Defending champions Canterbury Crusaders held on for a hard-fought 13-10 win over the Sharks on Saturday in their Super 14 match at King’s Park.
“We had so many opportunities, but our final decisions and our handling let us down,” said Sharks captain Johann Muller.
“Our finishing was terrible tonight.”
The Sharks started well, with a try by lock Steven Sykes in the 10th minute, after absorbing early pressure.
RugbyHeaven Aus reports that Crusaders flyhalf Stephen Brett then kicked a 25th-minute penalty goal before flanker Kieran Reid burst away from a ruck and fed No. 8 Scott Waldrom. Waldrom fed Richie McCaw who cantered over unchallenged in his return to Super 14 rugby following injury.
Brett converted and the halftime score was 10-7 to the Crusaders.
Scrumhalf Andy Ellis stretched the lead to 13-7 just after the break with a drop goal, and the Crusaders spent much of the rest of the match defending as the Sharks threw everything into attack.
Scrumhalf Rory Kockott kicked a 70th minute penalty to make it 13-10.
After the final hooter had sounded, the Sharks held onto the ball through a succession of attacks, but three-quarter replacement Charl McLeod lost the ball in the tackle deep inside the Crusaders 22-meter area.
The Crusaders defense then kicked the ball out to clinch the victory.
“It’s never easy when we come to Durban,” said McCaw.
“Over the last few weeks, the belief has come back to us.”
CRUSADERS 13 (Richard McCaw try Stephen Brett con pen Andrew Ellis drop goal)
SHARKS 10 (Steven Sykes try Rory Kockott con pen)
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Shock is not strong enough a word.
That was the First Sharks loss at Kings park since that 2007 Final.
Undefeated at home in 2008
Undefeated at home in 2009 (until now) 🙁
I didn’t want to mention anything for fear of jinxing it. I may as well have said something. 😆
There may be a bye next weekend but the Sharks XV will be in action in Durban. 😎
The draw for next weekend’s quarterfinals sees:
Blue Bulls hosting Western Province in Pretoria;
Sharks XV at home to the Golden Lions;
Free State travelling to Kimberley to face Griquas;
SWD Eagles hosting the Platinum Leopards at Outeniqua Park in George.
GO SHARKS XV!
@KSA Shark © (Comment 2) : at least we might still win that trophy
@robdylan (Comment 3) :
We can use the 1 Mil prize money to buy Peter grant. 😉
@KSA Shark © (Comment 4) : what will we do with the other 900k? Blow it all on a big party?
@robdylan (Comment 5) :
well – it’s going to be another season of what-ifs for us. I’m so mad I could spit.
Maybe best to come back to blogging again tomorrow 🙂
Mourning Everybody!
@Loosehead (Comment 8) : clever.
@Loosehead (Comment 8) :
Why do you think we wear black? 😆
Shock… not so sure… Shark’s had only ever beaten the Saders twice in more than a decade… some of mug punters had been saying a few of the Sharks have been over-played and were out on their feet in the latter stages of each game yet never replaced for 5 consecutive games now… some have been bemoaning the lack of balance in the loose-forwards… there’s been a coach with no Plan B other than Dick Muir’s ‘classic-Sharks-counter-attack-style’ mixed with his NPC ‘9man pack game’ for quite some time now… they’d already lost to the two cellar dwellers before this game… they were giving up 70kgs in pack weight against an awesome tight five and arguably one the best loose-trios in NZ…
Nope from the moment Muller came limping onto the field to start the game… I’m not so sure I was at all suprised…
Bit of trivia…
What S14 team has lost against the two last placing teams and gone ahead to make the semi’s let alone the finals?
Told my brother yesterday to watch Rory’s passing to other players. He places his players numerous times on the back foot. Adi passes when ever he is under pressure, with the player receiving the ball left for dead. I think Adi is one of those that was over played. Murray was shocking! He should’ve played in the VC first (yes, that is also finishing the following weekends)
@bryce_in_oz (Comment 11) : Is that a trick question or is there realy an answer to that?:-)
I wouldn’t say Plumtree has been caught out really. He remains a very good coach.
