Ken Borland

Sharks coach Sean Everitt said he felt his team was still in good health at halftime as they only trailed the Bulls 9-17 in their Super Rugby Unlocked match at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend, but the unrelenting physical bombardment of the home side eventually saw them subside to a 41-14 hammering.

The Sharks had actually had the better of the exchanges in the first half and they led until the 28^th minute when the Bulls scored the first of two quickfire tries before the break. Thereafter it was one-way traffic.

“There are no excuses, we started really well, but then we leaked two soft tries. But we still felt very much in the game at halftime, but the Bulls have a very good pack, big and physical, and they just wore us down in the second half. We had a dominant scrum until Thomas du Toit went off because of his calf, and we had a lot of go-forward in the first half.

“I like to think we also matched them in the loose in certain periods, but it was just our execution that let us down. The breakdown was going well when we had forward dominance in our carries, but I think the Bulls just outmuscled us a bit in the end and Marco van Staden is a great fetcher and not a Springbok for nothing. We were also not accurate enough in our kicking game,” Everitt said after the match.

Hooker Dylan Richardson was the outstanding player for the Sharks and scored a beauty of a try, after a lovely little dart by eighthman Sikhumbuzo Notshe, to keep the Sharks in the game at 14-24 down after 53 minutes. But the rest of the second half belonged to the Bulls as they scored three more tries. The lineouts were a particular area of concern for the Sharks as the Bulls stole a few balls against Richardson’s throw.

“Dylan’s general play was outstanding, he made lots of tackles and won three turnovers for us. It was a big step for him to move from openside flank in Super Rugby, but we feel hooker is a position he can excel in and his throwing is just a teething problem, that will get better with game time,” Everitt said.

Bulls coach Jake White said on Thursday that he is still nursing his team into full rhythm, but he has still made six changes to the starting line-up for their Super Rugby Unlocked match against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The Bulls will field much the same backline that gave the Sharks such a headache in Pretoria a month ago on SuperFan Saturday, with Stedman Gans and Cornal Hendricks reunited in the centres, Travis Ismaiel and Kurt-Lee Arendse on the wings and Ivan van Zyl starting at scrumhalf. David Kriel starts at fullback after Gio Aplon’s season was ended by a knee injury in last weekend’s loss to the Free State Cheetahs.

Up front, Springbok tighthead prop Marcel van der Merwe is back at full fitness after ankle surgery and will make his return to the Bulls side after his three-and-a-half year stint with Toulon, and highly-rated youngster Elrigh Louw will start at blindside flank with veteran Arno Botha on the bench.

“I would like to see more cohesion, but the guys have not played much together and we have been making changes to the team. I would just like to see more rhythm in attack and defence and the team that gets that right the quickest, that hits their straps first, will create the most problems. So far this competition has been very top-start with lots of mistakes slowing everything down.

“And this is a new group of players, which is also a disadvantage, other teams have had their squads together much longer. But it’s not an excuse and we just need to try as hard as we can to get some rhythm and continuity going. A lot of the changes will come on after halftime and play the back end of the match and the strength of the bench is also very important,” White said on Thursday.

Judging by what happened the last time these two teams met, those watching in their homes are probably most excited by two scintillating backlines going up against each other and Bulls captain Duane Vermeulen was particularly excited by his own backs.

“Cornal and Stedman showed what a good combination they are and I guess the coach wants to see if they can play well again together this weekend. Travis and Kurt-Lee are back as well so we have two very exciting wings and David Kriel has put his hand up very well in the last two games, so I’m sure he will easily fit in at fullback,” Vermeulen said.

Bulls team:  David Kriel, Travis Ismaiel, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Duane Vermeulen (C), Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Jason Jenkins, Marcel van der Merwe, Johan Grobbelaar, Jacques van Rooyen. Replacements – Joe van Zyl, Gerhard Steenekamp, Trevor Nyakane, Sintu Manjezi, Arno Botha, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Marco Jansen van Vuren.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt is realistic enough to know that medical reasons could force him to make numerous changes to his team from week-to-week, but for now he is delighted to name just one change to his starting line-up – especially when that is the return of Sbu Nkosi – for their SuperRugby Unlocked match against the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday.

