We are the champions, my friends!
Well guys and gals, I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty bloody good this morning. This hangover has been twelve long years in the making, but as I stood around my braai last night, shivering in the English autumn night and trying desperately to get the substandard charcoal to light, I felt a warmth deep inside that I hadn’t felt for many, many years. My team won the cup and it’s about bloody time!
So, from my side, a huge thank you to everybody involved, starting, of course, with the inimitable John Plumtree; calm in the face of relentless pressure, unflappable and sure in his approach. He showed faith in the team and game plan and it worked. Consistency in selection and realisation that rugby really can be a simple game, if played right, are the real strengths that Plum has brought. Well done, sir! You are our coach and we look forward to you bringing us many more trophies.
To Johann Muller: Cappie, you have taken huge strides this season and proved AGAIN and again what a massive presence you bring to the team. Never one to seek the limelight or to openly advance your claims, you are a quiet, confident, strong leader and it gives me so much pleasure to see your approach vindicated. Well done, Johann, we are all very proud of you.
The Sharks tight five has been monstrous all season. Beast, Deon, Bissie, John, Jannie, Steven (what a game!) Albert – those were the guys that did the job for us last night, but let’s not forget the hard work done by so many others during the course of the season – battling valiantly during the dark times. Robbie Harris, Burra Mthethwa, Craig Burden, Ali Hargreaves, Big Nik Blignaut and (probably most of all) Skip Badenhorst: this cup is yours too. What a team, what a tight five and what a final scrum! It brings tears to my eyes all over again, just thinking about it.
Our unsung loose-forward heroes played their part too. JB and Keegan were there all the way through, with the unstoppable Wolla Deysel and the sublime Kanko adding so much impetus in an amazing unbeaten run of ten games at the end. Nic Strauss and Skollie Ndlovu played their part as well, but Keegan in particular is the one guy without whom we wouldn’t have been in the final in the first place. Moments of game-breaking individual brilliance against first the Lions, then the Bulls, turned the tide of games that we looked sure to lose.
Ruan Pienaar and Fred Michalak just showed yesterday what true match-winners they are. Rory Kockott beat Province on his own in the first game and let’s not forget the efforts of Andy Borgen, Monty Dumond, Scott Mathie, Charl Mcleod and Brad Barritt, all of whom took up the challenge of directing the backline at some stage during the season.
Frans Steyn and Adi Jacobs, our midfield maestros, ensured that there was just no way through for the Bulls yesterday and the former, in particular, has silenced virtually all his critics in the last few weeks. What a man he is turning into. Waylon Murray is ever dependable and let’s not forget the quiet workhorse Andries Struass, or the exciting young Riaan Swanepoel, who have also played their part. I don’t have the words now to properly thank Brad Barritt for what he has done, because the fact that he has played his last game really breaks my heart.
Stefan Terblanche was the rock upon which last night’s triumph was built, while Odwa and JP are so dependable and so dangerous – I just can’t think of a better pair of wingers. Well done too to Chris Jordaan, Wes Bodmer, Henno Mentz and Lwazi Mvovo, who really put their hands up and saw us through some dark times. Congrats to you all – you are all true heroes.
Well done to the Sharks administrators as well, from BJ van Zyl and Rudi Straueli down to the assistant coaches, Bashie and Shaun, working together with a backroom cast of thousands. Well done to Michael Marnewick too – long-suffering überfan and cheerleader extraordinaire. The Sharks website is the best in the land by a long margin and the support and encouragement it provides to fan and team alike is unwavering and vital.
And well done to all of you… all of us! We have stood by this team through thick and thin and we have finally been vindicated for that. Sharks fans – we are simply the best and our team has the Currie Cup. May our voices echo long into the night and never be silenced.
SHARKS FOREVER!
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WE ARE BLACK
WE ARE WHITE
WE ARE F&CKING DYNAMITE!!!
WOW!!!!
I have no words to describe this wonderful feeling & when I got to congratulate AND , YES, KISS our Captain…..MAN OF MY MATCH!!!!, WOWWWW!!!! 😎 🙂
Hey Rob.
LOVE the new logo dude. 😎
@Me2 (Comment 3) :
So it was worth the walk up to the seats then 🙂
SHARKS ROCK!!!!!!!!
@KSA Shark © (Comment 4) : thanks pal… there’s something special about it, even though I’m no graphics whiz 🙂
I take back my, I am not feeling excited” comment from earlier
@KSA Shark © (Comment 5) : Yeah and had some friends sitting in front of us!!! Their boys and Rory all played junior tennis together…also from Pinetown…so we really felt @ home!!! 😆
Can’t thank you enough!!
What sound does Oom Stef make when he runs past you ?
I dont know…ask HABANA. 😆
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!
@Me2 (Comment 8) :
Great stuff. Glad you guys enjoyed it.