Made some mistakes for sure, but that doesn’t negate a 6 win 3 loss record.
At the end of the day we should have won this game and threw it away – by execution, not gameplan.To blame the coach primarily is a mistake.
@Big Fish (Comment 14) : You are sounding like a Stormers supporter by accepting mediocrity.
@Loosehead (Comment 15) :
But he is not.
The Stormers woes has very little to do with the coach. Of course some responsibility is his, but its not the crux of the problem.
Rory and Steyn needs to take a good look at their video analysis and compare it to the leading 9’s and 10’s in the comp – the difference is obvious.
And of course, with Deysel back, the Sharks will lift 15% in go-forward ball which was evident when he came on last night.
@Morné (Comment 16) : Ruan will be back next game 😀 😎 😀
@robdylan (Comment 7) : Oh yea of little faith 🙂
All is not lost…… keep the faith my lad ❗
@Me2 (Comment 18) : I tried to convince Rob to keep the faith last week, even telling him that we would win the remainder of our games and the Championships. How wrong was I? Well considering the tactical calls I made racing yesterday, I am not too terribly surprised at how wrong I was. 😉
@Dancing Bear (Comment 19) :
I gather you didn’t have to much luck Yesterday 😳
I’ll be barracking for the Bulls, Reds and Brumbies this week… must wins for the Sharks to remain in contention…
@KSA Shark © (Comment 20) : Jislaaik it was terrible. I couldn’t “buy” a windshift in my favour, let alone find one myself. Good starts, and then very quickly sailed my way to the back of the fleet. Oh well, I missed the game, so not sure if that makes things better or worse. 😆 AND, it was an absolutely beautiful day for sailing here yesterday!
@Dancing Bear (Comment 22) :
You know how many songs have been written and sung over decades about wind, sailing, wishing on winds to fill your sails to take you away…
All foley… 😉
@Dancing Bear (Comment 22) : Where were you saoling??? Vaal Dam 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
@Me2 (Comment 24) : “Soaling”? Sorry “Sailing” 😮
@Morné (Comment 23) : Oh I know, more than one could imagine. That is what keeps us coming back, if it was all predictable, we would learn, and then quickly get bored. 😉
@Me2 (Comment 24) : 😆 I remember those days sailing there. Two boats heading straight downwind with spinnakers, pointing right at each other. 😆 No this was the Chesapeake Bay, it was a beautiful day, sparkly and 23 degrees. The water is still very cold, so we developed a lovely thermal induced sea breeze to around 15 knots in the later afternoon. Problem was we had a foul flood current to deal with, and I kept thinking that the right side would get me out of the current, but the left side was favoured because the thermal was filling from that direction. Problem was the course was placed over a very flat bottom, so even furthest left did not find relief from the current. Oh well, as always, I learned something, and won’t make that mistake again. That is what is fun sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, breezes can be challenging, but so is the current.
@Dancing Bear (Comment 22) :
🙂
quickly sailed my way to the back of the fleet
Seems you were going in the wrong direction. 🙄
@KSA Shark © (Comment 27) : A great sailor by the name of Buddy Melges once said, “it is better to go slowly in the right direction than fast in the wrong direction!” Buddy was renowned for stating the obvious from time to time, but his points are well made. Unfortunately, I was sailing in the wrong direction too much yesterday. 😆 The other problem was that I don’t even think I was that fast! 😆
@Dancing Bear (Comment 28) :
But (see post 26) I did learn from my poor showing, and I promise I will not make that mistake again. We were racing out with a bunch of ships anchored waiting for entrance to Baltimore Harbor, so I should have realized how far out we were and known that relief from the current in shallow water was not an option. I have been sailing the small boat a lot for the past year, I forgot about some of the nuances of sailing in the middle of the bay.
