The third of three games this Friday night, and unfortunately the only game not to be televised this weekend is the Sharks facing the Leopards at Kings Park. Even though it is seen to be a minnow game, the Sharks are never able to put the smaller teams away and it should turn out to be yet another close encounter (like all other Sharks matches).
The Sharks coach has decided to give a few players some time off as Keegan Daniel, Charl McLeod and Stefan Terblanche all fall to the bench to make way for Jacques Botes, who will captain the side, Conrad Hoffmann and Marius Joubert respectively. Sbura Sithole on the wing should be an exciting man to watch tonight as he can run through brick walls, nevermind Leopards defences.
The Leopards have already broken their duck this year after surprising the Pumas a few weeks ago, but a lack of bonus points have left them even on points with them at the bottom of the log. They have ex-Shark Wesley Dunlop in the pivot position, and this should turn out to be quite an interesting battle.
Kick-off is at 17h10 and Beet will be bringing you live updates via the website while I bring the score updates via the @sharksworld twitter feed.
Sharks: 15 Louis Ludik, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Marius Joubert, 12 Meyer Bosman, 11 Sbura Sithole, 10 Fred Michalak, 9 Conrad Hoffmann, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Marcell Coetzee, 6 Jacques Botes (capt), 5 Ross Skeate, 4 Anton Bresler, 3 Wiehahn Herbst, 2 Craig Burden, 1 Dale Chadwick
Replacements: 16 Kyle Cooper, 17 Eugene van Staden, 18 Alistair Hargreaves, 19 Keegan Daniel, 20 Charl McLeod, 21 Adrian Jacobs, 22 Stefan Terblanche
Leopards: 15 George Tossel, 14 Hoffman Maritz, 13 Jovan Bowles, 12 Joubert Engelbrecht, 11 Vainon Willis, 10 Wesley Dunlop, 9 Theo van Wyk, 8 Morné Hanekom (capt), 7 Luvuyiso Lusaseni, 6 Victor Joubert, 5 Brad Mockford, 4 Brendan Snyman, 3 Stefan Bezuidenhout, 2 Jacques Moller, 1 Bennie Uys.
Replacements: 16 Marius Fourie, 17 Dewald Coetzee, 18 John-Roy Jenkins, 19 Christo van Niekerk, 20 Spanner Pretorius, 21 Johan Laker, 22 Hennie Skorbinski
Its big time frustrating that theses games are not televised
@Franshark (Comment 1) : Despite our multitude of supersport channels . . .
Welcome to Kings Park..
10 minutes to kick-off.
Beautiful evening in Durban, clear skies and very little wind to speak of.
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 3) :very little tv cameras as well . . .
GO SHARKS!!
Early Odwa break.. great interplay between forward and backs.
Sharks losing the ball on the 22m. Leopards ball.
The teams are still feeling each other up.
Sharks feed on the scrum and Chadders gets the better of his man Bezuidenhout
@beet (Comment 7) : ooooer
@beet (Comment 7) :
Jaques Botes looks to be the standout in the early ruck exchanges.
Hoffman not too concise at the moment. 1 pbad pass and now a fumble with little pressure
How’s the ref as bizarre as last week?
Ref iks now chatting to Bressler and Vic Joubert about some off the ball stuff. Pen to Leopards.
little fuckwit of a ref is blowing us to death again
Why did we not feed him a doctored bunny chow come on Durban
who is the ref by the way?
Very little for the crowd to get too excited about. Start stop affair.
scrums are painfully slow with the Sharks getting a couple of freekicks from technical errors by the leopards
@G West (Comment 17) : Lourens vd Merwe
Lock Snyman is in the bin for the leopards. Presumably dirty play
ah ok… well lets hope it gets better GO SHARKS!!!
@ G-West Lawrence the twit Van der Merwe
@beet (Comment 20) :
Yellow card for a spear tackle.
is it wet there guys? Why can’t we catch a ball?
Still 0-0 after 19min.
Fred lining up a penalty
Eventually we win a close range penalty from a scrum.
A chance for Freddy to open the account.
He misses right
Michalak misses a sitter of a penalty.
No score after 20 minutes
Against 14 this is not good
why can’t the Sharks put the Minnows away :sob:
Marcell busts thru 2 tackles and offloads but the Sharks seal it near the line. Pen Leopards
@robdylan (Comment 24) :
Not wet Rob.. perfect night..
Might have some dew, but nothing serious..
Sharks certainly winning the scrum time exchanges..
Dale Chadwick putting in good work!
Hoffmann left his hands in the changeroom
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 29) : They lack intensity and direction.
The midfield combo has no energy
Sharks penalty in front. Not rolling. But injury break first
Sharks opt for the scrum
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 28) : Fracket
Chadwick shows a good leg drive but is heldup over the line
Go Sharks!!!!!!!!!
they’ve got to get rid of this ref… nobody wants to watch this shit, man…
Sharks penalised at the 5m scrum
Oh dear and next week we have the Lions I’m getting a bit worried
Another pen to the Sharks for not rolling away.
This time Freddy will take the kick from right in front
3-0
in teh 33rd min
33min and only 3points OMG, is it just the ref or are we having the unable to exicute problem again?
Sharks go thru 5 phases after turning the ball over near halfway.
Result is another pen in front.
The ref is starting to lose patience with the Leopards infringing at the ruck.
He’s had a few chats with captain Hanekom
6-0
If you have access on channel 200 DSTV they swith over to the game that’s on Live Streaming, but for short periods…
Bring on Adi, McLeod and dare I say it, oupa
Marcell is now the best forward on the park.
