After losing 34-20 to the Cheetahs at home on Saturday things don’t look to bright for the DHL Western Province team.
Western Province are a team currently under the influence of some powerful injury muti and have been so since the SupeRugby season where they started losing flyhalf after flyhalf leading to Earl Rose being sent an SOS. That said , during the Currie Cup the youthful squad have punched well above their weight and at times produced some scintilating rugga on their way to what looked like an almost certain home semi final berth in a season that would have had some Hollywood scriptwriters sit up and take note, Remember the Titans would have had nothing on “Hier kom ons se WeePee” . Unfortunately the Titans rocked and WP continue to find more and more players crocked. Nick Koster has now also joined the injury pile after sustaining what seems to be a serious neck injury in Saturdays game.
Early in the season there was much talk of the Bulls not making the playoffs but the Pretoria team seems to have got their act together(Did you really think they wouldn’t) and with the WP voodoo as strong as ever it looks as if the Cape side will be the side to miss out this year, their next fixtures include the Sharks and Lions away.
Having said that, all of the noises out of WP this season were all about developing players and I as well as many others will agree that they have done well in that regard, my issue is this, they have also promised trophies, a promise they are yet to keep. Even with the depleted squad I think Coetzee could have stolen the result on Saturday, earlier in the week he intimated that he would play Deon Fourie at flank as his squad were not respecting not protecting the ball on the ground, what did he do?He played the same loose trio guilty of those offences, I think a bit of creative selections were in order, building a team in one thing but winning is another, if the team is winning everyone is happy.
Playing either one of Fourie, Fenton-Wells, Koster or Fourie, Kolisi, Koster would have been better than the L3 that took the field on Saturday.
The injury to Koster will force the coach to reshuffle his backrow but unfortunately its not Koster that he would have wanted to replace as Koster has not done his name much harm during this campaign .
Hard to plan for injuries. But the future talent for WP looks rich.
@Big Fish (Comment 1) : it’s actually amazing these guys are even in the running given the injury list.
I tell you what, we’ll write them off at our peril.
It’s so bad they’ve even lost an ‘H’.
I reckon the Bulls & WP are pretty much in the same situation this Currie Cup.
Only difference is WP started well and finishing with a wimper, and the Bulls started badly and seem to be finishing stronly(ish).
And us Sharkies are just plodding along…
@rhineshark (Comment 5) : hey listen… in a bit of a topsy-turvy season, I’m actually ok with plodding along in second spot with only one away match left.
@McLovin (Comment 4) :
I wish we were the Lions!!
@wpw (Comment 7) : Yeah, they are the most awesome.
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 8) : Feite.
@war1 (Comment 9) :
Not to stir the pot or anything, but how many injuries have actually happened before the current loss of form?
Okay there were the player losses to the Boks at the start of the CC and then the injured players at the start of the CC, but has there been a steady stream of injuries to cause the decline. I mean 3 weeks ago they were still winning well.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 11) : Recent injuries – Catrikilis, Blaauw, Louw, Kolisi, Whitehead.
@war1 (Comment 9) : once a maroon
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 12) : what’s the status on those… who’s coming back in time for this weekend?
Also Kitshoff. And the other Kitshoff to Namibia
@robdylan (Comment 14) : Only Kolisi is fit.
@robdylan (Comment 14) : Pieter Louw may be available for selection but i feel it would be a risk.
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 10) : See Rob’s comment 13. It’s a bit of an inside joke.
@wpw (Comment 7) : If only.
@wpw (Comment 7) : just burn those blue and white pajamas you wear on weekends and get yourself a reddish shirt, and bobs your uncle
Me rather be a plodding Shark than a winning Lion
DHL turning out to be not so reliable!
I say cheEthas should finish top with sharks 2nd and lions 3rd bulls 4th.sharkies all the way
@R Pahlad (Comment 22) :
1. Lions
2. Cheetahs
3. Sharks
4. Bulls
If Province don’t beat the Sharks this weekend, they’re not going to make it.
I think if the Sharks had as many injuries as WP we would be in serious shite!! So they doing really well, but as was said their combinations are just a bit off. For example they get no real go forward ball from any of their loose forwards, and then they have 2 “steppers” in midfield with nobody really straightening the line. Having said that I think the Sharks will need a serious improvement from the garbage of the last couple weeks if they are going to win on Sat!
