Ken Borland

The Cell C Sharks ran out of steam in the last quarter as they let slip the opportunity to get their New Zealand tour off to a winning start as they went down 23-18 to the Blues in their Vodacom SuperRugby match at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday.

The Sharks led 11-10 at the break, despite the Blues thoroughly dominating the first-half possession and territory stats, and the brilliance of Willie le Roux and Paul Jordaan created a try shortly after the restart, giving the visitors an 18-10 lead.

But the home side struck back, claiming a 20-18 lead with a brilliant try by wing Rieko Ioane, although the Sharks had the chances to erase the deficit thereafter. But the lineout imploded, three throws being lost inside the Blues’ 22 and lock Etienne Oosthuizen conceded a crucial ruck penalty in front of the opposition poles as well.

The opening stages of the match were marked by the Sharks’ lack of ball-retention skills: The Blues would hang on to the ball for phase after phase and, although they were sometimes way too lateral, their attacks were dangerous and they looked the much more likely team to score first.

A penalty by flyhalf Ihaia West was early reward for the Blues but, astonishingly, it was the Sharks who scored the opening try, on their first visit to the opposition 22.

It started with a fine turnover by flank Jean-Luc du Preez, but it was the appreciation-of-space skill of fullback Willie le Roux that made the try, his chip finding the Blues defence in disarray. Flyhalf Joe Pietersen gathered the bouncing ball and, from the resulting ruck, the power of Tendai Mtawarira was enough for him to barrel over the line.

Six minutes later, the scrummaging prowess of Mtawarira was to the fore as the Sharks won a set-piece penalty, which Pietersen slotted to give them an 8-3 lead.

Pietersen kicked a second penalty in the 33^rd minute, after scrumhalf Cobus Reinach had pounced on a loose ball inside his own 22, hacked ahead and was taken out in the chase, but it was obvious that the Sharks defence was under pressure just given the sheer number of tackles they had to make.

Four minutes before the break, the Blues attacked from a lineout on the Sharks’ 22 and West twice just failed to find the tryline before centre George Moala, who came on when the dangerous and experienced Rene Ranger limped off with a knee injury, dotted down from a ruck a metre short.

West landed the conversion to make it a one-point game (10-11) at halftime.

Even though his kicking game is still in need of plenty of work, Le Roux is a potent threat with ball in hand as he showed in the 42^nd minute. Getting the ball at first-receiver, he burst through a half-gap and outside centre Jordaan was perfectly-placed on his shoulder to take the pass and show great pace to finish the try.

Pietersen converted and the Sharks were 18-10 up. But this is a young Sharks side and, unfortunately, their composure faltered badly in the final quarter.

West, who is an enigmatic general for the Blues, sliced one penalty wide but then succeeded with his 56^th-minute effort to close the gap to 13-18.

There are some top-class runners of the ball in the Blues backline and, when West anticipated well to field a clearing kick by wing Lwazi Mvovo, those players were brought into the game.

Wing Ioane managed to get around a tiring Mtawarira in the first line of defence and roared away for a superb individual try, West’s conversion giving the Blues a two-point lead.

The Sharks went straight into the Blues’ 22 from the kickoff, but Oosthuizen gave away a soft penalty at the ruck and a total meltdown in the lineout followed. A penalty by West just before the final whistle, referee Jaco Peyper making a harsh offsides call on Oosthuizen when he went for the halfback, sealed the Sharks’ fate.

There were many bright moments for the Sharks – the scrums were good and lock Stephan Lewies gave a fine all-round performance, the poor throwing by the hookers being the major problem with the lineout in the closing stages.

The loose trio of the two Du Preez brothers and Philip van der Walt was outstanding, while Le Roux and Jordaan showed that there is attacking skill in this Sharks side, given the right platform.

But with their winless streak now stretching to four matches and games against the Highlanders, Chiefs and Hurricanes (back at home) to come, even the most optimistic of Sharks supporters will now be stum.