Are you sailing again today?
@KSA Shark © (Comment 31) : Yeah, I was asked to drive someone’s boat at a big regatta next weekend. I need to go out today and practice, since I don’t have enough helm time in this kind of boat.
And weeknight racing starts this week, so back to sailing 4 evenings every week. 😆
@Dancing Bear (Comment 33) :
Cool.
My only experience with sailing is from Wednesday night sailing in the Dbn harbour with a mate of mine from work about 15 years ago. 🙂
the Party afterwards made up for being seasick. 😳
@KSA Shark © (Comment 34) : You got seasick in the harbour? 😉 The parties are awesome, the same world wide. A different language may be spoken, but all the hand gestures when discussing the day’s racing are the same. 😆 We call it hand karate, people using their hands to describe relative positions of boats at some point of the day’s racing.
@Dancing Bear (Comment 35) :
I thought of clarifying 😆
I was fine in the harbour but then we went JUST outside the mouth and I was still fine. But then he turned and in less time that it toook him to turn, (15 sec or so) I was feeding the fish. 😳 And felt feedish all the way back in. 😳
@KSA Shark © (Comment 36) :
I have soent a bit more time on the water than just that once, but that was in a motor boat though.
When i was still in primary school my Father used to go out deep sea fishing on Sunday mornings with the Geary brothers in their launch “Tarpon” I went with about 4 or 5 times. Didn’t get seasick then. 😎 😛
@KSA Shark © (Comment 36) : Those swells offshore in Durban can be really bad for those of us prone to sea sickness. I remember going offshore on one of the tour boats in Durban (Sarie Marais) and getting sick as a dog offshore. I was about 10 and went with a friend who also sailed, we were both sick as can be, and we had never been sea sick before. 😆 Now, my first 24 hours or so offshore are pretty bad, but the Scopalomine patch does help. After the first day, I am fine again.
Well, it is time for me to gear up and go sailing. I’ll try not to roll the trailer over my big toe today, that hurt ❗ Cheers all 🙂
@Dancing Bear (Comment 39) :
Cheers Enjoy.
@Dancing Bear (Comment 39) : Enjoy!
@KSA Shark © (Comment 37) : I remember “Tarpon”! I have a feeling she may still be around ❓
I only got seasick, on a yacht, once and that was off shore on a keeler, BUT strangely enough, never got seasick when sailing our dinghy (Sprog)off shore 😀 and we sailed in some big seas!! Guess we were just busy concerntrating on the racing etc. to think about it….that & surviving!!!!
Jannie DuP and Daniel have been cited.
@Loosehead (Comment 42) : great!
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
you guys all sound like me. well i am the one not saying anything now i said it all before cos the sharks were obvious. well that could be the end of our home semi, considering after this weekend we could be out the top four. oh how the scales have been lifted off the blind.
@Me2 (Comment 17) : lot’s of pressure on a man – only one left to turn the tide.
the guys should not have lost – they were almost full strength and crusaders did not look so impressive.
the good thing though is that they improved first time tackling but so many wasted opportunities – that’s not the sharks from couple of rounds before.
disappointed but @try time (Comment 44) : have not lost hope 😉
@rekinek (Comment 45) : after the sharks stormers game i wrote an article that got ridiculed. since then i have been pointing out the obvious and then getting abused for it. well i seemed to have called it right. i hope i haven’t called the sharks being out the top 2 right, but logic says i just may have. looks like the sharks could be flying to new zealand in a months time.
well now i know what it feels like being a stormers supporter. or do the stormers now know what it feels like being a sharks supporter, so much promise very little reward.