I want to know who are to blame for the plodding from a team that should not be plodding? The coach or the players?
Same thing happened with the Bokke. IF we manage to win the WC, a possibility that does not look that absurd any more, I want to know why they do not play every test like they do now?
With the Bokke one could reason Rassie is now in the mix, with the Sharks John Plumtree does not have such a luxurious excuse.
I want to know how the AB’s get players, STARS, like McCaw and Carter ALWAYS trying their best, ALWAYS hungry for success?
Sharks
Cheets
Snoil
Bulls
@SheldonK (Comment 24) :
Not as many injuries as they make out I think. More a case of lack of depth in certian positions with many players away on Springbok duty – and letting Peter Grant play in Japan.
@Silver Fox (Comment 25) :
And players like Schalk Burger don’t always try their best? They aren’t hungry for success?
The squads are managed differently yes. They need to set different targets, and team selection also needs to improve (that team sent to Australasia was not a 2nd-XV, more like a 3rd-4th). Also the game plan doesn’t work as well when you don’t have continuity in selection, so we need to start playing a tad more expansive and make sure we slow down opposition ball effectively.
@hendrikp (Comment 27) : I’m not even remotely a Stormers fan, but give credit where it’s due. Schalk Burger would keep on trying even if one of his legs was dangling by a thread; kind of like the black knight in Monty Python’s Quest For The Holy Grail shrugging off having his arm cut off and calling it a flesh wound.
@Culling Song (Comment 28) :
My opinion on it…
Schalk Burger is the best player in the team at the moment, and the 2nd greatest Springbok of all time. You won’t find another player who consistently plays at such a high level and puts his body on the line like Schalk. He really is a machine.
That’s just me though.
@hendrikp (Comment 27) : I should have said Crusaders. Of course there are those special individuals.
The Sharks need to show they can go to that next level. They had Plumtree for long enough, they have built good structures, they have bought enough quality players. They need to start dominating from start to finish.
They need to get someone to instil that ‘always hungry for more’ into every player.
@hendrikp (Comment 29) : Schalk Burger can at best be the 4th greatest Springbok of all time.
1) Henry Honiball
2) Henry Honiball on an off day
3) Danie Gerber
4) …
Hey, did I ever mention Henry Honiball is my all-time favourite player?
@SheldonK (Comment 24) :
bwahahahaha
You said ‘go forward ball’
Owen, is that you??
@Culling Song (Comment 31) : Henry Honiball never had off-days, you heretic!
@Culling Song (Comment 31) :
I’m sure Honiball was a good player
Danie Gerber at the top for me. Then Schalk Burger.
@hendrikp (Comment 34) : Andre Joubert!
@Ben (Comment 35) :
Excellent player, but not up there as the greatest. I’d have Fourie du Preez somewhere in the top 6 or so as well.
@hendrikp (Comment 36) : I grew up watching Andre Joubert play. Never saw Danie Gerber play.
@Ben (Comment 37) :
Would be worth buying DVD’s of some of the games. He was a freak. I’d argue for him as the greatest rugby player ever, but it comes down to opinions so hey.
19 tries in 24 tests, back when tries were sort of rare
@hendrikp (Comment 38) : Did he only play 24 tests?
Penalty try to Italy. Bonus point.
Italy 27 – 10 USA
67 mins
Haha I’m on the wrong site!
@Ben (Comment 39) :
He played his first test in 1980 as a 22-year old. His last test in 1992 as a 34-year old. There were not many tests because of apartheid, and he only missed 2 games during that period, in 1989 against a World Invitational XV.
@hendrikp (Comment 43) : As a boy, I was fortunate enough to watch Danie Gerber play in those test matches vs England in about 1984 and against the NZ Caveliers in about 1986. The was truly one of the best players I have ever seen. He may not have been the single best player of all times but certainly as far as centres go, in my lifetime of watching rugby, I regard him as the benchmark. He wasn’t a small guy either, standing 1.85m but his speed, step and attacking feel for the game were 2nd to none.
@beet (Comment 44) :
Gerber is a legend. No better stepper in world rugby ever I think.
@Pokkel (Comment 45) :
His sidestep was amazing.
I think Gerber’s legendary status reached it’s peak in that match when he slid over the tryline near the corner but didn’t dot the ball down and then casually strolled down to the posts for the 4-pointer. That was too good.
