The Sharks suffered a heavy defeat against Griquas in Kimberley on Friday night, in a performance that saw little inspiring play dished up. Let’s rate the individuals involved.
1) Dale Chadwick. Struggled to hold his own at scrum time and while I felt he was unfairly penalised at times, the concession of four scrum penalties says it all. 4/10
2) Craig Burden. Set pieces generally good and scored the only try. Needs to take responsibility for being the senior member in a tight five that was dominated, though. 6/10
3) Wiehahn Herbst. The Sharks pack was moving backwards and there was little that Herbst could do to stem the tide this time around. 5/10
4) Anton Bresler. Huge on defence and worked hard in the tight, but his efforts were mostly in vain. 6/10
5) Jandre Marais. A tricky first start for Marais and while he did well, he lacked the experience and grunt to really make the required impact. This will, I’m sure, change as he matures. 5/10
6) Jacques Botes. Was his usual industrious self, beavering away at the rucks all night, but to little effect this week in a pack that was soundly beaten. 5/10
7) Marcell Coetzee. Always visible and always involved, but failed to make much progress with ball in hand and was forced to spend most of the match tackling. 6/10
8) Keegan Daniel. Poor discipline saw him yellow-carded, which ultimately cost his team 14 points and set Griquas up for the win. A really poor effort all round and the captain will need to step up and improve hugely on this showing. 3/10
9) Ross Cronje. A brave perfomance behind a beaten pack. Cronje was far from the worst player on the field, I thought. 6/10
10) Fred Michalak. The lack of quality ball coming his way really limited his impact on the game, which is a pity given how much composure he usually brings. Goal-kicking was good as usual. 5/10
11) Sbura Sithole. Tried hard to get involved and showed a real hunger. Looked dangerous with what little ball he received. A player with a bright future. 6/10
12) Meyer Bosman. It was a game where composure and big performances were required from the seniors and Meyer, unfortunately, failed to deliver much of either. 5/10
13) Stefan Terblanche. Offered little on attack and appeared unable to use his experience to spark much of anything, in a game that saw the Sharks on the back foot virtually all evening. 5/10
14) Mark Richards. Committed on defence and always looking for work, although few opportunities came his way. 6/10
15) Louis Ludik. A tiny ray of light on the horizon was Ludik’s strong attacking showing from fullback. He looked eager to take on the line and seems to be regaining some of his former pace and explosiveness. 7/10
16) Kyle Cooper. Not on long enough to be rated.
17) Eugene van Staden. Failed to assert any sort of dominance, despite his experience. 5/10
18) Peet Marais. A tough way to make your debut. Not on long enough to be rated.
19) Ryan Kankowski. The Griquas pack were well on top by the time Hoff entered the fray and he did little change that in his 23 minutes on the field. 5/10
20) Charl McLeod. A reasonable performance behind a struggling pack, but failed to pull out any of his individual brilliance to turn the game. 6/10
21) Pat Lambie. Another “senior play” (ironic, isn’t it?) who wasn’t really able to make much happen on a night when the team was poor. 5/10
22) Marius Joubert. Still struggling to adapt to the pace of Currie Cup rugby, it seems…. we’re waiting for Joubert to show us some of the magic that we remember from hi in the past. 4/10
Agree on the ratings.
Sharks need to step up massively for the Province game.
Sharks must win against WP but I would love it if Pumas beat the Bulls and they stay at the bottom
I choose rather to attend my local youth group than to watch this game. At youth we ended up watching Rio (ugh!) but I see that was still a better choice than watching this rugby game…
@Mutley (Comment 2) : Imagine the Bulls have to play in a promotion-relegation match with the EP Kings and they lose
I thought McCloed deserves a better rating as he injected some much needed pace and enthuiasm into the game, pity nobody around him matched that effort. The game just showed that no matter how much rugby has evolved, if you dont win the collisions-being the tackle,ruck,maul and scrum then you arent going to win! The only players i saw dominate the tackle and at ruck time were Sithole and Ludick. Poor effort from the rest.
Let’s give this same 22 the opportunity to play the kwasse in our shark tank and then see how they perform .would love for this team to get a shot at redemption.
My team of the week(Didn’t watch the Leopards/Pumas game)
1. Coenie Oosthuizen
2. Adrian Straus
3. WP Nel
4. Juandre Kruger
5. Franco vd Merwe
6. Derik Minnie
7. Joshua Straus
8. Johnothan Mokoena
9. Dewalt Duvenhage
10. Elton Jantjies
11. Lionel Mapoe
12. Alwyn Hollenbach
13. Johan Sadie
14. Micheal Killian
15. Rudi Vogt
Fair ratings. I did think that Bresler, Coetzee and Sithole really gave it their best – good heart from those youngsters.
Could someone please inform Stefan that his services are no longer needed at this point.
Yes, hes been an unbelievable professional and a great servant to the Sharks but I feel the time has come for him to step aside.
The only thing holding my interest in this years CC are the youngsters coming through the ranks. Coetzee, Sithole, Cronje, Bresler, Herbst etc.
