It’s the big one… The Sharks aiming to win in Bloemfontein for the first time since 2003.
Will the Cheetahs maintain their unbeaten record over the Sharks (in this competition) to ten matches?
Or will the injury-ravaged, yet unpredictable Sharks show their bite?
Kick-off in Bloem in at 17h05.
Free State Cheetahs: 15 Bevin Fortuin, 14 Eddie Fredericks, 13 JW Jonker, 12 Robert Ebersohn, 11 Jongi Nokwe, 10 Chris Rossouw, 9 Neil Powell, 8 Schalk van der Merwe, 7 Hendro Scholtz (captain), 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Barend Pieterse, 4 David de Villiers, 3 Kobus Calldo, 2 Jaco du Toit, 1 Wian du Preez.
Replacements: 16 Richardt Strauss, 17 Phillip Lemmer, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Kabamba Floors, 20 Tewis de Bruyn, 21 Hendrik Meyer, 22 Fabian Juries.
Sharks: 15 Stefan Terblanche, 14 Chris Jordaan, 13 Waylon Murray, 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Henno Mentz, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Scott Mathie, 8 Keegan Daniel, 7 Nikolai Blignaut, 6 Jacques Botes, 5 Johann Muller (captain), 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Skipper Badenhorst, 1 Deon Carstens.
Replacements: 16 Craig Burden, 17 Robbie Harris, 18 Albert van den Berg, 19 Skholiwe Ndlovu, 20 Charl McLeod, 21 Riaan Swanepoel, 22 Monty Dumond.
Referee: Mark Lawrence
Touch judges: Theuns Jonker, Peet Badenhorst
TMO: Michael Cupido
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Bit pessimistic about this one, but Go Sharks!
Go Sharks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is probably the hardest field Michalak has ever played on 😆
DB.
You got the game on? or need updates?
Damn mediazone is showing the Bulls game replay instead of the Sharks game like they are supposed to!
@Dancing Bear (Comment 5) :
Ouch.
Go SHARKS! Sorry DB…
6min
0-0
both teams seem keen to run the ball.
Sharks looking the better team even if i wasn’t wearing these sunglasses 😉
mark lawrence sporting a beard, makes his highlights even more noticable.
Finally fixed by Mediazone. OK going to watch now.
Cheetahs turn over Sharks ball in Cheetahs half and Fortuin BOOOOTS it up field to bounce 1CM short of the deab ball line.
mentz gathers with the Cheetahs chasing and then passes to Michalak in goal 😯
Michalak knocks it.
Fredericks try.
Blame mentz for that IMO. 👿
Conversion by Klein Chips is over.
7 – 0 Cheetahs
11min
Rossouw kicks the ball from inside his 22 and Daniel touches it before it goes into touch inside our 22.
Cheetahs LO in our 22 👿
Stefan slices a PK and doesn’t find touch.
Powell slices it even more and puts it out on the full
Sharks LO in the Cheetahs half
Michalak fumbles another
PK Rossouw
10 – 0 Cheetahs
18min
@KSA Shark © (Comment 8) :
Not anymore 🙄
🙂 😳 😛
Cheetahs looking much better than us 👿
pieterse Charges down a kick from Mathie 3m out. 👿
Botes cleans up well and we win the penalty at the ruck 😳
@KSA Shark © (Comment 19) : It just does’nt make sense when you look at the teams on paper. That is the Sharks “UNDERPERFORMING” like they do. 😡
Sharks have a 3 on 2 situation and then do a skip pass to negate their own advantage 👿
Buy the Valke backline coach now! Please?
@Silver Fox (Comment 21) :
i am pulling my hair out here. and I don’t have much 😳
Michalak shot at goal from the Cheetahs 10m line.
Over
10 – 3 Cheetahs
33min
Stefan passes a loop pass over two players into no-man’s land 🙁
Nice little grubber by Stefan puts us on attack with a LO on their 5m line.
DG by Michalak JUST misses to the right 🙁
PK Sharks Michalak taking shot at goal from the Cheetahs 10m line
Miss to the right 🙁
Hooter goes Sharks get PK
Stefan decides to go at goal from 5m inside his own half 10m in from touch
Not Over but not sure how that missed. Looked close.
Time to start the fire.
back in a bit
Waylon at least ran straight today, but still looking a shadow of himself.
If there is anybody else here, tell me this – did JP have a poor game today? I know I am biased, but SA Rugby gave Jantjies a 5,5 and him a 4,5 – I think thats ridiculous.
@Big Fish (Comment 32) : JP did some good things, but are playing way below his potential. I too will rate his game at around 4 for today.
Sharks look good for the 1st 30 sec in the 2nd half. 😉
@KSA Shark © (Comment 34) : 😆
Stefan does a one arm cross field throw-in for a quick LO and the Sharks get man and ball at the same time 🙁
PK Cheetahs. quick tap and go and we turn it over 😳
Come on Sharks!
