The Blue Bulls beat the Sharks XV at Mr Price Kings Park to progress to the Vodacom Cup semi finals, coming away with a 37 – 36 victory after two late tries pulled them from behind and again one can question the ability of a Sharks team to close out a close game.
The game started with an exchange of penalties, first by Gouws Prinsloo, and Wesley Dunlop returning the favour by equalising in the opening 5 minutes. Prinsloo got the Sharks XV back in the lead soon after with an easy penalty right in front of goal. What followed was a 10 minute period of to and fro until the Bulls were again penalised at the breakdown, taking the lead after a quarter of the match to 6 points.
This spurred the Bulls into action, and from a few phases managed to send Gerrit Jan van Velze over the tryline, which Dunlop duly converted to take the lead for the first time in the match. The possession remained with the men from Pretoria, and with nothing on in the backline, fullback Ulrich Beyers decided to take three points from a well kicked drop goal.
The Sharks XV finally managed to get their hands on the ball from the kick off, and with a few good phases put together, Francois Kleinhans went over for the five pointer. Gouws Prinsloo converted from close and the lead of three points to the Sharks was restored. On the hooter to half time, the Sharks got another penalty and Prinsloo got the Sharks leading 19 – 13 at the break.
The second half got off to a great start for the Sharks, with Prinsloo extending their lead to 9 points immediately after kick off. And things just got better as Sbu Sithole ended off a good backline move, after the ball went to ground and the Bulls stopped playing, but cantered around to under the posts to give Prinsloo an easy conversion, and the Sharks a 16 point cushion.
The Bulls started a comeback, first through a Dunlop penalty, and then Courtnall Skosan collecting a brilliant cross kick to reduce the deficit of the Bulls to only 6 points, following the Dunlop conversion. This led to a final quarter that would be very interesting indeed.
With 8 minutes to play as replacement winger Chris Jordaan went on a magical run to put another five points on the board, and with Gouws Prinsloo adding two, the lead was 13 points with 6 minutes to play.
The Bulls proceeded to throw everything including the kitchen sink at the Sharks, and with them camping on the Sharks line in search for the try, Kyle Cooper was sin binned for repeated offences by the men from Durban in attempts to slow the ball down. This eventually led to Ulrich Beyers crossing the line for the five pointer. This made is a six point game with a minute to play and it wasn’t long before the Bulls were again on the attack, and again crossed the line to kill off the Sharks XV’s chances in the Vocacom Cup.
Scorers:
Sharks:
Tries: Francois Kleinhans, S’bura Sithole, Chris Jordaan
Conversions: Gouws Prinsloo (3 from 3)
Penalties: Gouws Prinsloo (5 from 6)
Bulls:
Tries: Gerit Jan van Velze, Courtnall Skosan, Ulrich Beyers.
Conversions: Wesley Dunlop (2 from 2), Tony Jantjies (2 from 2)
Penalties: Wesley Dunlop (1 from 1)
Drop Goal: Ulrich Beyers (1 from 1)
seriously? How do they do that…
If we could teach our teams that same killer instinct, somehow…
Typical Sharks choke by the sounds of it, what we have become accustomed to.
This result is indicative of all that is wrong with the entire Sharks union at the moment.
@siorc (Comment 2) : hate to agree, but I do
@robdylan (Comment 1) :
Very disappointing finish..
@robdylan (Comment 3) : how many times have we seen a Sharks team content to just defend a lead? The result is only one of two things: a narrow win or a narrow loss.
Infuriating as a fan.
Can’t believe why any sports team would simply sit back and allow the result to come into contention.
seriously, hands up anyone who honestly believed we would win… As soon as Cooper got carded I knew we were gone.
@robdylan (Comment 6) :
This very article was written very differently with two minutes to go..
I honestly thought we had it in the bag..
And to think it all came from a Gouws Prinsloo penalty kick which he didn’t put out…
The Sharks (all ages, all teams) are blessed with a truly rare ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
@Culling Song (Comment 8) :
Well said..
There’s something fundamentally wrong at the Sharks. There’s no structure, there’s poor technical skills and a bunch of individuals playing for themselves. Jeepers, Chadwick needs to learn how to tackle, how many more tries at crucial times of the game is he going to let through?…Ndungane needs to head overseas…
big match temperament is sorely lacking in Durban…let’s see if the main manne will restore faith against the opportunistic landers.
