Ken Borland

Sharks captain Lukhanyo Am played his first match for six weeks in the victory over the Bulls last weekend and it was not just his own excellent display which pleased him.

As befits a highly-respected leader, Am was more keen to talk about the impressive team display by the Sharks and how it augurs well as they build for the closing stages of the Currie Cup. The thrilling win over the high-flying Bulls means the Sharks are now just five points behind the log-leaders with a game in hand.

The Sharks have struck top form at the right time for arguably their toughest stretch of matches: they visit the resurgent Lions at Ellis Park this Saturday before going to Bloemfontein to tackle the Free State Cheetahs.

“It was definitely an important result for us, we came back from the bye nice and refreshed and to get the result against the Bulls will be a massive confidence boost going forward. Credit to the impact players who came off the bench and closed the game for us. We’ve been together as a team for a while now and playing for 80 minutes is still a work-on.

“But we managed to do that against the Bulls even though we had a dip early in the second half. We are starting to do the small things right, we are building momentum and slowly getting to where we want to be. We expect another exciting game against the Lions, who we know are a good side that likes to keep possession and move the ball around. They are 100% on the rise and, playing at Ellis Park, we definitely need to bring our A-game,” Am said on Tuesday.

Michael Kumbirai, who stepped up admirably to replace Thomas du Toit at tighthead prop when the Springbok left the field with a rib cartilage injury, was one of those bench players who have waited months to make their impact and he said his Currie Cup debut for the Sharks will be a match he never forgets.

“To make my Currie Cup debut for the Sharks was a special moment and then to get the win, I’ll never forget it. As a pack we stood up to the challenge, although it was a bit disappointing to concede that last scrum penalty, so we’re putting in the work this week to make sure we improve on that. If we can keep the same mentality we’ve had at home for the next three weeks, then I’m sure we can keep winning away as well.

“But the Lions will be just as hungry as us on the weekend, they will definitely be up for it and come at us with lots of tempo. We have to be prepared to work very hard and have good work-rate and they have a really good scrum, the set-piece is a strength of their’s. We’re definitely taking confidence out of the Bulls win, but this is a new week,” Kumbirai said.

The Bulls fired on all cylinders for probably just the first 25 minutes, but it was enough for them to beat the Pumas 21-5 and clinch some more, long-awaited silverware for their Loftus Versfeld trophy cabinet as they won the Super Rugby Unlocked competition by four points over the Stormers and Sharks.

In what is probably the last ever Super Rugby tournament, it was perhaps fitting that the Bulls, as the only South African winners of the competition, signed off as the winners of this strictly local event. But it is also the first senior trophy to find a home at Loftus Versfeld since their 2010 Super Rugby triumph, so there will be great relief in Pretoria and a sense of justification that the appointment of Jake White as director of rugby has indeed borne immediate fruit.

The Bulls raced into a 21-0 lead inside those first 25 minutes, playing clinical rugby. Their superb pack was once again utterly dominant, they squeezed the Pumas in all the set-pieces, their driving maul was well-used and their ball-in-hand play was direct and incisive. And the Bulls’ breakdown work was hugely impressive, with flank Marco van Staden absolutely rampant and eighthman Duane Vermelen not far behind.

Wing Kurt-Lee Arendse opened the scoring in the 11^th minute from close range after one of numerous penalties had been kicked to touch five metres out; six minutes later flyhalf Chris Smith rounded off a period of very direct running by the Bulls as he forced his way through three tackles to score; and scrum Ivan van Zyl then sniped through a gap to score after a big scrum by the Bulls had earned a penalty against the Pumas on their own ball.

The marvellous rugby of the first half gave way to a scrappier, but more intensely competitive second half as the Pumas showed pleasing improvement. They stopped conceding a flood of penalties, they were better in the set-pieces, made fewer mistakes and, were it not for some lapses in decision-making at crucial times, they could have pushed hard for the win given how they turned around the territory and possession stats.

They showed their intent from the start of the second half, hooker HP van Schoor muscling over for a try from a lineout drive.

Given how brave the Pumas have been in fronting up for this game after 11 of their squad have been in quarantine for the last week, it was pleasing that they ended this phase of the season with their heads held high.

Also coming out of the math with great credit was referee Aimee Barrett-Theron, who became the first woman to referee at senior professional level in South Africa, and officiated with confidence, certainly being the mistress in charge out on the field.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Kurt-Lee Arendse, Chris Smith, Ivan van Zyl. Conversions – Smith (3).

Pumas: Try – HP van Schoor.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt admitted that his team still has plenty of work to do on their efforts in the tight-loose, despite their comfortable winning margin of 42-19 over the Pumas in Nelspruit at the weekend.

The Pumas were typically robust and confrontational up front, but where the Sharks had a decided edge was in terms of their clinical finishing, and the sharpness of both their backline and the rolling maul. But were it not for the Pumas being extremely wasteful on several occasions when they were inside the Sharks’ 22, the match would have been a lot closer.

“We’re very happy with the result, especially since last year we lost here, and we showed a lot of energy for the full 80 minutes, but the breakdowns let us down and that still needs a lot of attention. Francois Klelinhans and Jeandre Rudolph are both very good on the ball, but we need to tidy that area up,” Everitt said.

Not that the Sharks coach was upset with his forwards though, because there were areas where they played much better than last weekend against the Bulls in Pretoria, and the Sharks were expert at mining that front-foot ball and turning it into gold.

“There were obviously things we worked on after the Bulls game and it was great to see the set-piece come through – we were rewarded for some good scrums and we didn’t lose a lineout. Plus our maul was really good and led to two tries for us,” Everitt said.

Bulls scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl has warned that their brilliant victory over the Sharks is worth nothing unless they build on it and maintain that momentum in their huge games coming up against the Stormers in Pretoria on Saturday and versus the Lions at Ellis Park the following weekend.

Top spot on the log is their’s at the moment, but the Bulls will need to keep winning to hold off the thus far unbeaten Free State Cheetahs and Stormers, who have won both their matches, because Jake White’s team then have a bye.

“As a team we took a lot of confidence from the Sharks game and that performance couldn’t have come at a better time. Before that we had been a bit stop-start, we didn’t have much flow in our first two games. Every game is important but now it’s really important that we build on that display and move forward, otherwise that win won’t help us.

“We have a couple of massive games coming up, but at least we were more clinical at the right times, there was better decision-making and we identified space better. Better decisions lead to better play, and this time we rounded off our chances. Coach Jake is very good at making sure that it is all about getting the team to win and we all understand our roles every week,” Van Zyl said.

While the Bulls were much more accurate with ball in hand, and also off the boot, their defence was also highly impressive against the Sharks as they conceded just one try.

“We’re very happy with our defence and the combination of scoring six tries and just conceding one is massive for us. The more consistent we are in our defence, the more opportunities we’ll have to win, so it’s something we continue to work on and against the Stormers we’ll come up against different players with different skill-sets. But we take a lot of confidence from the defensive effort against the Sharks.

“Joey Mongalo has been great for us as defence coach, he has great energy and clearly loves what he does, he’s passionate about defence and that rubs off on the team. We are eager to get better every week. The basics of our defensive system haven’t changed that much, but there’s a new energy,” Van Zyl said.