Nkosi, part of the Springboks 2019 World Cup winning squad, replaces 2007 World Cup winner JP Pietersen on the right wing, having recovered from the sternum injury that has kept him out of the season thus far.

“You never know when Covid is going to strike someone down, so you have to prepare for it and have a good squad. We’ve been fortunate to have a clean slate for six weeks. It’s not inevitable that someone will get it, but there’s a good chance. You accept it could be the case, you be proactive and prepare in advance. And it helps that our juniors have now finished their U21 competition.

“So we have not made too many changes, but it is notable that Sbu is back, he will bring a lot of energy and the experience he gained at the World Cup. We’re very excited to have another World Cup winning Springbok in the team, he comes with lots of credentials and experience, he’s good under the high ball, dangerous on attack, has good feet and can beat the opposition one-on-one,” Everitt said in announcing his team on Thursday.

Three changes on the bench – the return from injury of hooker Kerron van Vuuren and flank Henco Venter, as well as wing Yaw Penxe’s first call-up – would also appear to strengthen the Sharks and Everitt said he has not had to massage their confidence much after the beating they took on their last visit to Loftus Versfeld, a month ago for SuperFan Saturday, when the Bulls beat them 49-28.

“We’re going with a totally different mindset. We took a squad of 30 that day and we wanted to look at combinations and youngsters who had shown progress to measure where they were. But it’s back to business now, we have a settled squad and a much more experienced team, with lessons learnt on that SuperFan day.

“It will certainly be a different ball game, getting one’s rhythm back sometimes takes time and we were unfortunate that after SuperFan Saturday we had a bye with the Green and Gold game, we played the Lions and then we had another bye. It did not help our continuity, but we are smiling because it meant players came back from injury,” Everitt said.

Sharks team: Manie Libbok, Sbu Nkosi, Lukhanyo Am (c), Marius Louw, Werner Kok, Curwin Bosch, Sanele Nohamba, Sikumbuzo Notshe, Phendulani Buthelezi, James Venter, Hyron Andrews, Ruben van Heerden, Thomas du Toit, Dylan Richardson, Ox Nche. Replacements – Kerron van Vuuren, Mzamo Majola, John-Hubert Meyer, JJ van der Mescht, Henco Venter, Grant Williams, Jeremy Ward, Yaw Penxe.

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen said he was terribly disappointed by their narrow defeat to the Sharks in Durban but proud of his team for the character they showed and the big improvement in competitiveness compared to their dismal start to the year.

The Lions went down 16-19 to the Sharks in their opening Super Rugby Unlocked match, but they turned down a penalty that could have given them a draw to rather go for a win, only to be penalised at a five-metre scrum after the hooter. But having won just one of their six games in the regular Super Rugby season, to then push the form side in South Africa all the way to the end was heartening, especially after a poor start in which the Sharks led 13-0 after half-an-hour.

“Obviously we’re bitterly disappointed to lose, but the character and fight for the whole 80 minutes the guys showed was unbelievable. So I’m happy with the effort but sad about the result. The Sharks obviously started well and put us under pressure, but we had a bit of hope and momentum going into the second half, we felt that shift.

“Being direct had started to work and the Sharks live on turnovers so that’s what we wanted to negate. So there were a lot of positives, especially the good fight and character the guys showed for 80 minutes, and a lot of individuals put up their hands. We want to challenge the players to adapt to different opponents and we had a specific plan for tonight,” Van Rooyen said after the game.

Lions captain Elton Jantjies also pointed to the big improvement in performance by the side.

“Tonight was probably a 7/10 for us in terms of performance, and that’s coming from a 3/10. So we will just keep training hard and believe, to only lose by three points here shows that we are doing the right things,” Jantjies said.

Neither Van Rooyen nor Jantjies were throwing their toys out of the pram over the final penalty at the scrum that cost the Lions. The Sharks had been under pressure for most of the game in that set-piece, but had also won a couple of penalties earlier in the match.

“The Sharks obviously have a quality front row and I felt we handled them adequately. Obviously there are one or two scrums we will look at again, but generally I felt the scrums went well. The scrum was a good battle, some of them we dominated, but there’s still a bit for us to work on,” Van Rooyen said.

“Both sides had opportunities to win the game and we scored one try each. I had a penalty against the posts, but that happens in rugby. There were other moments at the set-piece that were crucial as well,” Jantjies said.