Scorers

Blues – Tries: George Moala, Rieko Ioane. Conversions: Ihaia West (2). Penalties: West (3).

Sharks – Tries: Tendai Mtawarira, Paul Jordaan. Conversion: Joe Pietersen. Penalties: Pietersen (2).

http://www.citizen.co.za/1077253/sharks-run-out-of-steam-in-the-final-quarter/

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.

South Africa have only really done what was expected of them in beating an under-strength New Zealand team in their one-day series and their selectors still have some tough decisions to make for their tour of India in October.

Sure, South Africa were missing players as well, but only a trio – JP Duminy, Morne Morkel and Faf du Plessis – compared to the half-dozen stars the Black Caps were without, including tone-setting batsman Brendon McCullum, middle-order kingpin Ross Taylor and strike bowlers Trent Boult and Tim Southee.

So, playing at home, one would have expected the Proteas to win the series, which they did with an impressive performance in Durban.

But with Duminy, Morkel and Du Plessis all set to return for the five ODIs in India, the selectors have to decide how to fit them back into the squad.

Their most pressing issue is that they still have not solved the all-rounder problem.

David Wiese was unable to have any impact with the bat, scoring just 34 runs in three innings at a strike-rate of 72, and he also met his match in the New Zealand batsmen, conceding over seven runs an over, although he did make an improved contribution with the ball in the win in Durban, taking three wickets.

He bowled 20 overs in those three games and whether he met the expectations of the selectors remains to be seen … their deliberations for the India tour squad will surely also involve Duminy taking Wiese’s place or maybe even giving Ryan McLaren or Chris Morris another go.

One player who most certainly proved himself in the series against New Zealand was Farhaan Behardien.

The 31-year-old has been one of the best finishers in domestic cricket for the last few years and showed that ability with his calm knocks of 70 off 87 balls in Potchefstroom and 40 off 28 deliveries in Durban.

Behardien is seemingly one of those sportsmen that has to work doubly hard to win over the demanding South African public; I’m reminded of Springbok fullback Zane Kirchner in that respect.

The strength of Behardien is his ability to play a dual role – he can play the role of supporting batsman, rotating the strike, for a top-order player who is set, and he can clear the boundary himself in the closing stages. Throw in a couple of overs of medium-pace and his fielding skills and it is clear Behardien is a useful limited-overs package.

Obviously the returns of Duminy and Du Plessis will put his place in the starting XI in danger, but Behardien is the type of player the Proteas should be very happy to have in their squad.

The other big selection decision is whether to persevere with Morne van Wyk after his half-century in Durban. Although the conditions were testing, Van Wyk’s 58 was on the slow side, coming off 100 deliveries and the way he struggled against the slower bowlers, when the ball was not coming on to the bat, suggests the Indian tour could also be a tough one for him.

There seems little point in delaying the return of Quinton de Kock, who went away and did everything the selectors would have asked of him by scoring three centuries for SA A in those same Indian conditions.

While he is certain to be in the squad, the place of David Miller in the starting team could also be on the table after the left-hander continued his run without a half-century to 11 innings, going back to the unbeaten century he scored against Zimbabwe in the opening game of the World Cup. In his defence though, there have been two 49s, a 46 not out and a 44 in that run.

The Southern Kings ensured on their amazingly successful overseas tour that the rest of South Africa will now take them seriously in SuperRugby and that is exactly the attitude the Bulls have been stressing as they head to Port Elizabeth for Saturday’s massive encounter.

The Kings will, of course, have to battle travel fatigue having arrived back from Australia, where they drew with the Brumbies and beat the Force in their last two outings, only this week, but that will be offset by the tremendous lift a capacity crowd at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium will give them.

While the Kings may only have four Springboks, including returning skipper Luke Watson, to the 13 of the Bulls, that’s not what visiting coach Frans Ludeke will be focusing on: Confidence and momentum will be far more important than previous history written on paper.

“I called it at the start of the season that the Kings would not be pushovers and I know their coaches well. They are quality and have great structures. Their achievements are what you want for SA rugby – they put pressure on the overseas sides.

