Ken Borland

Siya Kolisi taking just 16 minutes to score his first try for his new team summed up a dazzling start for the Sharks, laying the platform for a 45-12 win over the Bulls in their preparation fixture in Durban on Friday night.

The Sharks brushed off the sodden conditions, Kings Park resembling a swamp, scoring five tries in the first 25 minutes to race into a 31-5 lead. Their fast start was enabled by their first two scrums being massively dominant, earning penalties which first set up hooker Fez Mbatha for a try and then earned a penalty try (and a yellow card for Bulls hooker Schalk Erasmus) inside the first eight minutes.

The Bulls were on the board after 13 minutes, Kolisi almost intercepting flyhalf Morne Steyn’s pass to Marnus Potgieter, but the outside centre showed great skill to take the ball outside his man and break the line before passing out wide for eighthman Nizaam Carr to score.

But the Springbok captain had his moment of glory just three minutes later. A Sharks attack seemed to be going nowhere, but flyhalf Boeta Chamberlain and wing Sbu Nkosi, changing direction to good effect, sparked something. Nkosi provided the telling break, Kolisi was up in support and he powered through two tacklers to score.

Kolisi’s debut lasted until the 50^th minute, longer than coach Sean Everitt said he expected, but that was due to eighthman Sikhumbzo Notshe rolling an ankle in the first half and needing to be replaced. Kolisi had a quiet but industrious game, wearing the No.6 jersey but playing more of a traditional eighthman linking role. His last action came when he was bumped off in midfield by Bulls centre Dawid Kellerman, on his way to the tryline on a monstrous run from halfway.

Centre Marius Louw and prop Ox Nche both scored after Kolisi and then, with the Bulls down to 13 men in the last 10 minutes, replacements Rynhardt Jonker and Sanele Nohamba added two more tries to the home side’s tally.

The Bulls improved in the scrums and kept the Sharks scoreless between the 25^th and 74^th minutes and their largely second-string side never lacked for enthusiasm and effort. But they made too many mistakes and ill-discipline was once again a problem as Marius van der Westhuizen was an unsympathetic referee. Which is what SA Rugby are expecting from the officials up north.

Scorers

Sharks – Tries: Fez Mbatha, penalty try, Siya Kolisi, Marius Louw, Ox Nche, Rynhardt Jonker, Sanele Nohamba. Conversions: Boeta Chamberlain (3), Nohamba.

Bulls – Tries: Nizaam Carr, Dawid Kellerman. Conversion: Morne Steyn.

The Sharks team announced by Sean Everitt on Friday for their preparation fixture against Griquas in Durban on Sunday spans the gamut of experience from captain Jeremy Ward, in his fifth season at Kings Park, to his centre partner Murray Koster, who will don the Black and White for the first time.

But the two most interesting selections are at openside flank and flyhalf.

James Venter has been out of action for the duration of the post-Lockdown season, but the 24-year-old was in superb form a year ago in Super Rugby. The No.6 flank was rightly praised for his ability to cover the field from side-to-side and his skill at the breakdown. And then he got injured, opening the door for Dylan Richardson, who performed the fetcher role so well he was one of the finds of the 2020/21 season.

But Venter is back now and has the chance to remind everyone of his qualities as he adds to the Sharks’ loose forward depth.

“James has got experience and unfortunately he was injured at the start of Super Rugby Unlocked, then he got concussed and then he caught Covid. So it was not a happy end-of-season for him. But he will bring leadership and experience and he is, of course, a fantastic rugby player,” Everitt said on Friday.

Manie Libbok can do things on a rugby field that can make a spectator squawk with delight, but all his previous appearances for the Sharks have been at fullback. Now he gets to call the shots at flyhalf, his opportunity coming as Curwin Bosch, one of the heroes of the last season, gets a well-deserved break. How Libbok handles the pressure of an abrasive Griquas defence in his face, as opposed to the space he gets at fullback, will be interesting to see.

“Manie was signed as a utility player and we actually didn’t expect him to play so many games at fullback, but Aphelele Fassi got injured. And then when Manie was meant to be getting a run as a replacement flyhalf against Griquas in Kimberley last year in Super Rugby Unlocked, Anthony Volmink got injured and he played fullback again.

“But flyhalf is Manie’s favourite position and he’s trained very well there, it’s just with Curwin in such good form he never got a chance. But last year against the Hurricanes, Curwin missed the game because of a family bereavement and we struggled without him because we haven’t really been able to build a second flyhalf who can challenge him,” Everitt explained.

Sharks team: Aphelele Fassi, Werner Kok, Jeremy Ward (C), Murray Koster, Anthony Volmink, Manie Libbok, Grant Williams, Phepsi Buthelezi, Thembelani Bholi, James Venter, Hyron Andrews, JJ vd Mescht, Michael Kumbirai, Kerron van Vuuren, Khwezi Mona. Bench – Fez Mbatha, Ntuthuka Mchunu, John-Hubert Meyer, Reniel Hugo, Mpilo Gumede, Jaden Hendrikse, Jordan Chait, Thaakir Abrahams.

