Ken Borland

The Sharks took 50 minutes to turn from fish into apex predators, but a strong finish to their United Rugby Championship match saw them hammer the Glasgow Warriors 40-12 at Kings Park on Saturday.

The Sharks led 13-7 at halftime, but it had been an arm-wrestle for the home side, and it looked like Glasgow would push them to the final whistle when the Warriors scored three minutes into the second half. In a horror start after the break, the Sharks conceded consecutive ruck penalties and then missed the contest at the five-metre lineout, allowing a relatively easy maul try for the visitors, flank Thomas Gordon dotting down for the second time.

But the Glasgow defence was relatively slow to get off the line and the Sharks began finding the gaps as they cut down on the handling errors, and the fluency of their attack started to become apparent. It started in the 52^nd minute with a well-worked try, slick hands by replacement prop Ox Nche, flyhalf Boeta Chamberlain and fullback Aphelele Fassi sent wing Anthony Volmink finning down the touchline for the Sharks’ second try.

Volmink had scored the first, in the 33^rd minute, when Chamberlain burst through on a wrap-around move and sent the speedy wing racing away.

The Sharks had struggled to get their maul going, partly because Glasgow were allowed to swim up the side, but they got around that by changing the contact point in the 63^rd minute and replacement hooker Bongi Mbonambi powered over for the try.

Neat interplay between forwards and backs then saw Fassi knife through and score to clinch the bonus point with 11 minutes remaining, before the Sharks rounded off the win with Chamberlain producing a precise crosskick for right wing Werner Kok to run on to and score.

Lock Eben Etzebeth, on Sharks debut, was a deserved man of the match, carrying the ball strongly and ruling the lineouts, making some crucial steals.

The Sharks are clearly a dangerous side when they get their attacking momentum going, but they will be disappointed in a first half where they made too many mistakes.

Defensive lapses are also a worrying feature and, having dominated the opening stages and taken a 3-0 lead through a Chamberlain penalty, the Sharks then allowed Glasgow an easy score as Gordon picked the ball up at a ruck and roared away as there was no pillar defence, sidestepping Fassi for the opening try.

Battling to get return from the maul, the Sharks struggled to break down a Glasgow defence who are canny and attack the breakdown hard.

The Sharks will be disappointed they didn’t get more from the referee, but they took matters into their own hands in the second half by just increasing their accuracy, to great effect.

Scorers

Sharks – Tries: Anthony Volmink (2), Bongi Mbonambi, Aphelele Fassi, Werner Kok. Conversions: Boeta Chamberlain (3). Penalties: Chamberlain (3).

Glasgow Warriors – Tries: Thomas Gordon (2). Conversion: Tom Jordan.

The Sharks, who had a bye on the opening weekend, get Round 2 of the United Rugby Championship underway as they take on Zebre in Parma on Friday night at 6.30pm, starting an overseas tour that coach Sean Everitt says will have passed muster if they can gather 10 points from the three matches.

After taking on Zebre, who gave powerful Leinster an almighty battle last weekend, the Sharks play Welsh side Dragons at Rodney Parade, before ending their tour in Dublin against Leinster. Not many teams beat the Irish giants at home, so Everitt is clearly targeting wins in their first two games and a couple of bonus points along the way.

“Zebre have a new coaching staff and are very attack-minded now. They did very well against Leinster and we are very wary of them,” Everitt said. “We obviously have certain things from last season we need to work on.

“We have sorted out our problems and we are a bit more aware now of what to expect, but we will be playing against teams with their full international complement.

“We know the breakdown will be unforgiving and that has been a focus of ours, and also being able to execute from set-piece.

“The goal is to come home with 10 points. The log was really jammed at the top last season, just one to three points separating the teams at the top, so bonus points are crucial,” Everitt said.

Captain Thomas du Toit was impressed with how the Zebre forwards stood up to the strong Leinster pack.

“They matched Leinster’s scrum very well, they have a lot of plays off their lineout and they are a good mauling side. We’re excited for the challenge, Zebre are obviously a new-look team and that makes them a bit unpredictable. But we are very well prepared,” tighthead prop Du Toit said.

The other matches involving South African sides this weekend see Edinburgh, who made short work of the Dragons last weekend, travel to Loftus Versfeld to take on the Bulls, who narrowly failed to win the URC crown last season, on Saturday at 2.30pm.

The defending champion Stormers open their campaign against Connacht, who beat them by a short head in Galway in February, in Stellenbosch on Saturday afternoon (2.30pm), while the Lions, who competed hard but ultimately fell short against the Bulls last weekend, have travelled to Swansea to take on the Ospreys at 7.35pm in the evening.

