The Valke come up against the Sharks in Durban tonight.
Will the visitors continue their giant-slaying antics?
Or will the home team bounce back from their pasting in Pretoria and record an impressive win?
Kick-off at ABSA Stadium is at 19h10.
Teams:
Sharks: 15 Stefan Terblanche, 14 Chris Jordaan, 13 Waylon Murray, 12 Bradley Barritt, 11 Wesley Bodmer, 10 Monty Dumond, 9 Scott Mathie, 8 Keegan Daniel, 7 Nic Strauss, 6 Jacques Botes, 5 Johann Muller (captain), 4 Albert van den Berg, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Skipper Badenhorst, 1 Robbie Harris.
Replacements: 16 Craig Burden, 17 Melusi Mthethwa, 18 Nikolai Blignaut, 19 Skholiwe Ndlovu, 20 Charl McLeod, 21 Andries Strauss, 22 Frederic Michalak.
Valke: 15 Jacques Schutte, 14 Dewald Pretorius, 13 Rouan Cloete, 12 Hanno Coetzee (captain), 11 Ernie Kruger, 10 Len Olivier, 9 Gerrie Odendaal, 8 Sean Plaatjies, 7 Reg Muller, 6 Warren Perkins, 5 Marius Coetzer, 4 Wouter Moore, 3 Nico Pretorius, 2 Rayno Barnes, 1 Gavin Whittingham.
Replacements: 16 Frik Venter, 17 Rassie van Vuuren, 18 Reg Perkins, 19 Emile Verster, 20 Bolla Adams, 21 Jeff Perkins, 22 Mpho Matsaung.
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan
Touch judges: Pro Legoete, Reuben Rossouw
TMO: Shaun Veldsman
Tweet
Go Sharks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apologies for the time travel, 😳 but we are about to leave to go to the game. 😎 😎
right after we have made our SB picks. 😉
Go sharks!
Televised in SA?
@Big Fish (Comment 3) : Believe so
It is indeed – SS1 at 19:10.
@Big Fish (Comment 5) : Let’s hold thumbs
c’mon
ok – for once, I actually have my feed up and running in good time for the game. Now. let’s hope it’s a good one
My feed is awful
Going to have to listen more than watch
Amazing what a difference a good ref makes
Tmo for possible try to albert. Doesn’t look good
Jirre…that Dewald Pretorius on the wing for Valke is a big chap!
Valke playing great rugby. You can see they are coached by Rudi Joubert!
Not grounded. Man, kaplan is a good ref
@robdylan (Comment 15) : Yes, he is STILL number 1 and its always a good game when he refs!
How are you watching?
monty lining up a shot
3-0 Sharks
come on, okes!
our scrums and lineouts are looking very good
Try BOTES!!
try BOTES!!!
take a bow Wes Bodmer and Chris Jordaan
@robdylan (Comment 17) : Sky Sports
and it’s 10-0
@Villie (Comment 25) : ah – ok. That’ll teach me
@Villie (Comment 25) : so they’ve had every sharks match bar 1 on so far?
@robdylan (Comment 24) : I REALLY like this Jordaan, have been mega impressed with what I’ve seen of him!!!
I like what I’m seeing (well, sort of seeing)… big tackles, good commitment in the forwards
@Villie (Comment 29) : he’s my pal on FaceBook as of today 😉
Sharks concede a strange penalty for Mathie dropping back more than 1m but less that 5?
Schutte lining this up – and it’s over! 10-3. Meanwhile, Ernie Kruger is off and Matuang is on
@robdylan (Comment 28) : Yeah. Can’t complain so far this season. They’ve shown a lot more CC rugby all round.
And if you have a Sky credit card and use it loads, you earn points and can use your points to knock off your Sky bill!
kick-off not 10m… dammit STef
Keegan is playing superbly at number 8!
