Ken Borland

Finishing on top of the log would bring with it enormous reward for the Bulls because it means they advance directly to the semi-finals, without having to expend any extra energy on a playoff match and they would play their remaining matches in this year’s competition on the hallowed turf of Loftus Versfeld.

And we can banish any thoughts of rugby in South Africa being played along the lines of what’s best for the country and other democratic notions; the Stormers are not going to hold back on their fiercest rivals just because they are the country’s best hope of winning the competition.

For one, the Stormers will be out to ensure a winning send-off for France-bound Habana, the greatest Springbok winger since The Prince of Wings, Carel du Plessis, and, secondly, they will also want to satisfy their demanding supporters, who have sold out Newlands to come and see another epic north/south derby.

Captain Jean de Villiers, who returns to the team at inside centre, has been speaking of playing for pride in the build-up to the game.

“The focus is on our pride and playing for the jersey,” said De Villiers. “We are professional rugby players and we have a job to do, and that is to go out and do our best to win. We have disappointed ourselves this season and we’ve also disappointed our coaches and supporters and we are busy trying to make up for that by finishing the season well. We’ve won four in a row and we would like to make it five against the Bulls.

“Clashes between the Stormers and the Bulls are always huge and the ticket sales for this game have summed that up. The focus is on our pride as a team and playing for the jersey, which means we will do our best to win the game.”

Stormers supporters did not see too much pride from their team when they last played the Bulls – they meekly succumbed to a 25-17 defeat at Loftus in the opening round of South African action.

Bulls flyhalf Morne Steyn killed the Stormers’ chances that day with his kicking, both tactically and at goal, and coach Allister Coetzee has responded by dropping his flyhalf Elton Jantjies and replacing him with the inexperienced Gary van Aswegen. To be fair, though, regular fullback Joe Pietersen, the Stormers’ best kicker, is out injured and choosing Van Aswegen gives them a right and left-footed kicker with Gio Aplon moving into the number 15 jersey.

Rynhardt Elstadt has returned to the starting loose trio and will help beef up a Stormers pack that will have to face up to the physicality of the Bulls far better than they did in their previous meeting.

The Bulls also have important changes, with Springboks Jan Serfontein and Francois Hougaard both out injured and replaced by Francois Venter and Jano Vermaak respectively.

The 22-year-old Venter is another bright midfield prospect and he started all but one game for the Bulls at inside centre in last year’s Currie Cup and also made eight SuperRugby appearances.

Vermaak is arguably the form scrumhalf in South Africa this year and made his return from the bench last weekend after a hamstring injury that cut short his Springbok campaign. He and Steyn form a formidable half-back combination and that is one area where the Bulls seem to have a clear advantage over the youthful Stormers partnership of Van Aswegen and Louis Schreuder.

There will possibly be even more emotion at King’s Park on Saturday as the end of a Sharks era is reached, while the Southern Kings will be desperately hoping they are not playing their last SuperRugby match.

There have been few more dedicated servants of KwaZulu-Natal rugby over the past 30 years than Hugh Reece-Edwards, but he and his co-coach Grant Bashford, both standing in after the unceremonious firing of their boss, John Plumtree, will be in charge for the last time before John Smit’s regime change takes effect in Durban.

The Sharks players, understandably ill-at-ease over the way Plumtree was dispensed with even though he had been promised a two-year contract extension, probably have more to gain from the game than their Kings opponents, who are a second-string outfit anyway.

At this stage, nothing is more important for the Kings than the promotion/relegation games against the Lions in a fortnight’s time, so they have rested all their regular starters who have injury niggles.

That means no more than three players who started last weekend against the Stormers – lock David Bulbring, terrific eighthman Jacques Engelbrecht and wing Marcello Sampson – are in the run-on XV for King’s Park.

No team has had more selection challenges than the Sharks in this year’s competition and this week the complications were Butch James’s four-week suspension for his wild tackle against the Bulls and a concurrent injury to Pat Lambie.

That means Riaan Viljoen, who showed in last year’s Currie Cup that he is more than comfortable in the number 10 jersey, shifts from fullback to flyhalf.

And while Habana is saying goodbye in Cape Town, fellow Springbok wing JP Pietersen returns to action this weekend in Durban.

The stadium may have been called King’s Park since 1891, but it has also been dubbed The Shark Tank. The second-string Kings are more likely to feel that they’ve been dropped inside the latter than feeling at home on Saturday.