I’ve said it before, in a vital time of the game you don’t change a winning combination of players in vital positions,Gouws should of kicked that ball out, but comon guys he is a full back,Zeilinga controlled and communicated with his forwards and backs and all went well, Gouws had no communication at all and look what went wrong, not just his fault but we need a step up when we on the back foot. Coaches need to re think when and who to replace at vital times,a real disappointed performance by the sharks xv
@robdylan (Comment 6) : when they changed flyhalves I knew but that’s life enjoy the super 15 game
A few of these guys have hardly played this season. What are they to do now? return to club rugby and wait for the Currie Cup? wait for a call up to Super rugby?
We desperately need a team in the Varsity Cup
So we can’t even say that when our youngsters come through we’ll be able to pull the close ones through.
@Megatron (Comment 11) : As much as i’d like it to, it won’t happen.
Only one team looked like a Championship team, and that was the Bulls. Justice prevailed in the end, to be honest.
Of the entire Sharks team, I can only really see that T5 pushing hard for senior spots soon.
@Big Fish (Comment 17) : Kleinhans is a star as well dude. Didn’t really have his best game to date today.. Same for Tera.
@Ben (Comment 18) : For sure, and I also think Sithole has talent.
But honestly, none of those guys looked ready to step up any time soon.
The one guy who really stood out in the game was Jan Serftonein. Bulls have so many talented young centres.
@Big Fish (Comment 19) : Agreed. Their scouting system really works well for them.
Oh and I thought Reinach had a great game. Might be a option to look at him seeing as all the 9′s in the SR squad are pretty mediocre. That includes McLeod, Michalak and Hoffman!
@Ben (Comment 20) : that’s an understatement. Their scouts seem to cherry pick the best talent for the Bulls. Wonder if they’re armed with blank cheques when they hit the school boy festivals!
I would like to know who the Sharks scouts are. Do we just have Streauli and Scriba doing recruitment?
I think we have the talent but just need some proper coaching as is very evident in the Super rugby team.
@slammerboy (Comment 21) : “I think we have the talent but just need some proper coaching as is very evident in the Super rugby team.”
Amen Brother!
@Ben
100% agree – there is more than enough talent. Problems were the missed touch and then coaches brain mulfuction to replace 9 and 10 when both having good games and team had momentum. I just hope the idea of replacing Reinach with the out of form Hoffman not aimed at giving him game time for Super 15 – if so then they have blood on their hands as it cost the others who have grafted whole season a place in semis as well as financially!
We more than held our own in the scrums and for the most part defended superbly. I think we were a little thin on attack.
Congratulations, young Bulls – BMT shown, bodes well for the future & that’s the way we like it …uh…, uh…
@Ben (Comment 18) : Agree!
@slammerboy (Comment 21) : I was thinking the same thing this afternoon….looks like we just buy without looking at the big picture and team dynamics. Also find it strange that we let Rhodes and Pat go and they turned out to be really good when they were coached by someone else..
@snakeslayer (Comment 23) :
Still think Chadwick is a better scrummager than Beast?
Regarding Hoffman, I’ve always been a fan of his potential, but he produced about 20 minutes of the worst scrumhalf play I have seen in some time on Saturday.
Injuries haven’t been kind to the guy, but I’m not sure what’s gone wrong since then.
Sharks severely lack in the mental department again – shows in teams at all levels. Bulls on the other hand seems to have this drilled in even at junior levels
Easy on Chadwick – the guy must be dead man walking by now – he pretty much played all games full time in the S15
@Bokhoring (Comment 28) :
Not being hard on Chadwick at all. As I stated above, he was one of the best in the Sharks XV. The point is that Beast demonstrated palpably that he remains by far the premier LH in SA today.
@Big Fish (Comment 29) : Definitely would want Beast ahead of Chadwick any day myself.
@big fish (comment 27)
I agree Beast had a good game, however my concern was that he was carried by Schonert & Cooper in the 2 Vodacom games. As for being the premier No. 1 in SA, not convinced – there are plenty of youngsters putting up their hands, Kitshoff for one.
@snakeslayer (Comment 31) :
“There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
@bigfish (coomment 32)
You need to take the log out of your eye and you will see. Sadly his time has come and gone
@snakeslayer (Comment 31) : Geeeez, dude, the guy just came off an injury?!?
@snakeslayer (Comment 33) :
snakeslayer is Dale Chadwick and I claim my R50 compliments of ABSA!
@wpw (Comment 36) :
