Ken Borland

The Sharks, having been humbled in the Currie Cup final by the Bulls, will now head to Europe with a clean slate and looking forward to butting heads against some different opposition, coach Sean Everitt said after their 44-10 defeat at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.
The Sharks and the Bulls have consistently been the best sides in South Africa over the last two years, but the Sharks have not managed to claim any silverware, losing two Currie Cup finals at Loftus Versfeld in nine months and finishing second in the Rainbow Cup.
“We’re looking forward to Europe now, there will be a new energy and fresh competition, plus the Sharks are a team that normally travels well. But we will be looking for a massive improvement on this performance.
“We have quite a few youngsters in our team so every game is a learning experience, an opportunity for them to get better. Our first game is against Munster and we will stay in Ireland in quarantine for a minimum of 10 days, but we will be able to train in that time so it’s no problem,” Everitt said.
While Bulls coach Jake White praised his team for an “almost perfect” display in the final, Everitt tended towards the opposite side of the spectrum.
“In all areas of our game we were not up to scratch. It was down to individual errors, our fundamentals let us down. We had opportunities in the first half but we just couldn’t nail them down, while the Bulls had four shots at us and scored three tries thanks to poor defence.
“I always thought that the team that won the first 30 minutes would have the best chance of winning the trophy, that was an important part of the game. But conceding soft tries, all three of them from lineouts, was really disappointing and not the start we wanted. The decision-making on defence was just wrong,” Everitt said.

There will be howls of dismay again over how badly the Proteas bat against spin following their capitulation to 125 all out and defeat by 78 runs to Sri Lanka in the third and decisive ODI in Colombo on Tuesday, but it was seam bowler Dushmantha Chameera who actually had a massive say in the series-clinching win for the home side.

Chameera first of all scored a crucial 29 runs after coming in at 154 for seven to lift Sri Lanka to 203 for nine in their 50 overs, and give them belief that they had a total they could defend on a turning pitch.

Given how South Africa’s spinners had dominated, it was always going to be the Sri Lankan slow bowlers who were going to be the chief risk for the Proteas batsmen.

But it was Chameera who made two massive strikes up front with the new ball to immediately undermine the run-chase. The lithe fast bower bowled Reeza Hendricks (1) through the gate with a cracking delivery and then, in his next over, had key man Rassie van der Dussen (5) superbly caught by a diving Kamindu Mendis at short midwicket.

And then it was easy for the Sri Lankan spinners to keep kicking the Proteas batsmen in the shins as they took full advantage of a pitch that provided sometimes vicious turn.

From 19 for three, Heinrich Klaasen lifted them to 45 without further loss with a positive approach, but then debutant Maheesh Theeksana, a mystery off-spinner in the same mould as Ajantha Mendis, cut the legs off the innings with his carom balls.

He removed opener Janneman Malan (18) and then Klaasen fell for 22 when he got his pads in the way of a delivery that turned like a leg-break.

South Africa were 54 for six and doomed.

They were eventually bowled out in just 30 overs as Theeksana finished with four for 37, Chameera took two for 16 and leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga claimed two for 32.

South Africa, who had lost the toss, had actually bowled really well as stand-in captain Keshav Maharaj employed a battalion of spinners.

Sri Lanka struggled throughout with Dhananjaya de Silva (31) and the man of the series Charith Asalanka (47) the only batsmen to prosper for a while.

But Chameera made sure the last three wickets added 49 runs as the Proteas again faltered when it came to closing out an innings in the field.

Kagiso Rabada was out of sorts as he went wicketless in eight overs and conceded 46 runs, while Andile Phehlukwayo and Wiaan Mulder only bowled one over each.

For the rest it was all spin. Slow left-armers Maharaj (10-0-38-3) and George Linde (10-1-32-2) tied up the batsmen superbly, Tabraiz Shamsi nipped out a couple of batsmen and even Aiden Markam got through a full quota of 10 overs, conceding only 41 runs and dismissing Dhananjaya.