@Villie (Comment 34) : what does it cost these days? Still £17 a month?
the whole pack is playing well… backline defence letting us down
Bodmer’s having a good half… very involved
Skollie on for Strauss
@robdylan (Comment 37) : Haven’t a clue. I’ve got the whole caboodle. 2 Sky Plus Systems, multi room and the top package so I pay loads! 😛
and Brad is also off
That Dewald Pretorius looks impressive. Someone to keep an eye on for future!
in hindsight, we shouldn’t have risked Brad for this game
@Villie (Comment 43) : he belongs to the Bulls
Botes concedes a penalty for hands in… on th Valke 10,
Jannie’s hands are letting him down
Kaplan “can you stop swearing? Just a little bit…”
@robdylan (Comment 45) : Well they have enough players. We can still monitor him if the Bulls don’t want him
TMO for a possible try to Hanno Coetzee 🙁
@Villie (Comment 49) : true… would be a good one to have
@robdylan (Comment 50) : sorry – Rouan Cloete. No try.
22 drop out
shit – some possession would be nice
Sharks camped on the line and just can’t score!
and Skollie scores! after the hooter
kick is missed. 15-3 at half time
shit, we have missed 16 tackles in this half!
Such a pleasure watching Sharks wings who can step, swerve and think on their feet. Would love to know if they have pace too.
Brad wasn’t good – obviously not better yet. Murray is looking very good so far – great defence and hands so far.
Monty and especially Mathie are selfish, distribute badly and indecisive – you cant have halfbacks like that!
Please bring on Mcleod already!
Oh, and Strauss looked pretty good until his subbing.
Hi Rob – shocking defence hey?
Hi BF. Must agree with you regarding Monty – he needs to pass the ball.
@Big Fish (Comment 58) : so how many of my wishes have come true so far? 😉
Oh – and I like the look of Wesley.
@Nessa (Comment 59) : not so good. Although I’m watching what amounts to powerpoint with commentary, so it’s not like I can actually see anything
@Nessa (Comment 62) : he looks the part in a big way… very impressed.
Wings, Waylon and we should win.
So I guess the 3 “W’s” are happening.
Albert is playing well Rob – what a boytjie!!!! 😀
@Big Fish (Comment 65) :
It’s about time Waylon gets his ass into gear.
Oh – and one more thing – I love Jonathan Kaplan! What a difference it makes to have a decent ref!
And now it is raining.
Can we actually tackle now????? Geez guys.
@Nessa (Comment 69) : great
sharks must be playing with the lightest loose trio in Currie Cup history
nice tackle, Stef
Stefan’s defence has been good.
He did well to leave that ball.
you know, I reckon that’s about the 3rd breakdown penalty Kaplan has blown all game so far
@Nessa (Comment 74) : Stef is doing well all round
Not impressed with Jannie tonight.
Just when I complement Waylon – it is twice in a row he doesn’t pass the ball.
MONTY 👿
We really need 5 points from the game tonight. 2 more tries please guys!!!!! 😀
Monty just butchered a try
penalty against STrauss on halfway – hands in
Now the sprinklers have come one!
Sorry – meant “on”. 😳
one of the sprinklers on the field has jsut come on!
Kaplan keeps asking the Falke to watch their language – never heard that before! The guys look quite amused.
Kaplan has had enough lip from Frik Venter to last all night
Valke score!!!
dammit! Try to Gerrie Odendaal.
Nothing good ever comes from Affies
10 – 15 to the Sharks. The Valke are in this game.
15-8…
nope, 15-10
Go Stefan – he is the only one looking like he wants a try.
kickable penalty for us… Monty’s having a shot
our discipline is letting us down a bit now
And he scores!
18-10!
Very scrappy hey Rob?
these perkins’s all look pretty rof
Well – I am going to log off and watch the rest of the game and hopefully the Sharks can get their act together and score 2 more tries.
Have a good evening Rob.
@Nessa (Comment 97) : bloody awful.
Wings doing well rob but we still need more tries. Waylon maybe?