And YES I am still sober…MONTY on
It seems that there’s nothing happening every 5 minutes lasting for 20. 👿
Don’t look now but the Lions r 2nd on the log
😀
Bevin Fortuin try
Dunno how Lawrence saw the ball being grounded in the maul, but good call, it was a try.
Conversion Over
17 – 3 Cheetahs
59min
@Silver Fox (Comment 39) :
Sorry I lost my connection
@CoffeeShopBok;-) (Comment 40) :
well done there CSB 😉 it looks as if you are gonna stay 2nd as well if we keep playing the way we are. 🙁
@KSA Shark © (Comment 42) : Was not directed at you, but at game. 😀
Sharks PK going at goal from 30m out.
@Silver Fox (Comment 44) :
No worries 🙂 😀
Over by Dumond
17 – 6 Cheetahs
63min
Sharks reserves seem to have sparked the Sharks
about 12 phases with the ball now from our half to the Cheetahs 22 where we win another PK 5m in from touch.
Dumnd going at goal again
Dumond puts it over with the shortest run up in world rugby 🙂
17 – 9 Cheetahs
67min
Fabien Juries Try!!!!
Conversion Over
24 – 9 Cheetahs
69min
I missed a try 😥
31 – 9 Cheetahs
73min
@KSA Shark © (Comment 52) : S vd Merwe scored
Cheetahs’ Try scorers
Fredericks (11th min),
Fortuin (57th min),
Juries (69th min),
Van der Merwe (70th min)
@Silver Fox (Comment 53) :
Thanks
Drubbing of Note 🙁
Oh lovely
@KSA Shark © (Comment 56) : Sad to say, but a long time coming. 🙁
FULL TIME
Cheetahs 31 – 9 Sharks
Log updated
Cheetahs go 3rd
Sharks go 4th 🙁
1st to 4th in one foul swoop
@robdylan (Comment 57) : Was the visit at least worth your while? 🙂
I am afraid i have to be off, having my last braai in SA before going abck 😳
@KSA Shark © (Comment 63) : Enjoyed the company. 🙂
Sharks nearly as bad as WP
i have never seen a sharks team play so badly for so long
the team has no structure
the backline is so porr its scary , the lineouts??
hell we got murdered , the only place we did well was in scrums
gees all one has to do is look at how the falcons play with lesser names then the sharks and see what good coaching does
the thing is the bad coaching has been all year not just now
@sharks_lover (Comment 66) :
Sad- ( not really 😈 ) but true SL
You okes should send faktupfreDDy back home
He is seriously screwing up your momentum!
Ah
I have the pOOl aLL by meself!
😀
Ag Ok – I wiLL leave!
than you can throw tantrums at each uDDer!
If the Valke continue 2 play like they did last nite they might even make the semis…
@sharks_lover (Comment 66) :
There is no doubt that the Sharks have coaching problems.
Thing is, history shows that the Sharks Administrators tend to err on the side of caution is appointing new staff and letting failures go.
Bashford has been shocking since he started, and Plumtree hasn’t looked all that much better.
@Oranje Orakel (Comment 69) :
Sorry old chap, you are in the wrong place if you are looking for excuses and spiteful snipes. Bit different to what you are used to I am sure.
What a bad week-end. I got burgled on Madiba’s birthday night. The Boks go down, the Sharks go down! Where to now?
As far as the Sharks go, I agree with Sharks Lover- the Coach needs to start taking responsibility for these poor performaces. Back line is pathetic, no punch at all, and with all that experience???
@Big Fish (Comment 71) : well said, Fishface.
What experience MrG? Stefan is past it, Henno has tits for hands, Waylon is getting better, who else has experience in that backline?
Michalak was very poor, should have been subbed much earlier in the match. So we play you guys next…
@wpw (Comment 74) : nah dude.
Tits are useful
😆 rob
Barritt has bn out injured for some time now. No wonder the Sharks are doing so badly… 🙄
@wpw (Comment 78) : exactly.
I goes deeper than that, though! As Fish says… backline coaching is none existent.
@Big Fish (Comment 71) : @robdylan (Comment 73) :
I comment on what I experience- here in this pOOl- Boet – not the childish baBBle excreted way back on the uDDer side of the “world”.
read your own posts for a change….
Not just those when you want to sound serene and “in charge of your own emotions”
But then bullshiTTing have a way of finding its way back home!
Eish – about not finding “excuses”
What a laugh!
@Oranje Orakel (Comment 80) : You familiar with the term ‘schadenfreude’? Shouldn’t you rather be living it up with your mates on cheetahsworld?
@robdylan (Comment 81) :
I am way familiar with “Schadenfreude” RobD
And am living the concept of Mudita – except in one or two instances
😀
Mind you “Cheetahsworld” might just be a gOOde idea- in the meantime I will be a cybersquatter. I sommer chat the whole time with me pals- right here in the coMMunity I live.
