Ken Borland

A phlegmatic Jake White said the Bulls’ loss to the Sharks in Durban at the weekend was hardly a terrible blow to their Currie Cup chances and he still believes his side are sitting pretty in the competition.

The Bulls were pipped 32-29, with Morne Steyn missing a relatively straightforward penalty after the final hooter for the draw, but White is right, his team are still in a strong position. They are five points clear at the top of the log, with matches against Griquas, the Lions and Pumas to come.

The win did a lot for the Sharks, however, who are in second place, with a game in hand over the Bulls. But Western Province and the Lions have played as many matches as the Bulls and are seven and eight points behind respectively.

“This doesn’t change our plan at all, we’ll put the game behind us as a wasted chance, but the margins are so small. It’s a long season and we will learn from it, but I’m very happy where we are. Our destiny is still in our hands and who would have thought that six months ago? What’s important is that we get to January 23 and win the final that day.

“So I’m not worried, we are playing good rugby but we wasted chances today, that will happen with a young squad that has only been together for six months and half of that was in Lockdown. You can see the disappointment in the guy’s faces in the changeroom, you can see losing means a lot to them. Going into halftime 14-9 down it was obviously very pleasing to take the lead, but you’ve got to make sure you get the win at the end of the day,” White said after the Kings Park thriller.

White paid credit to the Sharks for their much-improved display at the breakdown, where they made life much harder for the Bulls compared to when they were hammered 41-14 at Loftus Versfeld in October in Super Rugby Unlocked.

“They slowed down our ball so we couldn’t get much momentum, they had obviously relooked at how they defend at the breakdown, so credit to them. We did not get as much quick ball as in the last game, the Sharks’ breakdown game obviously went up a notch which is why we struggled to get momentum.

“But we can only blame ourselves for losing four balls in our own 22 at the end, twice through not controlling the kickoff properly and we also lost two lineouts. The Sharks stood in our lineout and listened in on our calls, which was amazing to see, but [replacement hooker] Schalk Erasmus has been injured since the Green and Gold game [October 3], so it’s understandable it was difficult for him to find his locks,” White said.

Bulls coach Jake White certainly seems to have located his best starting XV and there is little doubt it is the side that will run out on to Kings Park on Saturday evening to play the Sharks in a Currie Cup thriller.

Barring Marnus Potgieter making his Currie Cup starting debut on the right wing that is. The 21-year-old is promoted from the bench because Travis Ismaiel is unable to fill the vacancy created by David Kriel moving back to fullback because he has just had a shoulder operation. Potgieter is 1.87 metres tall, weighs 94kg and played twice for the Blue Bulls in the 2018 SuperSport Rugby Challenge.

“Marnus has been a great junior player, he was at Affies and a member of the 4×100 metre relay team and has come through the ranks here at Loftus. He has lots of pace and he’s big and strong,” White said.

Apart from Ismaiel, all the familiar faces are back as White also moved Kurt-Lee Arendse back to left wing, Ivan van Zyl returns at scrumhalf, Ruan Nortje will start again in the second row and Trevor Nyakane and Jacques van Rooyen are the starting props.

Springbok Marcel van der Merwe, the tighthead who was replaced after 34 minutes against the Free State Cheetahs last weekend, is nowhere to be found on the bench though. White said he still has faith though in the 30-year-old even though 22-year-old Mornay Smith will be the replacement tighthead against the Sharks.

“We still back Marcel and we will help him through it, he had a long-term injury and has not played much rugby. I’m not going to discard him, we will help him back on the horse. Maybe the Free State loosehead prop was able to get away with a bit, there’s been lots of debate about that,” White said.

The former Springbok coach did however praise the influence of Nyakane both on and off the field.

“Marcel will come right and Trevor almost did the same things as Marcel and we got rewarded, so I’m just thankful that referee Jaco Peyper is good enough and experienced enough to see the whole picture. There’s a misconception that we took off our tighthead because he was struggling, but it was because we wanted the loosehead to try and do the same things to Trevor.

“It’s not as if Trevor came on and waved a wand, but he showed stability and the players around him obviously get confidence from that. I haven’t worked with Trevor before but he’s been really good both on and off the field – right now he’s having one-on-ones with young Jan-Hendrik Wessels on loosehead versus tighthead,” White said.

