Ken Borland

The Sharks produced a display so lacking in elan and polish against Cardiff on Sunday night that CEO Eduard Coetzee took the unprecedented step of apologising for the performance at the post-match press conference.

Getting spectators to the ground on a Sunday night is a hard enough ask, but it then poured with rain at Kings Park and the Sharks dished up one of their worst performances in several years, being thrashed 35-0.

“I would like to apologise for that display to the fans who came here and sat in the rain, more than 7000 of them, and to our sponsors and stakeowners, they don’t deserve that,” Coetzee said at the start of his surprise statement to the media.

“A lot of effort has gone into this franchise and we will not just leave this there. We will turn it around and we will rectify that. That was unlike the Sharks and we will do everything possible to rectify this as soon as possible,” Coetzee said.

The CEO also praised Cardiff for their “unbelievable” display, but the magnificence of the visitors’ performance lay not so much in dazzling rugby but in simple clinical execution of the right plan for the conditions, and plenty of passion.

“They managed the game a lot better and we couldn’t do the same, so we were pinned in our 22,” Sharks director of rugby Neil Powell said. “We also made a lot of basic errors.

“If you can’t even do the basics well then you are not going to do well at this level. If you’re not going to be accurate or clinical, then you will find yourself in trouble.

“Needless to say it was a massive disappointment and just not good enough. It was an opportunity for guys to show they can play at this level, but now we will have to take a hard look from an individual perspective at players and management.

“It’s going to be hard work and it will be great if we can show the character to bounce back from this quickly,” Powell said.

The Sharks’ reserve depth showed that they do not like water and sank without a trace, a naïve and lacklustre effort in the rain seeing them being hammered 35-0 by Cardiff in their United Rugby Championship match at Kings Park on Sunday night.

The Sharks had already made a sloppy start to the match as they conceded a breakdown penalty soon after the kickoff, slotted by flyhalf Jarrod Evans, when heavy rain arrived at the stadium and the home side’s hopes were seemingly washed away from that point.

Even though Cardiff suffered a yellow card to captain and flank Josh Turnbull for head contact with fullback Anthony Volmink – who must surely have suffered a concussion given what an absolute shocker he had thereafter – the Sharks could make no headway as they forced passes in the wet, giving away possession, and also tried to run the ball out of their own territory.

Cardiff’s other flank, Thomas Young, had a rampaging game and he earned the penalty try that gave the Welshmen a 13-0 lead after 26 minutes. Picking up a ball spilt at a ruck, he broke clear and kicked ahead, but wing Marnus Potgieter was winning the race to the ball in the in-goal area. But Potgieter deliberately slapped the ball over the dead-ball line, instead of trying to ground it, the referee awarding a penalty try and also issuing a yellow card.

Two glaring errors by Volmink in his own 22 then gifted Evans with his third penalty and Young with his second try, on the halftime whistle, as the fullback simply dropped the ball five metres from his own line.

In conditions that were tailor-made for the visitors from a UK city that is often wet, Cardiff stretched their halftime lead from 23-0 to 35-0 up with two more tries in the third quarter. Young scored from a maul as the Sharks conceded back-to-back penalties, and another rampaging run by the son of former Wales prop Dai Young provided front-foot ball deep in the 22, Evans producing a lovely delayed pass that sent fullback Ben Thomas over for the try.

The Sharks did rouse themselves a bit at the tail-end of the game, but they failed to break their duck due to their own inaccuracies, especially at the breakdown, or a TMO who definitely seemed to be looking for reasons to penalise them. They did have a try disallowed due to an intervention by TMO Eoghan Cross after the conversion had already been taken, and he also interrupted other promising Sharks positions.

Scorers

Cardiff – Tries: Penalty try, Thomas Young (2), Ben Thomas. Conversions: Jarrod Evans (2). Penalties: Evans (3).

There was a twist last weekend on the old joke about where do the Sharks team stay when they play Free State in Bloemfontein (Answer: With their family) when the Cheetahs visited Durban for a friendly match, but the goal was very serious – making sure they are ready to fire when they return to United Rugby Championship action against the Cardiff Blues at Kings Park on Sunday.

The Sharks last played on October 30 in a disappointing defeat to the Bulls in Pretoria, which leaves them eighth on the log, so it is important they hit the ground running and maintain their five-match unbeaten home run against a tough and highly capable Cardiff team.