Stef adds absolutely no value at present and I think even his greatest asset, experience, has been erased by his overall lack of form.
Yep we failed …cant wait for wp game
My biggest fear is that there is a knee-jerk reaction to the loss, resulting in a discontinuation of the policy of backing our young players. Personally I don’t think that it was the youngters that let us down by and large, with front row being the only possible exception, and even there I don’t think we would have been any better of with Van Staden starting. Let’s just chalk it up as a valuable lesson from the school of hard knocks, en keep giving the youngsters a chance to grow.
And please, please, please, please, please, please Plum, can we give some new players a chance in the 12 and 13 jumpers? Buy you a beer if you say yes.
@Culling Song (Comment 11) :
Definitely agree that we shouldn’t be discouraged and should continue backing the youngsters.
Also agree that the youngsters weren’t particularly to blame – I expcted more leadership and fight from the more experienced players like Burden, Botes, Daniel, Freddie, Bosman and Oupa.
@ Big fish ? Are you not a wp supporter …look the sharks did not perform we played kak and leave oupa out of it … Sharks only loss… Terblanche has saved our asses as well …big deal has a bad game like a few others and lets pick on the ballie…pathetic. If plum saw he was that bad why wasnt he replaced ?
@Big Fish (Comment 12) : Keegan was particularly poor, and has now disappointed me for the second week running. I may have to look into having my K-Dawg tattoo removed…
Bosman frustrates me beyond compare; the dude has all the basic attributes – size, skill, strength, a good passing game – but can never combine it into a decent showing. His decision making leaves much to be desired; when he needs to offload, he goes to ground. When he offloads, he does it to no one in particular. When it’s outside the danger zone, he tackles with intent. On the line, his defense is as impenetrable as bubble bath. Watching him play is like listening to Beyonce; very, very painful.
I definitely think we need to keep the same 22 in tact, although maybe move Joubert to 12 and Bosman have a rest. Sadie is going to be a handful. I think leave Michalak to start as he should cause the WP youngster a few problems. The yougsters just need to remember that you have to earn the right to go wide and 50/50 passes just dont cut it!
@AlterEgo (Comment 13) :
Don’t you have schoolwork to do?
@Culling Song (Comment 14) :
I think Keegan’s head is not in the right place – maybe a bit disappointed watching Steggman accomplish sweet nothing while he wasn’t granted the same grace. He is too good not to come right.
Regarding Bosman, he certainly hasn’t stepped up on defence, but I do feel that the clean and half-breaks he makes are wasted on Oupa – who doesn’t run good support lines like Adi or JF. Bosman is also good at getting his arms through the tackle, but this is also not being very well utilised right now.
@ big fish i think you used that line already very original…we can sit and complain all day it aint going to change a loss. The ref was poor and made some harsh decisions at crucial times. As i have said on several occasions look at the penalty count. Last week we congratulated all players now we are being picky. Yes bring the youngsters in but it can have an adverse effect when playing crafty apponents. Little by little
@Big Fish (Comment 16) : Big Feesh. Just ignore the trolls.
@Culling Song (Comment 14) :
I blame Keegan’s lack of form on a particular article written by Villie a few weeks ago.
Talk about jinxing a player!!
Villie you bastard!
@Ben (Comment 18) : Good advice. I will find another bridge to cross.
@Big Fish (Comment 20) : They strive in pissing people off. Hopefully if they don’t succeed they will leave…
It seems like I succeeded…thank you! But you got to admit that was a silly intercept try…bad luck …that greek flyhalf at wp plays a good game i must add.
BMT…
@wpw (Comment 19) : If this is true, I may need to give Villie a taste of his own 3 wood…
@JarsonX (Comment 1) :
love the avatar 
There’s no way we could pin the loss on something else than the teams performance, they where over confident and it was obvious….
I was also confused about the calls at scrum time…
Still say we lost to Qriekwas in Kimberley last year and won the CC, we just trying to follow the same rout as it leads to being CC champions
Our 9′s suck big time at the moment,when is hoffman returning.
So slow,look at the ball when you want to pass etc.
@Honey Badger (Comment 28) : I think it’s another week out for him
@robdylan (Comment 29) : Thanks Rob,I may be abit harsh but the they feel so slow.
@Culling Song (Comment 14) : I`ve been going on about what a poor acquisition Bosman was since January already. Maybe now you`ll believe me?
But he won`t be dropped we must accept that.
I`m very worried about this friday night. WP`s had our number all year we desperately need to turn this around.
@Culling Song (Comment 24) :
Keegan will be back. One poor performance can be excused…especially as the whole team seemed to under perform. Watch him against those Mountain Goats!! 
@wpw (Comment 19) : Should I write an article about Kolisi?
@Original Pierre (Comment 31) : I reckon that is a general problem in SA rugby. Far too many players get to hog a position when it’s bloody obvious that they are nowhere near on form, over the hill, simply useless or all of the preceding.