@Nessa (Comment 99) : cheers ness
@blackshark (Comment 101) : would be nice!
tell you what, Skollie is impressing me AGAIN
Scott Macleod is on
Fred is on!
FRED is back
Jannie is getting klapped in the scrum
keegan!
Keegan scores a BEAUT of a Sharks try
23-10
kick is no good
Great try that by daniel
Fred so nearly intercepts!
@Bok-Clyde-Kiwi (Comment 113) : how good was Harris! 🙂
Welcome to the Sharks, Burra!
TMO – Strauss may have scored
not given! Exellent attempt
last chance now
and Botes scores it!
monty misses a sitter! 28-10
that’s full-time. 28-10.
Somebody shoot Monty Dumond!
Macleod was very disappointing. Still,at least he isn’t Scott Mathie.
5 points in the bag
I loveeeee my Sharks.
Loved the Ref and his multiple requests to limit the swearing.
Loved my Keegan and my Jacques’ tries and of course my thankfully non-blonde Fred.
I really want it to be September now..I want my SA rugby trip part deux ehh I mean honeymoon.
Ok, I’ve just caved and ordered sky sports. I just hope they’re showing the sharks-cheetahs game next week
I have not read the comments but have this to say after the game.
Get the Valke backline coach to Durban ASAP!!!!!!!!!!! Thier backline is WAY better than it should be. We have our great defence to thank for not getting a hiding tonight.
Their backline looked so much more like a Premier div backline than ours did.
Oh and if Dewald pretorius wants to come with the coach please let him 😉
@robdylan (Comment 121) :
And Robs me of my margin point in SB. 👿 The way he kicked tonight you would swear he was shaving points or something. 👿
@KSA Shark © (Comment 127) : What and risk losing the great Grant Bashford?
If my cable company didn’t suck I could order Setanta sports and get all the CC, S14 & Tri Nations games but noooo Comcast is evil and won’t pick the channel up no matter how many letters or calls I put in to them.
Verizon too now b/c Setanta is available on their Fios service which of course isn’t in my area.
My only option is Dish which is something I’ll look at once my mediazone subscription runs out in January.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 128) : Hopefully Rory will be back next week
@robdylan (Comment 131) : I hope so. He is on all my CC teams and with my random picks I need all the help I can get.
@Milissa (Comment 130) : How good is the quality on mediazone for you?
@robdylan (Comment 131) :
That would be nice. I was actually impressed with Dumond thusfar this season but tonight was a shocking night for his kicking.
Just imagine Kockott, Michalak, Barrit?, Murray etc. in the backline.
We are slowly regaining players.
When I am watching from work amazing…At home it’s great as long as I’m in the office right on top of the modem/router…Wireless not so great..cos comcast sucks speed wise in general.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 134) : I don’t expect to see Brad back next week
@Milissa (Comment 135) : Just recently, it’s so bad I can’t even watch. Thinking it must be my bandwidth here
@KSA Shark © (Comment 134) : “Just imagine Kockott, Michalak, Barrit?” …that is like wet dream material right there
Nic Strauss looked good tonight. Hope his injury isn’t serious
@Milissa (Comment 138) :
@robdylan (Comment 139) :
He did. I was surprised to see he is almost 30 years old 😯 Where was he before?
Botes of course was impressive.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 141) : JB is definitely on my kiss list..I think he has at least four kisses coming his way.
😆 my entire honeymoon is going to be spent kissing other men
@KSA Shark © (Comment 141) : Bedford. Rudi’s old club. He was there for 4 years
@robdylan (Comment 32) :
Law says if the scrum half moves away from the scrum he must move away the whole five meters to the offside line for the rest of the backline.
it was miscommunication between him and Daniel. He tapped daniel on the back as he went but I think Daniel didn’t feel it and Mathee was stranded in no-man’s land.
