Ken Borland

Sharks coach Sean Everitt will be a restless sleeper this week as he considers the high penalty count recently against his team as they head for their last two round-robin fixtures of the Currie Cup.

The Sharks are currently second on the Currie Cup log, four points behind the Bulls, and they close their regular season by visiting the Lions on Saturday and then hosting Western Province on August 28.

But the Sharks had a double-figure penalty count against them in the first half of their match against the Bulls and were similarly ill-disciplined at the weekend against the Free State Cheetahs. Even though the Cheetahs had suffered a red card early in the second half, they stayed in the game thanks to the Sharks’ lack of focus and the KwaZulu-Natalians finished the 38-31 win with 13 men thanks to two yellow cards in the closing minutes.

“We’re very happy with the five points against the Cheetahs, but there are two work-ons we have to get right before playing the Lions in Johannesburg. The first is our set-pieces and the second is the number of penalties we are conceding. Those are due to individual errors and not system faults. Up to the Bulls game we had conceded the least penalties in the competition.

“After the last two games we are probably sitting top of that list now. We can’t defend for the majority of a game due to discipline issues, we need to take the pressure off ourselves if we are going to play free-flowing rugby. We need to rectify the number of penalties we’re conceding because we won’t have enough possession if we keep giving away penalties,’ Everitt said.

Nevertheless, the Sharks did score six tries against the Cheetahs, exciting wing Thaakir Abrahams scoring twice, and some of their attacking play would have been enough to make the coach purr with delight.

“Thaakir is always a threat with ball in hand, he poses big problems for the opposition. It was unfortunate that we had an injury in the warm-up and Marnus Potgieter [hamstring] was not able to take the field, but we were very fortunate to be able to bring in someone like Yaw Penxe, who has been with the Springboks.

“It was Le Roux Roets’ third game in a row so he’s getting that consistency now and he was massive in his ball-carries and setting the maul, while it was also good to see Cameron Wright back on the field and Boeta Chamberlain get a start. Dylan Richardson is blessed with an engine that can just go and go, he had a big impact defensively and with his ball-carries,” Everitt said.

Impressive as the Springboks’ 32-12 win over Argentina was, forwards coach Deon Davids said on Monday that it was far from a 10/10 performance and they will be striving for more consistent excellence this weekend against the same opposition and in the same Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

Although there are unlikely to be wholesale changes to the team, tinkering in the interests of keeping some players fresh and others involved could see as many as 10 players wearing a different number on their backs on Saturday.

And one of the significant changes could come in the No.10 jersey. Elton Jantjies’ tendency to mix some skilful moments with basic errors could see him come off the bench on Saturday, with Morne Steyn starting at flyhalf. Damian Willemse also had a mixed day at fullback and there will certainly be plenty of people excited about the prospect of Aphelele Fassi returning to his regular position.

Captain Siya Kolisi played against Argentina despite having gastric flu and, given his all-out effort during the British and Irish Lions series, there is certainly an argument to be made for him to be rested ahead of the huge challenges in Australasia.

Davids said on Monday though that Duane Vermeulen is still two-to-three weeks away from playing, so who would take over the captaincy is an issue. Eben Etzebeth has captained the Springboks before, although ideally he would be resting as well were it not for the injuries to Rynhardt Elstadt, Jean-Luc du Preez, RG Snyman and Pieter-Steph du Toit.

Kwagga Smith can easily play openside flank and Dan du Preez could come in on the blindside, but an injury to Marco van Staden could force the Springboks back into a 5-3 bench.

Davids also confirmed that scrumhalves Herschel Jantjies and Faf de Klerk are also still unavailable for this weekend.

“We want a more consistent performance. The players generally made the right decisions, but the execution was not always where we want it to be. But they found solutions as the game went on, especially in the scrums and lineout. We want to ensure we grow and get better in our execution, make sure that flows into Saturday’s game.

“We are very happy with the guys that stepped in against a quality side. It was obviously a big step up the youngsters had to make and we were glad with the way they reacted. In selection, we will look at performance, but also the freshness of the players and we want to build depth and experience into the group. Those considerations all have to be balanced,” Davids said.

Judging by last weekend’s performance, the depth in Springbok rugby is okay.

“There were some big moments that the players handled well. That was testament to the base of talent that we have, how the guys assist each other and the leadership of the senior players and how the youngsters react to that. It speaks to a whole team effort and it was a good learning experience against a very competitive team. We now have a base to move from,” Davids said.

Possible Springbok team: Aphelele Fassi, Sbu Nkosi, Jesse Kriel, Francois Steyn, Rosko Specman, Morne Steyn, Cobus Reinach, Jasper Wiese, Dan du Preez, Kwagga Smith, Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Wilco Louw, Malcolm Marx, Ox Nche. Bench – Trevor Nyakane, Joseph Dweba, Vincent Koch, Marvin Orie, Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, Jaden Hendrikse, Elton Jantjies, Damian Willemse.

It is often said that rugby teams don’t care how they win, but knowing coach Sean Everitt’s philosophy, the Sharks will be disappointed in their performance even though they beat the Free State Cheetahs 38-31 in their Currie Cup match at Kings Park on Sunday.

