Ken Borland

Two new caps have been called up to the Sharks Currie Cup starting XV for their match against Griquas at Kings Park on Wednesday in flank OJ Noa and wing Eduan Keyter, and how the loose forward landed up in Durban is a long and winding tale.

Of Samoan heritage, Noa was born in Auckland but brought up in Australia. He made his professional debut in 2014, as a 24-year-old, for the Melbourne Rising in the National Rugby Championship. In 2016 he moved to the Canberra Vikings and played six games for them, before moving to Spain in 2018 and playing for SilverStorm El Salvador, one of that country’s leading teams, who also happen to play in black-and-white.

Noa began 2021 playing New South Wales club rugby, but, as a 31-year-old, it was a dramatic year that saw him finally make his breakthrough. The 1.93m, 110kg flank was chosen for Samoa to play in their two Rugby World Cup qualifiers against Tonga and was subsequently signed by the Sharks.

“It’s been a bit of a journey for OJ rugby-wise, but he is certainly physical, he has lovely silky hands and he can run all day,” Sharks Currie Cup coach Etienne Fynn said on Monday after announcing his team to meet Griquas.

The 25-year-old Keyter will be up against his previous team and the Affies and Maties product is a proven attacking force at Currie Cup level, so Fynn and URC coach Sean Everitt will be looking forward to seeing what he can bring after being out injured since his signing.

Also set to make their Sharks debuts are hooker Jason Alexander, the 21-year-old who has moved from Western Province to Durban, his front-row team-mate Dian Bleuler, who got to play against the British and Irish Lions last year; lock Corne Rahl, who went to the SA Rugby Academy in 2021; and former UCT captain Josh Moon, a loose forward who is going to follow in his delighted grandfather Mike’s footsteps and play for the Natal Sharks.

Sharks – Anthony Volmink, Yaw Penxe, Werner Kok, Marius Louw (c), Eduan Keyter, Jordan Chait, Cameron Wright, Mpilo Gumede, OJ Noa, Thembelani Bholi, Emile van Heerden, Gerbrandt Grobler, Lourens Adriaanse, Dan Jooste, Khwezi Mona. Replacements: Jason Alexander, Dian Bleuler, Wiehahn Herbst, Corne Rahl, Josh Moon, Sanele Nohamba, Murray Koster, Marnus Potgieter.

Bulls coach Jake White said before their United Rugby Championship match against the Sharks in Durban that he would like his team to move towards the Northern Hemisphere approach of using the set-pieces as more of an attacking platform than as an opportunity to get penalties.

The Sharks clearly did not get the memo though as they thoroughly dominated the Bulls in the scrums, earning eight penalties as well as forcing referee Jaco Peyper to yellow card retreaded tighthead Lizo Gqoboka, and also putting the visitors under pressure in the lineouts. That dominance up front set in motion a commanding display as they swept the Currie Cup champions aside 30-16.

“The set-pieces are always important, especially with the conditions we have in Durban this time of year,” Sharks coach Sean Everitt said. “The set-pieces really functioned well and we got a maul try.

“So it’s been a good turnaround in that department. The scrum is one of three things that have to be in place for you to win, the others being territory and defence.

“We won the territory battle, although we were not as clinical as I would have liked in the first half. Defensively we stopped the Bulls’ momentum, we won the gain-line.

“At the breakdowns we were doing more cleaning next to the ball and not over it, but we got better at it, and in the second half we were able to put the opposition under pressure there,” Everitt said.

White said the Bulls are set to boost their front-row stocks, especially at tighthead prop, given the departure of Trevor Nyakane to Racing 92 in France, and the current unavailability of Jacques van Rooyen and Mornay Smith. The inexperienced Robert Hunt started in the number three jersey and was replaced by Gqoboka, who has not played on that side of the scrum since the start of his career.

“From a personnel point of view, we obviously need to get more experienced tighthead props because there are things in the scrum we have to get right,” White said.

“On our ball, I thought we played quite cleverly, but there was no stopping the Sharks on their ball and that put us under pressure.”

Everitt also gave a big thumbs up to his returning Springboks, who were very much the heartbeat of the side, especially Thomas du Toit and Bongi Mbonambi up front, and Lukhanyo Am at inside centre.

“Having the Boks back made a huge difference and they came through really well. It’s their attitude that was really pleasing.

“I’ve been at the Sharks for a long time and sometimes you worry about the attitude of the Springboks when they come back, but they came back very well prepared and it was a smooth transition.

“Lukhanyo played yet another 80 minutes and was man of the match, while Bongi fitted in seamlessly and did really well today. He was strong defensively and the set-pieces went really well,” Everitt said.

Their troubles overseas may have caused a slight fissure in the Bulls’ confidence and coach Jake White said on Wednesday that their crunch United Rugby Championship match against the Sharks in Durban on Friday night will be a real examination of how good the Currie Cup champions really are away from home.

The Bulls have been well-nigh unbeatable at Loftus Versfeld, but they won just one of their four URC matches in the UK and they were beaten by the Sharks in their last visit to Kings Park, in the Currie Cup in August. White is also expecting the Sharks to field many of their nine current Springboks.

“It’s going to be almost like playing an international team with nine Springboks, a Scottish international in Dylan Richardson, and Samoan (OJ Noa) and Australian (Ben Tapuai) Test players,” White said on Wednesday.

“So it’s a massive game for us against the strongest possible Sharks team, and it’s away from home. It’s not just another local derby because it comes on the back of two Currie Cup finals we won against them.

“It’s going to be a massive test of whether we are good enough to win away from home against a star-studded team, a great opportunity to see how good we are. This one is different, it has added spice.

“So the buzz at training this week has been a little like before a Test match and that comes on its own before a massive challenge. Everyone wants to have a crack at those players,” White said.

While White gave his players three weeks off upon their return from Britain because the mental stress of playing so much rugby in Covid bubbles was beginning to tell, he said they have been hard at work since then rectifying some of the areas in which they were exposed on their tour.

“We learnt a lot on tour with different players coming up against you. We thought we were in a good place after the Currie Cup only to find things that really needed to be looked at in our game.

“The breakdown was one, both attacking and in defence, and in terms of attack, we need to develop as a team, we can’t stay in the same groove, we need to work on how we want to use the players in our team.

“The athletic ability of all the players overseas was an eye-opener, their footwork and handling skills. You think you have them cornered and then their skills get them out of the hole.

“The body shapes and abilities of the players overseas was a bit different to what we’re used to and the refereeing was different too – subtleties in defence and attack that would probably be blown here,” White said.

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.