@Milissa (Comment 142) :
your hubby is way to easy going
@KSA Shark © (Comment 144) : Kaplan blew a superb game, didn’t he? Hard to believe these were the exact same laws as last week
@robdylan (Comment 146) : 😀
So true. I enjoyed seeing a calm and collected ref being prepared to make his own decisions 😉
And as for asking the Brakpan skollies to stop swearing? Well he ain’t EVER gonna manage that….. 😉
@KSA Shark © (Comment 145) : haha I think he thinks that me being able to give some of the kisses earned during the S14 was a fluke but little does he know I’ve got big plans for this SA trip.
I need to check when the game is being re-broadcast on SS so that i can sit and watch it.
i really enjoyed the game and would love to hear the ref’s comments and commentators as well.
@robdylan (Comment 146) : Hell I’m willingly to add the ref to my kiss list. Finally a ref who didn’t need to have his whistle surgically removed from his lips after the end of the game.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 149) : Some of his comments were classic!
@robdylan (Comment 151) : I second that..I’m glad there is no one around on Friday b/c I kept raising the volume to catch all of his comments.
@Milissa (Comment 152) : He’s such a bright, funny guy
@robdylan (Comment 139) : Rob, I have to disagree, and that is unusual. I thought Ndlovu was far more impressive when he came on. I am surprised he has not been given a start. hehehehe, anybody up at this hour? Almost midnight here, and still waiting up for the Bok game. Anyone up this early?
I really enjoyed watching this game, by far the most entertaining of the Currie Cup games so far. I wonder how much of that has to do with the way Kaplan blew the game, he was very impressive in my opinion.
I am sort of here…trying to stay awake for both the Boks and Surfing down in Jeffreys Bay. Travis Logie takes on Kelly Slater this morning so I’ve got my fingers crossed for Travis.
Good one Sharkies, and a big thanks to Kaplan for allowing the boys to play
Who is the VALKE no. 8 ?
@blackshark (Comment 158) : Sean Plaatjes
@Dancing Bear (Comment 154) : They were there to do very different things, imo. I was impressed with Nic’s intensity and impact at the ruck. Skollie is an out-and-out opensider and should be coming on to replace JB or Keegan
my only complaint about kaplan is he wasn’t blowing the new laws correctly. at ruck time he stopped the opposition touching the ball, yet the new rules state (i may have misinterpreted them)as long as you are on your feet and arrive at the ruck legally you have rights to the ball. he also allowed far too many rucks to be sealed off and players on the ground the chance to maneuver the ball when the new rules state that if you are on the groundf you are not allowed to touch the ball.
as for the sharks, their defence was a tad better. the thing that will be their downfall though if they don’t fix it quickly is their poor communication and lack of support play. far to often the sharks players were caught in the tackle with none of their players around them. the only player that seems interested supporting the ball carrier is jb and he is the leading try scorer due to it. stefan (again) showed how poor his communication and decision making was. regularly he carried the ball up, but then tried his best to get as far away from his team as possible. he was unwilling to maneuver towards some of his players so he could offload. keegan is also to blame a little here. he reminds me of the old luke watson, that thought he didn’t need the team, he could do everything himself. same as keegan, he has talent, but no team spirit. he constantly is out of position and runs away from his supporters. the positives i have about the sharks is the new wings. they are showing some true pedigree and with a little more work could be vital to the sharks.brad and fred settled things nicely in the backline and i am looking forward to next week when their form starts coming back.
@try time (Comment 162) : Except I think Brad fucked himself badly last night
yeah i thought he may have been rushed into the team. i would have rather let him get over his niggles before throwing him back in. he wasn’t needed last night.
@Dancing Bear (Comment 155) :
Also have to consider the enterprising no holds barred attacking play by the Falcons backs.
They seem a MUCH better team under Rudy Joubert.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 165) : Wish we had joubert in our ranks
@blackshark (Comment 158) :
Sean Plaatjies. He seems to be about 10 years older than me. Plays a good game but gets tired a little earlier than the other guys. 😉
He was born on 22 June ’78 BTW.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 167) : So he’s younger than me! Ouch!
@robdylan (Comment 168) :
😆 He looks like a Bullet.