The Sharks managed to again disappoint the few supporters that went to Mr. Price Kings Park on Saturday afternoon, proving that any match played at home is a battle even if it is against a team that has not won a match so far this season. The Sharks won, yes, outscoring their opponents 33 – 20, but it took them a while to get going and alarm bells must now be ringing that the Sharks just cannot get themselves to bury a minnow team.
The Pumas were first out of the blocks with a long range penalty effort from ex-Sharks boy Tiaan Marx, the Sharks penalized at the breakdown. What ensued was the Sharks not being able to put a lineout together, and being penalized minutes later, again at the break down. Luckily for the Sharks, van Wyk missed the shot at goal.
The Sharks hit back, not by their own accord, but from a Pumas pass that went to ground, after which Hoffmann took a quick tap and put Burden over the whitewash. Michalak added the extras and the Sharks were in front, albeit luckily, after ten minutes. Ross Skeate left the field while this try was being scored, after taking a heavy knock in midfield, with Anton Bresler coming on.
The Pumas hit back immediately, scoring a try of their own, Coenie van Wyk on the receiving end of a well worked move up the middle of the field. He converted his own try to pull ahead again after 15 minutes
After a prolonged period of frustrating rugby from the Sharks, they finally managed to string a few passes together, only for the final pass to be intercepted by Coenie van Wyk, running 80m to score under the posts, resulting in a ten point lead for the Pumas. Late in the first half Michalak had an attempt at goal after a Pumas indiscretion at the breakdown, but the kick went wide.
Just before half time, the Sharks took the ball through some phases and Jean Deysel put in a good run, brushing off a few players before scoring a good try. Michalak converted a difficult chance to pull the deficit back to only three points. This was the deficit at half time, with the Pumas leading 17 – 14, this match going much the same way as the first round match against the Pumas in Witbank went.
The second half started much the same way as the first did, with a Pumas penalty stretching their lead to 6 points. Wiehahn Herbst only lasted 8 minutes into the second half before being substituted by Eugene van Staden. A good build up by the Sharks after a break by Hoffmann led to the third try being scored, this time by Anton Bresler, who crashed over in the right hand corner after a smart change of direction by Keegan Daniel.
The Sharks remained in control of the game over the next fifteen or so minutes, but could not score any more points, losing possession or making silly errors at important times. With 23 minutes left to play, Marcell Coetzee took a break from the action, Jacques Botes coming onto the park in his place and Ross Cronje got his chance with Conrad Hoffmann coming off. Fred Michalak got another chance to go at goal, this time to take the lead with a quarter of the game to go, but again uncharacteristically missed it. This also led to Adi Jacobs coming on, with Ludik coming off the park and Stefan Terblanche moving to fullback.
Jacques Botes made an immediate impact, picking up a terrible pass on the wing to dive over in the corner, scoring the Sharks’ bonus point try. Michalak redeemed himself by successfully converting from the sideline to take a six point lead with 16 minutes to play.
Craig Burden was replaced in the 65th minute, Kyle Copper getting a few minutes to show what he can do. It didn’t take long before the Sharks managed to cross the tryline for the fifth time, Botes scoring his second of the afternoon, with Michalak duly converting to give the Sharks a thirteen point lead. This was Michalak’s last play of the game as Jacques-Louis Potgieter was given 5 minutes.
All in all a disappointing showing from the Sharks, but as they say, a team playing badly and still winning is a champion team. The question here is, how badly can the Sharks afford to play against the Cheetahs next week?