@try time (Comment 47) : i think we are worlds apart from stormers supporters – those poor guys must be unfeeling by now after what they were put through
@try time (Comment 44) :
Whatever dude… plenty of us having been harping on about the Shark’s short-comings for quite some time now…
It’s just a pity the bye didn’t come a week earlier…
@try time (Comment 47) :
Stormer’s have won ONE game, Sharks like the Bulls are the most successful RSA teams winning 6 times that amount… your comparison is ‘moot’…
It seems that I support two teams that show all the promise and then choke royally at the last hurdle!! Liverpool and the BOYS in black!
i to, do not see a home semi, neither a home final, but best of luck to the guyz
It seems like try time enjoys it when the Sharks lose… 😕
@wpw (Comment 53) :
I don’t know why he bothers calling himself a Sharks supporter.
I am sure there must be a name / term for someone who “predicts” the failure of the team he “supports” and then feels great pleasure at actually being right about it.
TT must be the only guy I have come across who derives more pleasure about being correct about the demise of his team than he would if his team wins.
@wpw (Comment 53) : 👿 👿 👿
What’s up with the Sahrks glory boys @ 9 & 10 👿 😐 😯 😕 😳 🙄 😥 😡 🙁 ❗ ❗ ❗ ❗ ❗ ❗ ❗ ❗ ❗ ❗ ❗ ❗ ❗
@Charlie (Comment 56) : An that’s no spelling error = SAHRKS 👿
@Charlie (Comment 55) :
What’s up Charlie??
Like I said, I support the Sharks against any team except the Stormers. I was hoping they beat the Saders but it just didn’t happen!!! 😥
@KSA Shark © (Comment 54) :
Hmmm, it brings to mind a guy who used to post on the SHarksrugby blog and do the same thing – Bridger or something.
I wonder…
Morning all!
Get it over with wpw 😕
@Rahul (Comment 60) :
What are you talking about dude???
Btw, check this out: http://i44.tinypic.com/21o4rjs.jpg
It is the new chicken dance… 😈
@wpw (Comment 61) : That was a shoker! the dance too! damn B team
@wpw (Comment 58) : Sharks committed self-defeat on Saturday. The knock on effect…
@wpw (Comment 58) : SAHRKS have glory boy problems 👿 👿 👿
@wpw (Comment 61) : How long have you been waiting to post that!!!! hahahaha
@Charlie (Comment 64) :
Surely you cant mean Rory Rocketman and Captain Franstastic? 👿
@Rahul (Comment 63) :
knock on effect 😆 Bwhahahahahaa
@Rahul (Comment 65) :
Me?? never…
@Big Fish (Comment 66) : Seems like Fantastic Two 🙄
@Charlie (Comment 69) : Nah, more of a Floptastic Two 👿
Now tell me what the point is of bringing WM back when RP is fit for the next game? Surely it would have been better to bring in a fly half?
@wpw (Comment 68) : At least Im alive in LMS
@Rahul (Comment 72) :
who cares about LMS dude… 😉
@wpw (Comment 73) :
Bullies
cajun calamari
Dylanators
Fig Bish
flop
Frikkie se frikadelle
Hoolies
Letgo
One-eyed Bandits
Predators
Rahulplett
Sharks 2009
The Punters
Whindy’s Winners
worth a try
they do
@Rahul (Comment 71) :
Yeah but Butch is sitting in Bath. 🙂
We don’t HAVE a flyhalf to bring in 🙁
@Rahul (Comment 74) :
Damn smartass!!! 😕
@Rahul (Comment 74) :
A whole rugby team full
@KSA Shark © (Comment 75) : Pity your over the hill then
Who is no 10 for Sharks xv?
@KSA Shark © (Comment 75) : Check your mail!