“Three weeks off without being in a game situation would maybe have caused us to be rusty this weekend, but fortunately we were able to organise a friendly against the Cheetahs,” director of rugby Neil Powell explained on Friday.

“It was a very good exercise, playing three halves of 30 minutes each, with full-out contact. A guy like Lionel Cronje, who could move into flyhalf on Sunday, was able to get some game-time, as did other guys who have not played a lot.

“Hopefully that means we have more flow and momentum on Sunday and we have to make sure we are up and ready against a really good, quality Cardiff team, who are defensively very strong and have lots of experience.

“We will have to make sure we manage our game well and are very disciplined, because Cardiff score the majority of their tries from the lineout and maul and we can’t be giving penalties away,” Powell said.

The new head honcho at Kings Park acknowledged that the Sharks always seem to be well-prepared for games but then for some reason don’t deliver the same clinical execution come match day. It is something they have identified as needing to be put right so they do not suffer two defeats in a row.

“The whole week we prepared so well for the Bulls but it did not carry over on to the field on match day. So the big focus is that: Carrying what we have done in our training sessions on to the playing field.

“We need the same effort, execution and consistency. I believe it’s a focus thing and we need to get the individual roles right in the structure.

“That wasn’t great against the Bulls, for some reason we didn’t focus enough on getting those basics done. We need to be present in the moment and firstly, understand all our roles and responsibilities,” Powell said.

Sharks: Anthony Volmink, Marnus Potgieter, Francois Venter, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Werner Kok, Boeta Chamberlain, Cameron Wright, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Vincent Tshituka,

James Venter (CAPT), Gerbrandt Grobler, Justin Basson, Carlu Sadie, Kerron van Vuuren, Dian Bleuler. Bench – Dan Jooste, Khwezi Mona, Khutha Mchunu, Hyron Andrews, Phepsi Buthelezi, Bradley Davids, Lionel Cronje, Ben Tapuai.

Retribution for their defeat at the hands of Ulster last season that condemned them to an away quarterfinal will not be on the Sharks’ minds, according to centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg, when they take on the Irish powerhouses in their United Rugby Championship clash at Kings Park on Saturday.

Ulster beat the Sharks 24-21 at the Kingspan Stadium last May, which meant they pushed the Sharks down to fifth in the standings and forced them into playing their quarterfinal against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, where they went down 30-27, beaten by an 83^rd minute drop goal by Chris Smith.

But instead of reflecting on that pain, Janse van Rensburg says the Sharks are instead focusing on the positive benefits that could come from beating Ulster in Durban this weekend: a bonus point win and other results going their way could see them climb into the top five on the log.

“We haven’t spoken about what happened last season at all,” Janse van Rensburg said on Tuesday. “Our conversations have purely been based on what we can do to beat Ulster.

“It’s a massive game for us, especially with the current log positions being a great motivation for us. Every point matters at this stage of the season as we try and get closer to the top five. We have the potential to get there already this weekend, so we just want to take our next steps forward.

“We have to use the climate and the heat to our advantage, it’s huge to be able to capitalise on those at home. But most importantly, we need to make sure we pitch up.

“Ulster are always a strong team to face, regardless of them losing a few players to Ireland, so it’s important for us to be really on it from the start,” Janse van Rensburg said.

Playing 81 times for the Sale Sharks between 2017 and 2022 furnished Janse van Rensburg with the ability to adapt to different conditions and match situations, and the 28-year-old sees himself as a senior player with the Natal Sharks, lending his experience to the rest of the team.

“It was definitely a great experience being there overseas for five years, especially playing in the wet conditions, you have to adapt. Sometimes it would be snowing and then it gets really hard.

“But having to adapt to whatever the conditions are on match-day definitely helped me in my game-management. With that experience I just try and help the other boys in the midst of a tough game, but it also helps me in terms of how I think about the game.

“Ulster are coming from their winter so it’s going to be a massive adjustment for them, especially with how hot the weather gets this time of year around 2pm.

“But it’s a really, really big game for us. Confidence is everything and we have quality players who want to perform and achieve higher honours. There’s a big onus on us, even though we are missing a lot of players, to take responsibility for every game now,” Janse van Rensburg said.