Teams

The Sharks (v Southern Kings, Saturday 17:05): Odwa Ndungane, JP Pietersen, Louis Ludik, Meyer Bosman, Lwazi Mvovo, Riaan Viljoen, Charl McLeod, Keegan Daniel, Jean Deysel, Marcell Coetzee, Franco van der Merwe, Edwin Hewitt, Jannie du Plessis, Bismarck du Plessis, Tendai Mtawarira. Replacements: Kyle Cooper, Wiehahn Herbst, Jandré Marais, Willem Alberts, Jacques Botes, Cobus Reinach, Fred Zeilinga.

Southern Kings (v The Sharks, Saturday 17:05): Siviwe Soyizwapi, Hadleigh Parkes, Waylon Murray, Shane Gates, Marcello Sampson, George Whitehead, Nicolas Vergallo, Jacques Engelbrecht, Mpho Mbiyozo, Devin Oosthuizen, David Bulbring, Steven Sykes, Kevin Buys, Hannes Franklin, Charl du Plessis. Replacements – Grant Kemp, Bandise Maku, Darron Nell, Thabo Mamojele, Aidon Davis, Shaun Venter, Michael Killian.

Stormers (v Bulls, Saturday 19:15): Gio Aplon, Gerhard van den Heever, Juan de Jongh, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana, Gary van Aswegen, Louis Schreuder, Nizaam Carr, Rynhardt Elstadt, Deon Fourie, De Kock Steenkamp, Eben Etzebeth, Brok Harris, Scarra Ntubeni, Steven Kitshoff. Replacements – Martin Bezuidenhout, Pat Cilliers, Gerbrandt Grobler, Don Armand, Nic Groom, Elton Jantjies, Damian de Allende.

Bulls (v Stormers, Saturday 19:15): Zane Kirchner, Akona Ndungane, JJ Engelbrecht, Francois Venter, Bjorn Basson, Morné Steyn, Jano Vermaak, Dewald Potgieter, Jacques Potgieter, Deon Stegmann, Grant Hattingh, Flip van der Merwe, Werner Kruger, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Dean Greyling. Replacements – Callie Visagie, Frik Kirsten, Jacques du Plessis, Jono Ross, Rudy Paige, Jürgen Visser, Morné Mellett.

Other fixtures: Crusaders v Hurricanes (Friday 9:35); Melbourne Rebels v Highlanders (Friday 11:40); Blues v Chiefs (Saturday 9:35); Waratahs v Reds (Saturday 11:40); Force v Brumbies (Saturday 13:45). Bye – Cheetahs (who will climb from 6^th to 5^th if the Reds lose to the Waratahs).

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The Bulls were trailing 13-19 with just seven minutes remaining, but managed to put an evening of immense frustration and testing behind them and snatch victory through a try by replacement scrumhalf Jano Vermaak, converted by sharpshooting flyhalf Morne Steyn.

The embattled Sharks produced an epic performance and pushed the form team in SuperRugby to the limit, but poor goal-kicking and a moment of madness that saw captain Butch James yellow-carded were behind their defeat.

For intensity and drama, it was a top-class game of rugby, with both teams fighting relentlessly for every centimetre on the gain-line, but also using their backs to strike when a chance to spread the ball presented itself.

The Sharks, with a team ravaged by injury and a stand-in coaching team, will be heartened that they managed to give the Bulls, on a phenomenal eight-match winning streak, a real run for their money at their home fortress, where they have not lost a game since June last year.

But they will be gutted that a wayward kicking display by Pat Lambie cost them 10 points, while Riaan Viljoen also missed two penalties, including a last-minute effort that would have reversed the result.

James, a surprise choice as captain as the Sharks pulled a typical late shuffle with regular captain Keegan Daniel shifted to the bench to make way for another battering ram in Jean Deysel, was a commanding presence at flyhalf (his swop with Lambie being another late change) until the last 10 minutes when he lost the plot and then almost decapitated Bulls replacement back Jurgen Visser with a flying head-high tackle.

The Bulls not only had to overcome a feisty Sharks team but also a spate of penalties awarded against them by referee Jason Jaftha. The visitors had already been given a dozen penalties by the time the Bulls received their second, and the breakdowns were the most obvious area of difficulty for them when it came to deciphering the bizarre rulings of Jaftha.