Scorers
Sharks 33
Tries: Craig Burden, Jean Deysel, Anton Bresler, Jacques Botes (2)
Conversions: Fred Michalak (4)
Penalties:
Pumas 20
Tries: Coenie van Wyk (2)
Conversions: Coenie van Wyk (2)
Penalties: Tiaan Marx (1), Coenie van Wyk (1)
Sharks to smoke Cheetahs – again! I’m confident they can do well, they will be up for it, I am sure anyway…
Herbst batled in the scrums ,who can blame him with those obese props. Skeate is staking a claim for himself ahead of hargreeves who tends to stand arround and dordle alot ,he also is becoming one of those forwards you hate to have on your side ,the kind that sit on the wing ,look for offloads, dont really clean out and fancy themselves as a scrumhalve/wing/center ,terrible show from him.
With the return of Deysel Coetzee is no longer the go to man in terms of ball carryingso has fallen out of the spotlight slightly ,still does his share of the donkey work ,but I ask wouldnt that be better suited to a guy like Botes? Daniels played brilliantly ,to me the best player on the field.
With all the hype around Hoffman Cronje looked much better (he is far more abrasive) but then we cant be sure if it was just becuase he only had 30 to play, so he could play out of his skin. Michalak wasnt great today he seemed to zig when the rest of the team zagged. Bosman was good again ,growing in confidence with each game . As well as Steff played today it almost felt like our midfield was disjointed ,he seemed to appear everywhere but I didnt feel he was a threat in midfield ,played more like a wing. Sithole and Ludik were anonymous today however in the past few weeks I have eaten my words to some extent with Ludik .
Watching the juniors play I cant help but feel we are waisting some talent with Lindeque and Jordaan ,they where awesome and its flipin about time plum woke the heck up and played them before the games get any harder ,we need to blood these guys sooner rather than later. Play Lindeque at 13 and Jordaan as 22 imo before they get fed up and leave
I think the guys did very well in the second half, a good win in the circumstances. Need a better first half against the Cheetahs though.
Balance of loosies not good ,Coetzee should play from the bench with Botes @ 6. Then Play Skeate and JM together
@Talent (Comment 2) : So you’re saying a 19 year old and a 20 year old should walk into senior team on the basis looking good against Valke under 21? Or they will get fed up and leave? That makes no sense.
@war1 (Comment 5) : well when we complain about our midfield as much as we do …
@Talent (Comment 6) : Is the problem not that we complain too much then?
My take wasthat the ” seniors” saved the juniors….I thought Ross had a good go when he came on. Dale really need to calm down – he is dissapointing in a lot of aspects of the game – and of course old Fred’s feet was off today…well again a win is a win, albeit worrying..
well here is how i thought the team performed,
15 Ludick (5)
14 Sithole (5)
13 Stefan (7)
12 Bosman (5.5)
11 Mvovo (5.5)
10 Freddy (5)
09 Hoffman (5)
08 Daniel (7.5)
07 Coetzee (6.5)
06 Deysel (6.5)
05 Skeate, He was only on for a very short time so no rating
04 Hargreaves (5)
03 Herbst (4)
02 Burden (7)
01 Chadwick (5)
16 Cooper (5.5)
17 VAnStaden (5.5)
18 Bresler (6) came on very early and got stuck in , did some good things
19 Botes (7)
20 Cronje (6) Knocked on the first pass to him but was very good there after
21 JLP Not enough time to be rated
22 Adi Same as JLP
Sharks need to prepare themselves better for when they play thewse so called weaker teams , also the Ref?? well the less said about this clown the better
@sharks_lover (Comment 10) :
@Talent (Comment 2) :
You guys call yourself supporters? We DO NOT have players called Daniels and Ludick..
Its Keegan Daniel, with no S and Louis Ludik, with no C..
FFS!!!!!
@sharks_lover (Comment 11) : I thought Peyper had a great game… very consistent throughout.
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 12) : How are those nerves Rich?
@sharks_lover (Comment 10) : mate, I’m literally speechless at those ratings. Did you actually see the scrums? Chadwick killed buys and then he killed the other oke too… Never seen a more dominant scrumming performance by a loosehead at this level. Yet he gets a 5? What the hell do you think a prop is for?