From the kickoff, the Leopards win the ball back and show what the fundamentals of quickball and straight running can do. They get right to the Sharks 5m line before Skeate turns the ball over at a breakdown and Hoffman clears
@beet (Comment 34) : The better one catching splinters on the bench
Chadwick is off and van Staden on. Has to be an injury
As I say that, Chadwick runs back on
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 51) : Plummo will ignore you in bringing on Adi, he would rather send on Oupa…
And keegan needs to come on too!
A forgettable first half comes to an end at 6-0
Charlie I know, they are treating him really terribly
@Charlie (Comment 53) : Against relatively week oppo, there hasn’t been a spark in midfield.
Moments here and there but we need more innovation from our relatively slow midfield.
Ludik,Odwa and Sithole look up to it but not much coming their way.
6-0 at half time against the lowly Leopards and this is a HOME GAME!
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 59) : And he has been such a loyal and faithful servant to Sharks Rugby…
I don’t know what’s going on but I really don’t like it
Sounds like a sad display of Rugby.
Also Freddy not on the same high as he’s been in previous games.
Kanko very quiet when there’s oppo for his style to flourish in these more open circumstances
Burden is looking good.
Charlie makes me wonder what is really going on there!
@Ben (Comment 64) : The Sharks have enjoyed the bulk of territory and possession but haven’t capitalised.
@Charlie (Comment 62) : He’s actually looking in good shape down from what I can see.
At times in the past he’s looked overweight imho
I am really hoping that was the Sharks bad half.
You know they may be tired from the ladies Breakfast
. And did you see our young man Peet scored a try for the u21/u19 
:)
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 66) : Smells fishy…
Conrad Hoffman subbed at halftime. McLeod on
Charls McLeod on for Hoffmann at Half Time
@ Beet thank goodness for that! Now Keegan for Kanko and Adi for Joubert!
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 73) : so is Mcleod playing during the half time brake
4min in and no addition to the score
In front of the kicker, results in a pen on the 22m to the Sharks
Fred goes for touch but overcooks it
Ndungane scores the opening try in the 49th min
13-0
Adi on for Marius Joubert
Halleluhia!
The try was made possible by the Sharks retaining possession and showing patience.
Kanko also had a good run out on the wing to get over the adv line and get the attack deep inside the Leopards 22. After a few phases they shifted left where Odwa was the man on the overlap
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 80) :
offsides penalty 40m out in front offers Wesley Dunlop the oppo to open the account for the Leopards
13-3
Keegs and Hargs on for Botes and Bresler
Are the Leopards threatening at all?
Kanko forces a pen with a huge hit.
Player got up after tackled without first releasing.
Sharks kick for the corner. Good kick.
From 5m lineout they rumble it over but 5m scrum
Powerful scrum by the Sharks.
They scrum again
Sharks move the ball wide and a deliberate knock down results in a pen and a yellow card to centre Engelbrecht
Odwa scores his second try. In the right corner
From the opted scrum, the Sharks used their extra man. McLeod moves away and receives the pop pass from Kanko.
Odwa still had a bit of work to do and cut inside with a good low body position
18-3
63min
Score?
Crowd get a chance to get excited as the Sharks get a turnover in their own 22 and spread it wide where they appear to have a numerical advantage.
Adi backs himself to run thru a gap in the cover that Johann Sadie probably wud have cruised thru and scored. But the older legs won’t carry him and he’s haulled in from behind and misses the oppo to offload inside. Scrum for knockon from poor pass.
Ice 18 3
come now sharks we need that bonus point
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 97) : for us I presume???
@Ice (Comment 95) : Still 18-3 after 68min
Yes thank goodness
18-3 to the Sharks
This is going from bad to worse. Sharks just lost their own line out.
Come on Sharks!
In a rare highlight moment Ludik puts Sithole away on a 30m run. He then kicks ahead and the end result is a 5m lineout to the Sharks.
I’m nt watching the game bt can we sell bosman, potgieter and joubert?
Cooper’s throw in not straight
Hemel People!!! Its our 18, correct??
The ref gets a long overdue boo for calling a knockon by the Sharks before the Leopards knocked on.
It was hard to see where the Sharks could possibly have knocked on.
Hi ice its our 18 but the way we are playing we are lucky we are playing the Leopards!
@Ice (Comment 108) : it’s a lack lustre performance.
Very little inspiration is being drawn from anywhere.
The Sharks are going thru the motions, slow motions sometimes
Keegan Daniel yellow card…
Keegan Daniel binned for lifting and dumping his opponent, I think.
Dirty Daniels.
@beet (Comment 113) : I didn’t really see that either
Oh what for now!
4minutes left to play. 2 tries needed
Phew! U guys just almost gave me a heart attack!!! Must be the SLB influence! LOL think they are exhausted!
Speedy Stefan turns back the clock as he weaves his way thru for a much needed try
1min 1 try needed
Finally the Sharks get the 3rd try. After 78 minutes
Freddie missed the drop kick conversion
Hooter goes but the leopards have opted for a scrum from a side entry pen just before it sounded
Heehaa oupa! At least the SLB revitalised the elderly
are we playing with 10 players
23-3 final score
My vote for man of the match goes to Marcell.
He once again stood out as a player who gets the ball over the gainline, makes few mistakes and can tackle really well
However seeing Sias interviewing Craig Burden makes me think he got the nod
@beet (Comment 125) : well its a win but
no bonus point….
hehehehe my superbru not looking to bad. 3 out of 3 with some possible bonus points hehehe
any chance of a score being given?
@Original Pierre (Comment 130) :
hi charlie pitty the bulls isnt dead last any more seeing they are the worst team in the cc. lions roar on the top of the log
@KSA Shark © (Comment 131) : comment 125. SHarks 23-3