The Paarl Royals have emerged from this week’s SA20 Auction with the most impressive roster of players, benefiting from a bold start to the auction and then a strong finish as they kept valuable bid money in reserve.

Having pre-bought T20 stars like David Miller, Jos Buttler and Obed McCoy, Paarl then netted two marquee bowlers from the first set of players to go under the hammer, getting Proteas lynchpins in Tabraiz Shamsi and Lungi Ngidi.

Jason Roy, Dane Vilas and Bjorn Fortuin, all with strong T20 pedigrees, came from sets two, three and six respectively, before a late flurry of bidding saw Paarl emerge from the express rounds at the end with half-a-dozen fantastic signings.

Former England captain Eoin Morgan was their penultimate pick for R2 million and the Royals have gained some great local talent in Boland stars Ferisco Adams and Imraan Manack, and hard-hitting batsmen Wihan Lubbe, Evan Jones and Mitchell van Buuren.

JP Duminy, in his first year as a head coach, said he will benefit from the experience of players like Morgan, captain Miller, Buttler and Roy.

“The team has an inexperienced coach so it needs a good bunch of leaders,” Duminy said with characteristic modesty. “Fortunately it played out that way.

“There’s a lot of leadership quality in the squad, Eoin Morgan is a World Cup winning captain, and David Miller will gain traction from that as he gets exposure to the captaincy.

“We know Jason Roy will be destructive up front and I’m sure he will find form in the next few months. We had planned for Donovan Ferreira, but that did not work out and then it was about who will fill the finisher role?

“Eoin is one of the leading finishers in world cricket and Evan Jones is someone for the future as well, and he will have the opportunity to learn from Eoin,” Duminy said.

While the Proteas’ leading run-scorer in T20 cricket said much of their success at the auction in Cape Town was ‘the rub of the green’, there is little doubt the Royals executed a carefully thought-out strategy, aiming for players who have done well in Paarl before.

“Bjorn Fortuin and Tabraiz Shamsi were pivotal to the success of the Paarl Rocks in the 2019 MSL, and I’ve already seen a pic on social media about how excited they are to play together again,” Duminy laughed an hour after the auction.

“And it’s good to see locals like Ferisco and Imraan in the squad; Ferisco sent me a message saying he will be bringing the whole of Robertson to our home games!”

Watching T20 cricket at Boland Park is set to once again be a real earful as well as an eye-catching experience.

Paarl Royals squad – Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Wihan Lubbe, David Miller, Eoin Morgan, Dane Vilas, Corbin Bosch, Bjorn Fortuin, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lungi Ngidi, Obed McCoy, Evan Jones, Ferisco Adams, Mitchell van Buuren, Imraan Manack, Ramon Simmonds, Codi Yusuf.

In a week’s time, Temba Bavuma will lead the Proteas into battle in the first T20 of a three-match series against India at Thiruvananthapuram, giving him an early opportunity to strike back at all the doubters and prove that his omission from the SA20 squads was a mistake.

National white-ball captain Bavuma failed to muster a bid in three attempts at the auction in Cape Town, despite, or perhaps because of, going in with a reserve price of R850 000.

The shock snub led to practically all the franchise coaches being quizzed about just how the player who will lead South Africa into the T20 World Cup next month had managed to lose out on a spot in the six franchises to play in the SA20 next January.

They seemed as nonplussed as the media.

“Just because you’re a good player in South Africa, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be recognised around the world,” was the telling comment from Durban Super Giants coach Lance Klusener when he was asked about the omission of Bavuma and Proteas all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo.

“I’m sure Temba and Andile feel the same as the other players who weren’t sold. But it was brutal out there and there was a lot of competition.”

MI Cape Town coach, Simon Katich, the former Australian batsman, also put Bavuma’s absence down to competition for places.

“It’s a tough one, but there are plenty of good players who missed out because there was a lot of competition. And there was a lot of overseas competition for certain spots,” Katich said.

While Bavuma has proven his star quality in Test and ODI cricket, his strike-rate of 120.60 in T20 Internationals and 124.67 domestically is considered weak for the format.

But the often bizarre nature of T20 auctions was shown in how the franchises were willing to pay a dear price for Donovan Ferreira, the Northerns batsman who is an almost complete unknown overseas, but managed to fetch R5.5 million from Joburg Super Kings in the first express set of bids towards the end of the auction.

Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming seems a fan though.

“Donovan is relatively young, explosive and dynamic and he can keep wicket as well. I thought it would be a nice, easy buy, but the bidding got my heart beating.

“He was the last key position we needed, our last throw of the dice and we only just got him. Hopefully that effort will pay off for us.

“You usually can get some very good buys at the end and in the end it was a good day for us. The challenge is you set up your budget, but then you get blown out of the water on one of your prizes,” Fleming said.