“But we’re looking forward to the contest. It is sold out and that makes it extra special. It will bring the best out of our players on the night and we like that sort of challenge,” Ludeke said this week.

With the Kings having adjusted well to the pace of SuperRugby, especially in defence, the match is likely to be played at Test match intensity and that will suit the Bulls, simply because they have more experience of those sorts of clashes and they have players like Morné Steyn who love to grind out a win.

The Bulls will no doubt stick to the same percentages-based strategy that saw them return to winning ways last weekend against the Cheetahs, but they do have the attacking players to capitalise if the Kings make mistakes under pressure. Jan Serfontein made a highly encouraging first SuperRugby start at inside centre last weekend, while JJ Engelbrecht, Akona Ndungane and Lionel Mapoe provide plenty of pace and finishing ability.

The Kings may be tempted to go all-out attack against the Bulls, but their defence has been so good recently that all they need is a couple of dropped balls to pile pressure on the home side.

For the Bulls, it will be all about making a good start to reduce the amount of help the Kings get from the crowd. They don’t want to be chasing the game and nobody wants to be the first South African team to lose to the Kings, which just increases the pressure if they fall behind.

For the Kings, holding on to the ball for longer periods will be crucial because the Bulls game is all about suffocating the opposition and forcing mistakes. That’s hard to do when you’re the team doing the defending.

In Durban, there could be a major shuffling of the Conference standings if the Sharks lose to the Cheetahs.

The Sharks have won five of their seven matches and are third on the overall log, so there’s certainly no crisis at King’s Park, but they are about to embark on a tough overseas tour and they lost last weekend to the Stormers. So they really don’t want to go on tour on the back of two straight defeats and coach John Plumtree, mindful that his team haven’t really clicked yet this season (apart from massacring the hapless Rebels), has made key changes to his line-up.

Springboks Jannie du Plessis, Ryan Kankowski and Francois Steyn have been part of the furniture at the Sharks, but that could be changing based on the starting line-up for this weekend’s game.

Wiehahn Herbst’s impact at tighthead prop has seen Du Plessis relegated to the bench, with Steyn also dropping down to the substitutes and Riaan Viljoen starting at fullback. Kankowski has disappeared from the match-day 22 completely.

Plumtree said that both Steyn (France) and Kankowski (Japan) were battling to adapt to the greater pace and intensity of SuperRugby after stints overseas.

“Ryan’s not in good form at the moment. We are putting a plan in place for him going forward. I think that he’s still feeling the effects of the Japanese season and just hasn’t come right. Mentally he’s a bit stale, so it’s frustrating for him because he is trying his best but it’s just not working.

“It’s alarming for me because he’s one of our better players, but at the end of the day there are standards and there are consequences for not reaching those standards.”

Plumtree is also concerned over Steyn’s lack of fitness and match sharpness.

“As I said at the start of the season, Frans was coming back from an injury and wasn’t in great condition. So he’s battling to get back to his best. We’ve had long talks and I’m going to be patient with him, but he’s got to be patient as well. We’ll get there, it’s just going to take some time. He was out of South Africa for a while, so he’s just got to rediscover his form and the conditioning that’s necessary for SuperRugby,” Plumtree said.

The cold front that has been causing deluges in the Cape is expected to reach KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend and that could reduce the match to a tighter affair, with the exciting Cheetahs backline struggling to get into the match.

The Sharks pack was on the back foot last weekend against the Stormers, however, and Plumtree will hope the return of the confrontational Jean Deysel to the number seven jersey will provide the physicality and abrasiveness that was missing at Newlands.

Cheetahs coach Naka Drotske was considering changes after the Bulls loss and eight straight games for his bye-less team, but in the end made just one injury-enforced replacement, Coenie Oosthuizen coming in for the greatly-improved Trevor Nyakane at loosehead prop.

The Cheetahs used to be the bogey team for the Sharks, but that was a long time ago, with the Natalians winning the last five games since February 2010.