@Rahul (Comment 79) :
Usually when someone asks me to change their pic, they actually attach the pic to the email. 😆
@Rahul (Comment 78) :
Len Olivier is the Sharks XV #10 but I am not sure he will be a better option than Steyn.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 80) : hehehehe 😳
@Big Fish (Comment 66) :
It’s a bit churlish to blame Frans for his game at 10… when he has been superb at 12 and there is not one other S14 quality 10 in KzN…
As for Kockott… you surely cannot be on about the most overplayed 9 in the tournament (excluding the extra game) and has had a direct hand in 12 out of the 25 tries this season (yes… that’s just under 50% of all the tries)… not too mention the added responsibility if kicking all his teams goals… surely not…
But by all means… keep the moaning up… he’ll be playing alongside Giteau if he’s not capped this year…
@bryce_in_oz (Comment 83) :
Sharks would be nowhere without Kockott this season…
@bryce_in_oz (Comment 83) :
I don’t know how to cl;arify this Bryce, but I will try one last time.
Frans doesn’t select himself, but he does control his play on the field. If he has a bad game, even if out of position, then he has a bad game. The reason he is playing flyhalf is a separate issue.
Rory seems to be your blindspot, and I dont think anything I say is gonna change your impression – lets leave it at that.
@Big Fish (Comment 85) :
I’ll be the first to admit Rory has appeared to be punch-drunk from being over-played the past few games (I’ve been saying this about a few of them since game 5)… but he’s also one of the reasons we’d made it this far… and to apportion all the blame on both he and Frans Steyn particularly when the forwards were falling off tackles and every one of the backs couldn’t catch or pass the ball for quids… is a bit rich mate…
@bryce_in_oz (Comment 86) :
No S14 team has won the entire S14 without two competent half-backs or 22 for that matter… and Kockott like Frans and a few others have been over-played the past 10 games and have been showing the effects for quite some time now…
Hey WPW…. back to the soccer. I really cant think of 5 United players that qualify for player of the year. Surely there more players in the premiere league worthy of a mention?
@Rahul (Comment 88) :
I think the nominees were selected while UTD were on their unbeaten run.
I agree though, the players who should have been nominated:
Vidic
Gerrard
Alonso
Bosingwa
Young
Abonglahor
Jagielka
What do you think??
@wpw (Comment 89) : Gerrard starts the season on the list. Lampard, Ronaldo and van der Sa, Torres. Agbonlahor might be young player of the year.
@Rahul (Comment 88) :
I can’t even think of 2.
@wpw (Comment 89) : Young?
@Rahul (Comment 90) :
Ronaldo ? 🙄
@blackshark – YNWA (Comment 91) : see comment 90 😎
@blackshark – YNWA (Comment 93) : a midfielder as leading scorer… has to be
@Rahul (Comment 92) :
Ashley Young, plays for Villa.
@Rahul (Comment 95) :
Ronaldo has been nowhere this season.
Same as Ferdinand…
and when the nominations were released Giggs only started 11 games since the season began.
How the hell did he make that list. 😯
@wpw (Comment 97) : Im trying to find out who is on the list 😳 havent seen it yet
@wpw (Comment 96) : ashley and luke young
@blackshark – YNWA
What’s with YNWA?
Found it. Dont agree with Ferdinand, Giggs or Vidic. The first two hardly played and Vidic gives away too many free kicks
@Rahul (Comment 98) :
You want the list??
Vidic
Ferdinand
Giggs
Ronaldo
Gerrard
Van Der Sar
@wpw (Comment 102) : as much as it hurts… my vote is Gerrard. Its shocking that Lampard isn’t on there! Who decides on the finalists?
@Rahul (Comment 103) :
The Players in the League all vote but they are not allowed to vote for any of their teammates.
So the entire UTD side has to vote for Gerrard… lol
@wpw (Comment 104) : I would like to see van der Sar win it, Broke a few records with clean sheets this year. Kind of like my sheets at home 😆
@Rahul (Comment 105) :
Didn’t make a lot of breath-taking saves though…or was he standing behind an organised defence?
If you’re defending Ronaldo based on goals…then I guess you’re right…Frankfurter should be on the list too…
Giggs, Ferdinand… 🙄
I think Gerrard or Vidic deserve to win.
Van Der Sar has been pants of late. 🙄