Bulls team: David Kriel, Marnus Potgieter, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Duane Vermeulen (capt), Arno Botha, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Trevor Nyakane, Johan Grobbelaar, Jacques van Rooyen. Bench – Schalk Erasmus, Gerhard Steenekamp, Mornay Smith, Sintu Manjezi, Nizaam Carr, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Marco Jansen van Vuren.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt praised replacement wing Sbu Nkosi for his performance against the Pumas in their Currie Cup match in Durban on Friday night, saying his brace of tries were a fitting demonstration of why the 24-year-old Springbok is a World Cup winner.

Nkosi has had his share of injury problems this year as well as a brush with Covid-19 that forced him into quarantine, necessitating Everitt’s decision to play him off the bench. But it seems inevitable the Sharks coach will be finding a way of fitting him into the starting line-up when they return to action against the Bulls in a fortnight.

Nkosi scored with his first touch in the 53^rd minute when he spectacularly claimed the restart after the Pumas’ only try and then blazed away to score, and then he scored again with 10 minutes remaining with an intercept try completed with impressive pace.

“Sbu’s performance tonight was definitely the highlight with his two tries, he was phenomenal and showed why he is a World Cup winner with the Springboks. What a difference he made for us, he’s world-class in the air. He helped us win in Kimberley as well against Griquas. We scored some good tries through big defence tonight and we’re ecstatic with scoring seven tries,” Everitt said after the impressive 45-10 victory.

Because the Currie Cup fixtures have merely been a continuation of Super Rugby Unlocked, the Sharks now quirkily have a bye after just one Currie Cup match. They then host the Bulls at Kings Park on December 12 and they will certainly need to be more consistent in maintaining the level of performance they showed in the first half against the Pumas for the full 80 minutes against the log-leaders.

“I’m very proud with how we stood up in the first half, conditions were not easy but we were brave enough to move the ball around and score some good tries through big defence. I’m very happy with the way we played in the first half, the forwards laid a really good platform and there were three maul tries, we scrummed well and stuck to the plan.

“For the second half, the plan was to stick to our processes but unfortunately the Pumas put us under the pump at the set-pieces. You have to give them credit for that, putting us under pressure in the second half, especially at the scrums. But we also put a lot of pressure on ourselves and we certainly could have been better in the second half. But to win 45-10 definitely deserves credit,” Everitt said.

The Sharks produced a clinical performance replete with seven tries as they thumped the Pumas 45-10 in their Currie Cup opener at Kings Park in Durban on Friday night, sticking to their tried and tested game-plan of exerting pressure through the kicking game.

The error-prone Pumas had their moments, but made too many mistakes with ball in hand and really struggled against the Sharks’ aerial bombardment, allowing the home side to set up camp in their territory.

While the Sharks using their kicking game has become the norm, what was most impressive about their performance on Friday night was the swarming, all-consuming defence that accompanied it. The Sharks players were so quick off their line, and they harried and hassled the Pumas throughout, which was the main reason for the number of errors made by the visitors.

The tone was set in the ninth minute when centre Jeremy Ward charged down a sluggish clearing kick by fullback Devon Williams and dotted down the loose ball for the opening try. Ward grabbed a brace of tries before halftime with a similarly opportunistic effort in the 23rd minute when tremendous defensive pressure – flank Dylan Richardson putting in a ferocious double tackle – resulted in the Pumas dropping the ball on their own line, the Sharks captain pouncing to put them 19-0 up.

A couple more maul tries gave the Sharks the security of a 31-3 lead at halftime and, even though their game was not as assured in the second half, their set-pieces letting them down, the win was never in question.

It’s also safe to say Springbok wing Sbu Nkosi is back firing on all cylinders as he scored two dazzling tries as a second-half substitute.

Nkosi scored with his first touch in the 53rd minute when he claimed the restart after the Pumas’ only try, by flank Phumzile Maqondwana from close range, and blazed through the defences to score. He then closed the scoring with an intercept try after the Sharks had conceded a scrum penalty, impressing with his sheer pace.

Scorers

Sharks: Tries – Jeremy Ward (2), Sanele Nohamba, Kerron van Vuuren, Dylan Richardson, Sbu Nkosi (2). Conversions – Curwin Bosch (5).

Pumas: Try – Phumzile Maqondwana. Conversion – Ginter Smuts. Penalty –Smuts.