@robdylan (Comment 15) : I rate Chadwick so was shocked when I read that he was scrummed. Great to read that he wasn’t on the back foot.
@GreatSharksays (Comment 16) : anyone who says Chadwick was scrummed was either blind, an idiot, or both
@robdylan (Comment 15) : And then add to that that for the 1st time in my life I heard a ref tell a player he can’t go as low as he wants to because the other prop can’t get that low.
WTF? If you are a fat guy that can’t bend then you are going to be handed your arse on a platter. How the hell could Peyper keep telling Chadwick “It is their ball you have to engage a little higher now”
@KSA Shark © (Comment 18) : I’m actually speechless… we should introduce a “qualifying criterion” here before people are allowed to comment about scrums
@robdylan (Comment 15) : boet, they scrummed well and thasts where it ended
both chadwick and herbst were no where in general play missing tackles , giving away penalties etc
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 12) : Get over urself dude , its the net ffs, not the class room to see who makes spelling mistakes or not
@robdylan (Comment 13) : well i dont think so
@robdylan (Comment 19) : and nowhere did i say we scrummed poorly
@robdylan (Comment 15) : their bad ratingsd is for poor general play miossing tackles and giving away penalties
specially Herbst
check the stats come Monday , and you will see
@sharks_lover (Comment 23) : ruggastats seems to have seen it’s ass, so we won’t have that to go on
@KSA Shark © (Comment 18) : i was totally, shocked by that….
@sharks_lover (Comment 23) : you can’t rate a prop without giving scrumming performance at least 70% weighting. That’s what they’re there for.
@robdylan (Comment 24) :
it has??
damn
@sharks_lover (Comment 27) : they haven’t updated any stats since the Lions game two weeks ago
@sharks_lover (Comment 10) :
How do you justify a rating of 7 for Stef? What is your thinking?
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 30) : so what ur saying his MOM award was rubbish??
@sharks_lover (Comment 31) :
Im not saying that.. Im just asking what your reasoning is?
@sharks_lover (Comment 31) :
And Adi Jacons had 20 minutes, why no rating for him?
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 33) : SOrry i thought Adi 5,5 he looked to be hungry,but did nothing wrong
And the fact that Stef three times could not kick out a penalty? Surely that should drop his rating a bit?
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 35) : if it makes you happy , give him a 1, i am not a journo on here and purely posted what I thought
Geez dudes, what’s up with all the aggro on the site today? Y’all have Keegan flakes for breakfast?
@Culling Song (Comment 37) : lol nope but you have some for us??
And G’Day CS , how good were the Juniors?? and
@sharks_lover (Comment 36) :
In other words, there is no thinking behind your 7, just the fact that he was named man of the match is good enough for a 7..
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 39) : boet as far as i am concerned he had a good match , get over it , if you dont like my view , please be so kind scroll by ok????
@sharks_lover (Comment 40) :
It was just a question dude, wanting to get your point of view.
My apologies…
@sharks_lover (Comment 38) : Howdy! Did not see the juniors; how good were they?
@Culling Song (Comment 42) : saw only the under 21′s and though quite a number of players stood out
like Mthembu, jafta, jordaan, lindeque, the front row and locks
must say i was very dissapointed in Prinsloo’s handling
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 41) : no worries, as i said i thought stefan played well
t-343370″>sharks_lover (Comment 44) :I am new on the site and I am not a Stef fan however Stef played well maybe he looked better because all the other players did not pitch. Stef made a number of line breaks which I thought gave him the edge on the other players. If Stef was not MOM then it would be the flyhalf for the Pumas
After a thoroughly disappointing S15 campaign Plumtree cannot afford a poor Currie Cup. After a bright start, there’s just a hint that the wheels are wobbling – not yet coming off but wobbling – in this campaign. With so much to prove after our dismal Super rugby showing, we expect nothing less than a home semi final and the Cup.
@Barryetodd (Comment 45) : welcome to the world of sharks supporters…