But having removed the “curse”, the Sharks know they will need to be at their best if they are not to suffer a crucial defeat just before their daunting overseas tour. Already missing a dozen players through injury, they could also lose first place in the Conference to either the Cheetahs or Bulls.

There could also be motion at the top of the overall standings, with the first-placed Brumbies visiting the Reds in Brisbane on Saturday.

It’s an enthralling prospect, with the Reds pitting their desire to move the ball against a Brumbies team that leans heavily on South African tactics, through former Springbok coach Jake White.

Australian media are reporting that the future destination of the Wallabies coaching job could depend on the outcome of the match, with White pitting his wits against Ewen McKenzie.

But the talents of Will Genia, Digby Ioane, Quade Cooper and James Horwill will be even more valuable for the Reds, while the Brumbies have the attacking skills of Henry Speight and Jesse Mogg, two excellent game-managers in Christian Lealiifano and Matt Toomua, and plenty of forward grunt in Fotu Auelua, Ben Mowen, Peter Kimlin, Dan Palmer, Stephen Moore and Ben Alexander.

McKenzie has already flagged the efforts of the Brumbies at the breakdown as being largely illegal, which adds spice to the obviously crucial contest between opensiders George Smith, whose contract extension to stay with the Brumbies until the end of the season was confirmed on Thursday, and Reds tyro Liam Gill. DM

Teams

The Sharks (v Cheetahs, Saturday 17:05): Riaan Viljoen, Sean Robinson, Paul Jordaan, Meyer Bosman, Odwa Ndungane, Pat Lambie, Cobus Reinach, Keegan Daniel, Jean Deysel, Marcell Coetzee, Franco van der Merwe, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Wiehahn Herbst, Kyle Cooper, Tendai Mtawarira. Replacements: Craig Burden, Jannie du Plessis, Anton Bresler, Lubabalo Mtembu, Charl McLeod, Frans Steyn, Andries Coetzee.

Cheetahs (v Sharks, Saturday 17:05): Hennie Daniller, Willie le Roux, Johann Sadie, Robert Ebersohn, Raymond Rhule, Burton Francis, Piet van Zyl, Phillip van der Walt, Lappies Labuschagne, Heinrich Brüssow, Francois Uys, Lood de Jager, Lourens Adriaanse, Adriaan Strauss, Coenie Oosthuizen. Replacements: Ryno Barnes, Caylib Oosthuizen, Ligtoring Landman, Frans Viljoen, Tewis de Bruyn, Francois Brummer, Ryno Benjamin.

Southern Kings (v Bulls, Saturday 19:10): George Whitehead, Sergeal Petersen, Waylon Murray, Andries Strauss, Ronnie Cooke, Demetri Catrakilis, Shaun Venter; Luke Watson, Wimpie van der Walt, Cornell du Preez, David Bulbring, Steven Sykes, Kevin Buys, Bandise Maku, Schalk Ferreira. Replacements: Hannes Franklin, Grant Kemp, Rynier Bernardo, Jacques Engelbrecht, Nicolas Vergallo, Marcello Sampson, Siviwe Soyzwapi.

Bulls (v Southern Kings, Saturday 19:10): Jürgen Visser, Akona Ndungane, JJ Engelbrecht, Jan Serfontein, Lionel Mapoe, Morné Steyn, Jano Vermaak, Pierre Spies, Arno Botha, Deon Stegmann, Juandré Kruger, Flip van der Merwe, Frik Kirsten, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Morné Mellet. Replacements: Callie Visagie, Werner Kruger, Paul Willemse, Jacques Potgieter, Rudy Paige, Louis Fouchè, Bjorn Basson.

Other fixtures: Hurricanes v Force (Friday 9:35); Waratahs v Chiefs (Friday 11:40); Crusaders v Highlanders (Saturday 9:35); Reds v Brumbies (Saturday 11:40).

Byes: Stormers, Blues, Rebels.

 http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-04-19-superrugby-preview-bulls-must-take-kings-clash-by-the-horns/#.VRKar_mUde8