The Sharks lost their opening Currie Cup game to Griquas this afternoon, by 40 points to 34. Despite running up a handy 22-8 halftime lead, the visitors went to sleep alarmingly and their hosts out-muscled them at the breakdown in the second half.
Played in the teeth of a strong wind, the Sharks initially had the better of the encounter, although the game was characterised by sloppy work from both sides, particularly at the kick-offs. Quick tries to Lwazi Mvovo and Steve Meyer saw the Sharks take an early 12-3 lead, but this was gnawed away at as Griquas started to take control in the scrums and at the tackle point. The light Sharks back row proved ineffectual and as the game progressed, so too did Griquas effectiveness as their counter-rucking technique robbed the Sharks of much good ball.
Hooker Ryno Barnes scored Griquas’ first around the fringes of a rolling maul after the Sharks had been pinned on their line (and repeatedly warned by the referee). A good breakout just before half time saw the visitors extend their lead soon afterwards, though, as Mike Rhodes flopped over the line to score the third after good work from the Sharks forwards. The Sharks should have then coasted towards halftime, but a bizarre punch by flanker Jacques Botes, followed by his sin-binning, saw to it that they spent the last 3 minutes of the first half pinned back in their half, with only an Alistair Hargreaves lineout steal preventing Griquas from scoring a second.
The home team duly struck shortly after the resumption of play, though. With the strong wind now at their backs and the Sharks pack (down a man) in disarray, they surged up field and managed to get prop Steph Roberts over the line. Bok winger Bjorn Basson left the entire Sharks backline for dead ten minutes later, after yet another Sharks turnover deep in Griquas territory saw the pedestrian Riaan Swanepoel and Pat Lambie forced to turn in defence. Lwazi Mvovo duly scored his second moments later to give the Sharks their bonus point, but the writing was on the wall all half as the hosts dominated the collisions and made full use of the strong wind at their backs.
The Sharks, holding onto the slenderest of leads, saw that wiped out as they again turned over attacking ball in Griquas territory and were forced to watch in dismay as another Griquas break-out saw man of the match Wesley Wilkins score under the posts. Basson scored his second soon afterwards and had it not been for a late Pat Cilliers consolation, the Sharks would have been on the receiving end of a real hiding.
As it was, they lost by 6 and will take scant consolation from the 2 bonus points received, as based on today’s performance, the Blue Bulls are going to give them a proper hiding. Back to the drawing board, Plumtree!
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I hope this was the last bonus point try we gave away. I’m glad that we got the BP try aswell. Go Sharks!
wasnt very good, forwards didnt really work that hard,back also very weak, need alot of changes and/or hard work
What was Rory Kockott doing directing planes and traffic and whatnot when he should ahve cleared the ball on attack in Griquas 22? We were shoved off our own attacking ball in the perfect position. I hope this has some consequence. He simply is completely brain dead.
What a great game though!!
This is one of the biggest dissapiontments ever! I’m wondering now why I even support the men in black & white (to say The Sharks just brings a feeling of shame & dissapiontment). They’ve got the players, the facilities, the coaches, etc. yet they always seem to do so badly. They have so many supporters but by the way they’ve been playing recently they certainly don’t deserve so many loyal supporters at all!! 🙁 🙁 🙁
it was a kak game now i seem to agree that some of the baby just don’t make it in the CC 👿
@The Sharks Sharkie (Comment 5) : You forgot the money 😉
griquas is starting to be a team to take seriously and this is a union with much less money than the sharks and the lions ,this is a awesome thing to c, a smaller union punching way above their weight .there is nothing I can really say about the sharks this result says it all ,Im impressed by griquas but the sharks should beat them and griquas showed what happens when you keep the core of a team together WELL DONE GRIQUAS
@rhineshark (Comment 7) : Yeah, their salaries should all be halfed and only restored once they win both the CC & Super 14/15
Rory Kockett was sleeping lick Ricky Januarie! 😕
Burden & his lineout jumpers really need to sort something out but at least they weren’t nearly as bad in the lineouts as the Boks were today! 🙄
@zvision10 (Comment 8) : though i’m not sure whether the guys on the park today are the highest salary earners. lots of boks are out and injurie sto deysel, alberts.etc
@The Sharks Sharkie (Comment 10) : ps. rory is not pulling his socks. can’t believe he was put in the same ligue as pienaar – what happened???
Guys you are way too hard on your team! Yes they should have won but Griquas are basically at full strength whereas the Sharks are far from it!
Also, you lost because of two moments of brilliance by Bjorn Basson!
Damn but he is a fine player. The Boks couldve done with his service this morning!!
Oh and if I were Stroolie I’d make sure I do everything possible to sign Jano Vermaak cos Rory is a liability!!
@wpw (Comment 13) : 👿 😥
Somehow saying “I told you so”, just doesnt do it for me. Making excuses that we have guys away at the Bokke and there are injuries to big names, just doesnt cut it eiher. The Bulls scored 3 tries within 10 min i think!! And look what patch-up team they have…with so many players at the Bokke! Come on chaps. Dont be content with mediocrity.
PS and what did they say about WP having a complete new backline? Look what they did against the FS who has a totally settled backline AND pack. They excelled in the most trying circumstances.