The official line of Bulls captain Dewald Potgieter was that “the odds were a bit against us and there were a lot of technical decisions at the breakdown, we need to adapt to the way the referee is blowing” – but the obvious feeling in the Bulls camp was that Jaftha was only watching them at the rucks.

But the character and composure of the Bulls remained intact, although there were times in the third quarter when they looked rattled and were thrown off their game-plan. But it was the ideal sort of test for their young side ahead of the pressure of sudden-death play in the playoffs.

“The way we kept our cool and grinded it out and the way we pulled it back were very pleasing. These local derbies get the best out of the teams and we always invite competition, there were areas where they really tested us and it’s good that that happened and we were still able to get the result.

“In the second half, there were a few opportunities when the corners were open and field position was vital. We made mistakes then, but the players were probably feeling that they wanted momentum and ball-in-hand, trying to win the gain-line battles. You don’t want to win that way, but we’ll take it and hope to take great things from it,” coach Frans Ludeke said.

With the help of a seemingly anti-Bulls referee, the Sharks dominated the breakdowns for the first hour and were able to up the pace of the game and stretch the Bulls, before they resurrected their home playoff hopes in miraculous fashion at the death, moving them into first place on the log, two points ahead of the Chiefs and four ahead of the Brumbies going into the final round of regular-season play.

There were also celebrations in Bloemfontein as the Cheetahs confirmed they will advance to the playoffs for the first time as they beat the Blues 34-13.

The Cheetahs dominated at forward to set up their victory, but took a long time to seal the deal as they wasted several try-scoring chances in a nervy second half.

A fifth-minute try to Blues scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park served as a timely warning to the Cheetahs of the perils of giving the visitors turnover ball, but the home side’s scrum then went to work where it really mattered – inside the opposition 22 – to earn a penalty and then a tighthead that led to eighthman Phillip van der Walt’s try and a 13-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Impressive flyhalf Riaan Smit kicked two more penalties to give the Cheetahs a 19-10 half-time lead, but Willie le Roux wasted two great opportunities to get the second try early in the second half, before Baden Kerr kicked a 58^th-minute penalty to give the Blues the first points after the break and close the gap to 13-19.

But the Cheetahs, dominating the rucks thanks to their brilliant loose trio of Brussow, Van der Walt and Labuschagne, were able to build multiple phases in the last 10 minutes and it was almost inevitable that nippy replacement scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius would find a gap and score.

He did so in the 75^th minute and replacement flank Boom Prinsloo added a third try three minutes later to put the cherry on top.

It was a top-class forward effort by the Cheetahs, with lock Rynard “Ligtoring” Landman also a stand-out player along with a front row that is also a phenomenal unit.

The backline made a plethora of handling errors, but Le Roux was so often a lethal threat with ball in hand, while outside centre Johann Sadie also had a fine game.

The Southern Kings went into their derby against the Stormers with a simple and brutal mode of attack that sought to disrupt the opposition as much as possible at source.

With the Stormers not exactly being the most dazzling attacking side themselves these days, it led to an ugly war of attrition at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, which the visitors won 24-12.

Due to earlier happenings at the Free State Stadium, it meant little because the Cheetahs’ win had already knocked the Stormers – and the Sharks for that matter – out of contention for the playoffs.

While the Kings are rightfully lauded for their magnificent defence, they probably show the least attacking intent of all the SuperRugby sides and they seemed content to just spend the 80 minutes snapping at the ankles of the Stormers, in other words being a nuisance rather than going out and trying to win the game.

Stormers captain and flank Deon Fourie scored two tries to add to the joint goalkicking efforts of Elton Jantjies and Joe Pietersen in a game that was a poor spectacle.

Referee Lourens van der Merwe must foot much of the blame for that as cynical play in the breakdowns continuously went unpunished.

Just like last weekend in their rousing victory over the Cheetahs, it was the Stormers’ forwards who did the legwork for the win, none more so than Fourie.

People are constantly bringing up Heinrich Brussow’s name when it comes to traditional openside flanks, but for all-round impact, Fourie also punches way above his weight and his livewire performances have been integral to the Stormers’ recent improvement in form.

Lock Eben Etzebeth – apart from being involved in several off-the-ball incidents – and prop Steven Kitshoff were also prominent in giving the Stormers a physical edge in the forward battle.

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