How are Debs and Milissa doing this morning?
@just blackshark (dead bull gives you mince) (Comment 9) :
Kette got an axcellent one last night on text last night.
Something along the lines of:
Ek het die Lotto gewen
Ek gaan nou suip en the Bulle Rugby span koop.
mens koop mos enige kak as jy gesuip is.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 10) : Just spoke to Milissa. Was a bad line but from what I could make out she met her Frenchman so guess that’s a 10 outta 10 weekend for her.
She’s getting ready for the airport now.
@Me2 (Comment 3) :
Did you slip the tongue in? 😆
@bryce_in_oz (Comment 13) : 😯
@bryce_in_oz (Comment 13) : 😈
@KSA Shark © (Comment 10) : It’s a bit of a story will mail you later 😀
@Me2 (Comment 16) : Please mail me too, me2 🙂
@robdylan (Go Sharks!) (Comment 1) : f’kkit rob u choked me up and i was just a temp supporter
@PJLD (Comment 18) : We’ll convert you 🙂 Shit, lightie- do you have any idea how much this means to me? I’ve been close to tears all day! How’s your ankle, btw? What did you do to it?
@robdylan (Go Sharks!) (Comment 19) :
We HAVE to convert him. He currently supports the big 5 team that hasn’t made the CC final for the longest time. 😉
years since last appearing in a final.
Cheetahs 1 year (2007)
Lions 1 Year (2007)
WP 7 years (2001)
@robdylan (Go Sharks!) (Comment 19) : i cant begin to imagine how THE sharks supporter is feeling. Ankle is not as bad as i feared,walking without much discomfort.Hurt like hell last night, damned thing just folds over every now and then,last night it happened while stepping of a chair
@PJLD (Comment 21) :
Well there is the problem.
Stepping off a chair?????????????
Dude you are to old for dancing on chairs celebrating another team’s CC win.
@PJLD (Comment 18) : lol! I was a bietjie huilerig last night when we won.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 22) :if only u knew!
@klempie (Comment 23) : nothing wrong with that meneer.nothing at all
@PJLD (Comment 21) : Glad to hear it’s not so bad. I need to go for a run, but it’s pissing here
@robdylan (Go Sharks!) (Comment 26) : farking hot here.gona rest till tuesday.dude,next time u run,chow a few slices low gi bread a few hours before your run,lemme know if it does anything for u.Im finding myself able to kick hard halfway thru and maintain that speed all the way.
@PJLD (Comment 27) : I’ll try that. I’m basically living on wholewheat bread and ricotta cheese at the moment anyway. Have been running very well this week, so I’m quite positive about the upcoming race
@KSA Shark © (Comment 20) :unlikely oubaas,wp till death.oh u forgot to mention that the team i support won the comp more times than anyone else.hell we’ve won the bugger more times in a row than u eva won it.That said,well played again for yesterday.Deserved it.
@PJLD (Comment 29) : thanks 🙂
Great article Rob.
I am really happy today, and I am glad that I have my SW mates to share this with.
@Big Fish (Comment 31) : I love you too, fishy!
@PJLD (Comment 29) :
I can’t believe I am actually going to say this but, if you take away the 17 times that WP won it before 1938 when the Bulls/NTVL came into existance then you guys are nowehere near the most succesfull. 😉
Man I must be desperate to have to resort to using the Bulls to get a point across. 😳 😳
ut victor spolium porro may regunt SHARKS SHARKS SHARKS,
may the currie cup stay so long in Durban that it begins to Rust.
Well done Sharks !!!
And did the Sharks deserved to win this final !!!
And the Sharks bullied the Bulls – off the ball – magnificently !!!
In one video-clip of 5 seconds – there were four Sharks separately bullying the Bulls off the ball.
You may tell me I am a ‘vuil-gat’ player – but that was fantastic and THAT won the Sharks the game – they ’stole’/’occupied’ the Bulls MINDS with other stuff than playing rugby !!!
KSA – Rob
hope you made the most of the time and the win – he he he .. . . . . if only I could have been a fly on the wall . . . . . . 😉
@The Brand (Comment 35) : Brand, I’m surprised you couldn’t hear me screaming from my lounge here in Kent! 🙂
@The Brand (Comment 35) :
Thanks ou.
As I mentioned on the Muller thread earlier. I was just as nervous as Johann Muller, if not more, in those last few minutes.
Nou ja toe.
Congrats the Tjarks and all their fans, well played and a deserved win!
😀
@Namboer (Comment 38) :
Thanks Nam.
@Namboer (Comment 38) : dankie meneer!
Fanks [email protected] 😎
😯
‘Uncle’…I hope that wasn’t for me!
Oh me word, now I’ve heard everything!!
😉
@Namboer (Comment 42) : it’s the horns and beard… make you look old