The Sharks produced a messy first-half showing but still managed to go into the break 19-18 up. They then received what should have been an enormous boost when Cheetahs flank Jacques Potgieter was red-carded for a shoulder to the head of hooker Dylan Richardson in a rash tackle.

But they just could not stamp their mark on their game due mostly to their own dreadful ill-discipline, but also a failure to do the hard yards first before trying to play fancy rugby. They also lost the territory battle and tried to do too much in their own half.

And so, when the final 10 minutes arrived, the Sharks only had a 38-26 lead when disaster struck them and flank Henco Venter and lock Emile van Heerden were both yellow-carded in the space of a minute as the Cheetahs piled on the pressure and referee Stuart Berry tired of repeated infringements.

The short-handed defence did their best but eventually cracked in the 79^th minute when Robert Ebersohn, back in Free State colours for the first time in eight years, went over for a try in the corner. Replacement flyhalf Reinhardt Fortuin missed the tricky conversion and substitute flank James Venter then won the crucial turnover in injury time to ensure the Sharks finished in front.

The Sharks had moved into a 26-18 lead straight after Potgieter’s red card as centres Marius Louw and Jeremy Ward broke through in midfield, with scrumhalf Cameron Wright on hand to round off the try, and then went 33-21 up when hooker Kerron van Vuuren went over for the second time in a lineout drive.

Another moment of ill-discipline – this time a tip-tackle by replacement lock Jeandre Labuschagne straight after he came on the field – led to a try for Cheetahs substitute prop Cameron Dawson, but the Sharks struck back when Louw’s excellent kick into the Cheetahs’ in-goal area was chased down by wing Thaakir Abrahams.

They then spent most of the rest of the match clinging on by their fingertips in their own half.

The Cheetahs have conceded plenty of points in recent weeks and, having dominated the first half, two moments of poor defence cost them two tries and the lead. The first came in the 12^th minute when they left a big gap next to a maul and Wright was able to burst clear before passing a long pass out wide to Abrahams, who showed his searing pace to score.

Then, on the half-hour, Henco Venter was able to pick up at the base of a scrum and make it almost to the tryline without being challenged, then crashing through two tackles to score.

The Sharks will find themselves up against much tougher and more clinical opposition as the Currie Cup heads to a finish in the coming weeks and will have to regain their focus.

Scorers

Sharks – Tries: Thaakir Abrahams (2), Kerron van Vuuren (2), Henco Venter, Cameron Wright. Conversions: Boeta Chamberlain (3), Lionel Cronje.

Free State Cheetahs – Tries: Evardi Boshoff, Craig Barry, Cameron Dawson, Robert Ebersohn. Conversion: Brandon Thomson. Penalties: Thomson (3).

The Proteas enter an ODI series in Sri Lanka on Thursday and once again there is a mass of expectation on their shoulders as they look to not only win on the field but somehow also win over the hearts of the many people who are deeply dismayed by what has been going on in South African cricket lately.

One can sympathise with captain Temba Bavuma as he looks to juggle all these demands that range from socio-economic issues that plague the country as a whole to how to deal with turning pitches on the subcontinent.

South Africa’s struggles with that are well-known and they have not won an ODI series since beating Australia 18 months ago, which means they are currently outside the top eight in the race to pre-qualify for the next World Cup. And they have not won an ODI series overseas in nearly three years – again it was Australia who succumbed to the Proteas, in November 2018.

“It seems these days whenever we play there’s always something brought up that we haven’t done,” Bavuma lamented on Wednesday. “Our main aim is to win series, to try and accumulate as many points as we can to qualify for the 50-over World Cup, and we are here in foreign conditions and we don’t focus on the past, but we do learn from it. I’ve only been in this role for two series – against Pakistan and the Ireland series that was affected by the weather.

“We still have a lot to overcome as a team, there’s the stuff going on behind closed doors, but our responsibility is to make sure that what we do on the field meets a certain standard. Winning is where our minds are at and our conversations are largely centred around how we can play our best cricket. We don’t need to get involved in external matters,” Bavuma said.

The Proteas are also missing key players in Quinton de Kock, David Miller and Lungi Ngidi. The absence of De Kock means either Aiden Markram or Reeza Hendricks will open the batting with Janneman Malan, with Heinrich Klaasen or Kyle Verreynne taking the gloves; both could play as they did in South Africa’s last ODI, a thumping 70-run win over Ireland that levelled the series.

But there are also empty chairs to be filled in the management room with bowling coach Charl Langeveldt not able to travel due to Covid quarantine and assistant coach Enoch Nkwe having resigned.

“It’s our first tour without Enoch and it’s quite a big loss, especially on the tactical and strategic side. He was a good sounding board for me, someone I could test my ideas with, and we had experience of working together at domestic level. But life goes on and there’s not much we can do about it. As far as his reasons go, as a team we have not heard from Enoch himself.

“There has been a lot of speculation, but I’m sure he’s rooting for us. For it to be said there was something wrong with our team culture and environment, makes me feel … I haven’t had the opportunity for a formal discussion with him, so I would like to sit down and unpack it all with him, hear from him first. I will take what he says on board and discuss it amongst the team,” Bavuma said.