, and how we counter-attacked and looked to play with ball-in-hand was most enjoyable to watch.

“Like when Kurt-Lee Arendse [fullback] runs from his own half to score, that’s where rugby is going. You have to be able to play like that, you need different arrows in your bow.

“We’re still not close to where we want to be, but it was good that we showed we can muscle up and use our maul as well. To be 13-0 down and still win 46-29 shows a lot of character,” White said.

The Bulls have been criticised in the past for their lack of creativity, some going as far as to liken them to the marvellous athletes but mechanical players of Russia under Communism, but those days are long gone.

The Bulls could, in fact, have scored a few more tries and the finishing, as well as the finer technical details of their breakdown work, are two areas White says need work.

“One can always be critical after a match and we were a bit inaccurate at the breakdown and three or four times our clearance kicks did not go far enough,” White said.

“We just needed to show more calm and not be so hasty. There were also three or four times we were on their tryline but we let the ball fall.

“The slow start was maybe because we haven’t played for two weeks, but we got in their 22 many times but did not finish. We’re not going to get 10 chances against one of the big sides.

“But Benetton were very tough physically and they did not go away, we had to work hard to break down their defence on the goal-line. We definitely have to improve,” White said.

The Sharks finally stopped giving Leinster get-out-of-jail-free cards as they scraped a 28-23 win in their United Rugby Championship match at Kings Park on Saturday.

Wasteful Sharks

The Sharks held the upper hand for most of the game but they were extremely wasteful. It started with flyhalf Curwin Bosch missing two penalties in the first 12 minutes. They also gave away several soft penalties when in possession deep inside the Leinster 22, for things as unnecessary as shoving their own player into contact or grabbing an opposition player around the neck when their maul was only a few feet from the line. Basic errors in handling and poor decision-making when players had made line-breaks also contributed to the Sharks being their own worst enemies.

The 31st man

One of legendary former Sharks and Springbok coach Ian McIntosh’s most famous quotations is that “the referee should be No.31 on the field and not No.1”. Unfortunately, the URC decided, in their wisdom, to appoint a 27-year-old referee with just one previous game under his belt in this competition, to officiate in a crunch fixture between two of the top sides in the tournament.

In the frantic closing stages, Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli was at the centre of several controversial decisions.

Leinster were given two yellow cards in seven minutes, and Sharks fans will believe they should have had three.

The Sharks were then penalised at the scrum when it seemed clear Leinster had collapsed, setting up a daunting last five minutes when the visitors camped on their line. There were more big decisions by Amashukeli, including his on-field call of held-up after the final hooter, which the TMO did not find evidence to overturn.

Bridging the gap

The positive side for the Sharks is that they showed they can compete with the defending champions and log-leaders, who were missing their major stars. But the Sharks held the upper hand for most of the match, their scrum and rolling maul being dominant, their territorial kicking was better and they also showed tremendous penetration in their counter-attack.

Given all of that, the Sharks should have won more comfortably, but, once again, their finishing and composure in the red zone left a lot to be desired.

On the other hand, their composure in defence on their own tryline at the death, was nothing short of heroic, especially with replacement hooker Kerron van Vuuren yellow-carded.

Fabulous Fassi

Sharks coach Sean Everitt had said in the build-up to the game that the return from injury of Aphelele Fassi would be important for their counter-attack, and the fullback was able to cash in when Leinster kicked too long.

The Sharks were 7-17 down with halftime rapidly approaching when Fassi fielded a kick eight metres inside his own half, ghosted past the first defender and then weaved away on a brilliant counter-attack, before a lovely underarm pass to Jaden Hendrikse saw the scrumhalf score.

It was a moment of magic that kept the Sharks in the game.

Bosch was also dangerous running back kicks.

Scorers

Sharks – Tries: Makazole Mapimpi, Jaden Hendrikse, Bongi Mbonambi, Phepsi Buthelezi. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (4).

Leinster – Tries: Scott Penny, Tommy O’Brien. Conversions: Ciaran Frawley (2). Penalties: Frawley (3).