@Pokkel (Comment 45) : You must really watch this youngster Mbovane of WP play. He has an amazing step. So does our local DHS player Mbembe Paye. But obviously at the very top of rugby amongst legends, it would be hard to beat Gerber. Christian Cullen and Campo might come close.
@Ben (Comment 42) :
@beet (Comment 47) : Oh yes and I just remembered this great try from a British Lions game. Watch the stepping in this vid if you can:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwCbG4I0QyA
@beet (Comment 47) : you know I’m not a great believer in the “we must buy XYZ” school of argument….
But DAMN, I wouldn’t say not to Mbovane. Or Nizam Carr.
@hendrikp (Comment 38) : @robdylan (Comment 33) : @Ben (Comment 37) : The 19 tries in 24 tests is an amazing stat, but how’s this?
In his provincial career, Henry Honiball made 837 tackles, and missed none. 97 tackles resulted in opponents being stretchered off the field, 327 caused lasting psychological and/or emotional damage, and in an amazing 683 instances were the tackled player heard to remark afterwards: “F*** me, where did that herd of elephants come from!?”
Added to that, teams in which he played flyhalf scored an average of 16.38 tries per match. Not only was Henry so selfless that he always let someone else dot down, even when he was over the line, he even created enough scoring opportunities in one Super Rugby game to allow Gavin Lawless, a plonker of unheard of proportions, to set an record for highest individual score (50-something) in a Super Rugby game. All this because Gavin’s confidence was feeling a little low; Honiball was that kind of team player.
Also, he had the safest hands in the business; so safe in fact that he caught one of his children being born in the back of a taxi, on the way to hospital. His loyalty to the Sharks was also without peer; while playing a final year of rugby for Bristol in the UK, he would drive down to Kings Park on Sundays to assist with training during the week. And Africa was a way scarier place to drive through in those days.
Greatest. Rugby. Player. Ever.
*DISCLAIMER: I may have manipulated the truth slightly in above post. But only slightly.
@robdylan (Comment 50) : I’m a big fan of Frans Kleynhans and of late Chris Cloete as well but I have to agree with you. Nizaam has such a good feel for attacking rugby. However I really thing WP should develop him into a genuine openside fetcher. Mbovane could be every bit as good as the often underrated Lelia Masaga.
@beet (Comment 52) : agree… Carr has the most awesome hands and seems to have a real feel for the openside role too.
@Culling Song (Comment 51) : Was it DC or Marvel Comics that modelled there superheroes on Henry Honiball?
@beet (Comment 54) : Both. But they had to tone it down for fear of people finding it too unbelievable.
@Culling Song (Comment 51) : Theres something seriously wrong with you.
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 56) : You say the nicest things!
@Culling Song (Comment 31) :
How far up that list is K-Dawg nowadays?
Henry Honiball used to polish Andre Joubert’s boots before every game.
@Pokkel (Comment 58) : He did polish Jouba’s boots, because that’s the kind of team player he was. He also washed Teichmann’s jerseys before Gary figured out how to use a washing machine, because that’s the kind of team player he was. And he was better than the love child of Gary Teichmann and Andre Joubert could ever be. On steroids.
In terms of all-time greats, K-Dawg is quite far down the list. But I have a soft spot for sport people who perform despite lacking specific attributes generally required for their sport/positions(e.g. Keegan – size, Odwa – pace, André Agassi – average serve,etc.)
@Culling Song (Comment 59) :
A humble man ….just like you!
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 56) :
Too much whiskey if you ask me!!
@wpw (Comment 61) : Nah…just a huge imagination after having read 75% of all books ever written and owning 90% of all CD’s that sold less than a 1000 copies worldwide.
Naas is baas.
@McLovin (Comment 63) : Naas: the greatest player never to tackle of get tackled!
@Culling Song (Comment 51) :
One moment of Henry Honiball I’ll never forget was in a Super rugby match where he picked up Sean Fitzpatrick in a tackle and carried him about 20 meters back in the tackle.
@McLovin (Comment 63) :
I bet Naas never did that!
@Pokkel (Comment 64) : Didn’t need to, he was that good.
@Pokkel (Comment 62) : Oooh one of those okes.
@McLovin (Comment 66) : Should have played for the Lions
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 68) :