The last time the Sharks hosted Griquas at Kings Park was at the end of July when their own indifferent finishing saw them lose an extraordinary match 37-27, and coach Sean Everitt has blared out the lessons from that upset all week ahead of their Currie Cup semifinal against the same opposition in Durban on Saturday.

Griquas received five yellow cards in that match and the Sharks were almost always playing with extra men. But they wasted numerous scoring opportunities, rather aimlessly bashing away at close quarters when varying the point of attack would have surely seen the incredibly brave Griquas defence crack open.

Maybe it was because they had just come back from Covid-enforced inactivity and the unrest in KwaZulu-Natal, but all in all, it was probably the Sharks’ most bleh performance of the season.

“A lot of lessons were learnt that day, especially how to deal with the opposition getting yellow cards and how to break down defences on the tryline. And we have built some momentum since then, I think we are a better team now and that result has had a lot to do with it.

“Everyone wants to be in a Currie Cup final, so motivation won’t be an issue and there’ll be no questions over energy. Our lineouts and scrums have also improved since we played Griquas the last time,” Everitt said this week.

In order to get the better of Griquas this time, Everitt said his team are going to have to bring a mixture of their ruthless counter-attacking ability and forward grunt that ensures the Sharks can get some fluency with ball-in-hand.

“Griquas have kicked the most in the competition, mostly through Stefan Ungerer, who is an accomplished scrumhalf, and George Whitehead, an experienced flyhalf. They manage the game well, they strangle and squeeze you and I’m sure they will come here and try and disrupt our style of play. I hope we can match their physicality and the breakdown is a massive area we have worked hard on.

“Our flyhalf [Lionel Cronje] and fullback [Curwin Bosch] need to function well, they complement each other, they’ve produced some really good kicking and they can attack too, especially when we split the flyhalf channel on either side. Hopefully we can get the phases going to be able to do that,” Everitt said.

The Springboks can be forgiven for thinking that ever since they won the World Cup they have had to play their rugby against the grain, but the adaptability and mental toughness they have shown will once again serve them well amidst the chaos in the Rugby Championship scheduling that threatens to overshadow their second Test against Argentina at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

Following New Zealand’s unilateral withdrawal from their scheduled fixture against Australia in Perth next weekend and their cancellation of South Africa’s matches in Auckland and Dunedin, the whole tournament was thrown into disarray on Friday.

But as Springbok captain Siya Kolisi pointed out, they can only focus on what is in front of them, and that will be a Pumas team out for revenge on Saturday.

“All we can do is concentrate on tomorrow, tomorrow’s match is guaranteed, it will happen and we are really excited for it. We can’t control everything and the rest of the fixtures is something we can’t control. We take it game-by-game and try not to think of the end of the competition and trophies. We put the same effort in whoever we are playing against.

“We go through exactly the same processes and we want to win very game, every competition and every trophy, we don’t want to just compete. The challenges we have faced in these times of a pandemic are never an excuse, when we step on the field we have to be ready and we have to be champions. After missing a whole year of rugby, we just want to play as much as we can,” Kolisi said on Friday.

With quarantine issues meaning New Zealand no longer want to travel to Australia or host games, SA Rugby made sure the opportunity to suggest themselves as hosts of the rest of the Rugby Championship was not passed up on, with the United Kingdom also being mooted as a possible venue.

Springbok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick said South Africa had shown with the successful, albeit troubled, hosting of the British and Irish Lions series that they would be able to safely pull off such a feat.

“If you look at our facilities, we have very good stadiums around Gauteng and we have hosted big events before. You see the success of the Lions tour, they enjoyed our hospitality, staying at a nice golf course. Argentina are down the road from us here in Gqeberha in a very nice hotel on the beachfront. I have no doubt that Australia and New Zealand would enjoy being here as well.

“We have got everything we need to host the rest of the Rugby Championship and it would be great if they decided to come to South Africa, we would welcome them. Our squad will still be staying together until the call is made, but we trust our executive and Director of Rugby to do everything they can to finish the tournament, whether in South Africa or the UK,” Stick said.