The Sharks may have enjoyed an impressive pre-season tour to France while the Southern Kings, their opening opponents in SuperRugby this weekend, endured shambolic preparation, but the KwaZulu-Natal side’s director of rugby, Gary Gold, has warned that the Eastern Cape team should not be taken for granted, especially with Rassie Erasmus consulting for them.

Erasmus and his mobi-unit of top specialists were in Port Elizabeth in January to help Kings coach Deon Davids fast-track their preparations and the word from their camp is that they feel ready to compete. The Sharks will be the first team to test that readiness and Gold said they would be cautious.

“It’s exactly the same situation we had with the Cheetahs last year in our first game, so we do not take the Southern Kings lightly as a team. Deon Davids is a good coach and he would have got great help from Rassie and the mobi-unit. And they’ll be desperate to prove their detractors wrong.

“We have to make sure we don’t slip up like we did against the Cheetahs last year. We’re just trying to stay away from expectations and focus on what we do well. The two games in France have shown us how far we’ve come in certain areas. We had a very clear strategy in our pre-season in terms of how we prepared: We really put time and energy into four or five areas which we hope will have the most effect on the game,” Gold told The Citizen.

The Sharks beat Toulon 29-21 and Toulouse 31-17, but Gold said the results were only of secondary importance to how they played and he was very satisfied with their performance. With the time now available before their first SuperRugby game on Saturday, they will brush up on the areas that have not received as much attention.

“It’s not about the results but the performance and I was very satisfied with the things we worked on, we got reward for those, we’ll bank those, but now it’s time to sharpen the pencil. It’s now time to focus on other areas and we know that if we don’t put time and energy into those then we’ll come a cropper, so those areas will develop.

“We scored five tries and three tries in the two games, so I’m happy with that. Toulon could only score through driving mauls against us, three times, but we hadn’t worked on that yet.

“People ask how we want to play, well, first and foremost we want to win and the foundation for winning is a solid defence. That’s one of the areas where I feel we’ve made good progress, it was a helluva lot more consistent. Defence is where a team shows its camaraderie, whether they’re willing to fight for each other. As a coaching staff, we’re very excited because we’ve put our faith in this young group and they’ve repaid us,” Gold said.

Nollis Marais could be forgiven for shouting “Woe is me!” from the top of the Loftus Versfeld grandstand given the way injuries have hampered his pre-season preparation and the Bulls coach suffered another blow on Wednesday when highly-rated prop Lizo Gqoboka went down with a groin injury.

Following hot on the heels of the devastating news that flyhalf playmaker Handre Pollard has been ruled out for the season with ruptured knee ligaments, Gqoboka pulled out of this weekend’s warm-up match against the Lions in Polokwane with a groin strain an hour after being named in the squad.

Gqoboka will be out of action for a couple of weeks, joining senior loose forwards Lappies Labuschagne and Deon Stegmann, as well as youthful flank Roelof Smit, on the sidelines.

“You nurse Handre Pollard for weeks with his shoulder injury and then in a normal passing drill he hurts his leg. He was obviously a huge part of our plans, and Lizo too, plus Lappies and Steggies are out too. But the other guys must now step up. It’s a mind switch and the other guys must just get on with it,” Marais said at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday.

Marais announced his best available team for Saturday’s match against the Lions with Springbok hooker Adriaan Strauss, named as the Super Rugby captain, set to lead the franchise for the first time.

“It’s a great privilege for me and I seem to play better when responsibility is on my shoulders. We’ve lost Handre and Deon, who are both great leaders, but Rudi Paige has made a massive step up in terms of leadership. The team has a lot of respect for him, he has a lot of authority and he makes great calls,” Strauss said.

Jesse Kriel, who played fullback when he announced himself to the world stage in last year’s Super Rugby competition, has been named at outside centre by Marais, with the exciting Warrick Gelant in the number 15 jersey.

“I see Jesse as a number 13, he played there when I coached the U21s, and he is the Springbok outside centre, so that was the easiest position to slot in, he understands what we’re trying to do. I’m not too keen on him at fullback. Bjorn Basson is also an option at 15, and Jamba Ulengo could move into 11. Maybe we’ll do that for the last 15 minutes on Saturday,” Marais said.

When Francois Brummer returned to Loftus Versfeld in November for the first time since 2010 on loan from the Pumas, the 26-year-old could not have foreseen how vital he would be for the Bulls’ Super Rugby plans. But the former Waterkloof High School star is now the starting flyhalf with Tian Schoeman on the bench.

Team – Warrick Gelant, Travis Ismaiel, Jesse Kriel, Jan Serfontein, Bjorn Basson, Francois Brummer, Rudy Paige, Arno Botha, Hanro Liebenberg, Nic de Jager, Grant Hattingh, RG Snyman, Marcel van der Merwe, Adriaan Strauss, Trevor Nyakane. Replacements: Jaco Visagie, Lizo Gqoboka, Jason Jenkins, Jannes Kirsten, Piet van Zyl, Tian Schoeman, Burger Odendaal, Werner Kruger, Pierre Schoeman, Jamba Ulengo, Jade Stighling.