So where do you think the $hark$ Coaching will play Ruan and Steyn when they become available?
@Oranje Orakel (Comment 82) : are they necessarily any better than what we have? Who knows – under the current coaching regime, all players look equally shit 😉
Ruan at 10 and Frans at 15 would be my call… “Next Generation” Sharks backline (with a new coach, God willing)
9 Rory, 10 Ruan, 11 JPP, 12 Brad, 13 Adi, 14 Odders, 14 Frans
20 Macleod, 21 Murray, 22 Bodmer.
@Oranje Orakel (Comment 82) : BTW – jokes aside. Let me know if you’d be keen on setting up “CheetahsWorld”… maybe we can share some infrastructure and ideas, but have something that’s completely Orange-branded and tailored more to your style of folk… what you think?
I read my own posts OO, and there is no dissonance between what I say and what I espouse- would that you could claim the same. But then you seem to have made a career of claiming a moral higher ground that only you can see. But that is your right- just as it is mine not to entertain your rather obvious inferiority complex. Scroll button it is then.
@robdylan (Comment 84) : Forkit, but megalomania is a concept that comes very natrually to me 😉
Friends – I am about to hop on yet another plane (I wonder if Dawn is reading and still thinks I just do this to show off!)
I’ll be in the Stats (no OO – not the FREE State!) in about 10 hours. Will catch up again then.
@Big Fish (Comment 85) :
“Inferiority Complex”
Hehehe
long shot that Boet – but then geTTing personal is actually a compliment – haPPy scroLLing!
RobD- I will doNNer oFf regardless- but pending the schedule of the fakawebird- will be intouch on a possible Oranje glad “cheetahworld”
Cheers!
OO, you forgot to capitalise the es in chEErs.
@Oranje Orakel (Comment 88) : Plenty of sensitivities to be trampled on by the orange clan today… up to you if you choose to exploit that or not
@hellbent (Comment 89) :
soRRy HB
saLLiwEERRie
OO – doNNeRRing oFF!
chEErs!
Sorry…but this result was expected…
Said it last week…
With ELV’s looseforwards have a greater effect on the game…and with Blighnaut there who is less physical than any of the Cheetahs 3 loose forwards and slower with an even less physical player in Ndlovu to replace him the Sharks were always going to be out of it….
@robdylan (Comment 83) :
YOu guys are going to lose some great up and coming back 3 of the likes of Jordaan and Swanepoel for the S14 due to JPP, Odwa, Terblanch…
@Hmmm (Comment 93) :
I don’t think so, we have (in the past) a pretty good rotation policy that has kept the “non-players” happy. I just hope things stay the same now that we have a new coach.
And sorry to the Daniels fans…but he is more trouble than he is worth…
He gives away dumb penalties…and his attitude that he needs to make up for his total lack of physicality is not helping him…
Like the once when he tackled Stoltz (even though Stoltz still moved forward about ¾ meters in the tackle he pushes Stoltz’s head into the ground as if to say “so you are not so tough”…I mean don’t you usually have to smash a guy to have an attitude about it? Stoltz was like “what the heck”…so surprised that he did not even retaliate….just like lying there shaking his head…
And he has no impact on the game…only time you notice him is when he does something wrong….
Must say Botes does stretch the defence…even the backline players…but he does not have the usual impact he had when it was him AJ and Kanko…
I think he is required to do too much of the grinding…which is not his strong point as he is not very physical…but not only that it almost nullifies the impact he could have in general play and slowing down oppo ball at the breakdown by getting to the tackle ball situation quickly….
@KSA Shark © (Comment 94) :
I hope so for your sake KSA….
It would be a tragedy to lose players like Swanepoel and Jordaan due to former stalwarts (and I mean former as in the sense that you cannot reply on them anymore)…
Likes of Murray/Mentz/etc playing off the bench or making the S14 squad in stead of them….
Sharks have a No 7 problem…
Kanko’s return will sort out 8 (although he is not a physical presence at the breakdown or in the tight facets)…so they have no one enforcing at the breakdowns…and they need to find a tougher 4!??!
@Oranje Orakel (Comment 91) : At 1 st I thought that you were typing with thumbs.
Now I realise you are from FS.
Good luck . LOL.
@Hmmm (Comment 97) :
We could never rely on Mentz. he had MAYBE one good season and that was it, he never got back to his top form after breaking his leg. The wings that were used in his absence in the previous two rounds of the CC are much better than him
@KSA Shark © (Comment 100) :
I agree….but he is still higher in the pecking order and therefor viewed to be a former stalwart…
How slow is Murray…
I mean Kabamba is not slow….but the way (in spite being the ball carrier) pull away from him like a backline player is expected to from a forward….
At that rate if they ran over 100 meters my guess is Kabamba would beat him by about 15 meters…and that is a massive difference….
@Hmmm (Comment 102) :
Murray should maybe look at moving to loose forward!??! He is far too slow for a backline players!??!