@wpw (Comment 13) : you say the Griquas were at full strength 🙄 besides bjorn, how many of the Griquas players would make it into the Sharks team? They were beaten fair and square!
even if u brought in the springboks and injured players ,the team that lost to griquas is the core of the team and they lost to griquas , who myt b improving but the sharks still shouldn,t lose to griquas .plumtree has all the pieces to be able to beat a side like griquas and he can,t use them effectively
Megatron
Well for one I would have ANY hooker ahead of the overrated and useless Craig Burden.
Bjorn Basson is better than any Sharks winger at the moment.
Sarel Pretorius ahead of Rory.
Naas ahead os Steve Meyer.
Viljoen ahead of slow coach Lambie (I concede you were spot on re: his lack of pace)
Steve Meyer must be thinking he is the Jinx for the Sharks. Last time he played we also lost to Griquas.
Enjoy the trip back to France buddy.
This is not the first time the Sharks lost,look at the bright side,the lost can only be an eye opener 😳
Swannie, just is not good.
The entire team let us down, coz once again they didnt play for 80mins. I havent seen the game so I dont wanna blame individuals. On the brighter side, we did score 5 tries, which in itself is better than the S14 already. I would like to point out that our defence needs work.
@wpw (Comment 20) : i seriously believe most sharks fans are a bit delusional, they hype up their players to much (i know they are supporters) but a wee bit of realism or pragmatism goes a long way.
@Megatron (Comment 25) : Thats coz we’re always doing great, but just cant seem to pull it through when it really matters 😳 Well done to the Kiwis though 🙂
@Megatron (Comment 25) : Kinda like the Kiwis, always no1 in the world, but just cant manage to win the World Cup 😉
Sharks ran into opposition players, Griquas ran into space. That was the difference. Same as Boks vs ABs.
This is rugby a la Cro Magnon man. Once we start playing like the homo erectus species that we are, able to fashion tools like knives and forks that distinguish us from our former ancestors lower down in the evolutionary scale, we will do better.
Predictable team.
Megatron, fans hype up their players – hence the word fan, root fanatic. Big surprise that they would do this on a site called “Sharksworld”? Maybe you got lost looking for “Balanced-rugby-journalism-world”?
@Big Fish (Comment 29) : then why the big suprise and consternation when their team gets snotklapped by theron’s boys who have neither the money or fancy lifestyles 😀 on paper every sharks team looks great & i can’t wait for the constant refrain (we don’t have our boks) to be dished out ad nauseum
@The Sharks Sharkie (Comment 5) : Go back to where you came from : 😯 No REAL Sharks supporter says things like that…go be ashamed else where 😈
Not saying you are wrong son, just saying you should expect that.
We have no excuse for being beaten: it was a very sorry performance from a highly-paid outfit.
But that’s what happens sometimes. All that I ask is that an honest assessment is conducted. The fans deserve better – the very same ones you seem to be reserving your unnecessary self-righteous glee for I am afraid.
@Big Fish (Comment 32) : “unnecessary self-righteous glee”? Hhahaha 😆 you gotta be kidding me, you tell them the team is nonsense and they don’t listen, delusions of grandeur that lead to self inflicted grief & anxiety if you ask me 😛
Yep, bad day for Sharks and Boks, and me on a personal note, but it is only sport, and we will allow men to make mistakes… Sport is not predictable, and it is glorious and dramatic… Much more to it than a simple win / loss…
SHARKS FOREVER!!!!
makes next weeks at home clash vs Bulls a must win.
go sharks.
@Me2 aka Mama Shark (Comment 31) : I’m not afraid to speak my mind and I was giving my opinion. If u don’t like it fine but u just gonna have 2 live with me writing it up on this site.
What kind of crap is this B-team- excuse-for-a Sharks-outfit serving up here? Oh well, quite predictable really. Terrible centres. A scrumhalf who lives in cloud-cuckoo land. Light and puny forwards. There are some serious weak links in this team. I’ll always support the Sharks but the current management gets the middle finger from me.
The question now becomes what to do with Lambie. If he is so talented, yet so slow, how do you maximise the potential of this player?
Never will understand why people get angry with sharks supporters who criticize the sharks ,look not all of us can dis miss the fact that there,s something wrong at the sharks and because we support and like the sharks we get angry at this stupidity ,if the sharks were in a building process that made sense we,d all be fully behind them and undestand that loses will come in a building process ,but whats happening now is a hot mess there just doesn,t seem to be a plan at all,the people who critize the sharks on this site have all got good points .Let me make a prediction ,the sharks are going to go out and buy players prob get a new coach and they,ll get better but sooner or later maybe 3 -5 years from now they,ll be in the same position there in now
@CapeShark (Comment 37) : this was essentially a B side because the sharks are missing 13 players:
Bismarck, Smitty, Jannie, Beast, Mostert, Kanko, Adi, Ruan, JP, Odwa, Mapoe, Willem, Diesel. Add Muller and Carstens to overseas contracts and that’s basically a full Starting XV. Add Griquas improving since last year and you have all the ingredients for an upset.
You seriously can’t blame management for that. You also can’t blame them for missed tackles or crooked kockott reading the Sunday papers when he should be clearing rucks.
Come on the most of the griquas players couldn,t make the sharks team ,I,m really happy to c griquas doing well but a big union shouldn,t lose to griquas even if 30 players are out and that is managements fault ,thats there job .Even if every player has a shocker we should still beat griquas and we should also beat free state every year .I could honestly run the sharks better than this it,s not rocket science and I even have a blueprint of what to do I,m going to plan a hostile takeover of the sharks who will join me I get to be c.e.o though 😆
@zvision10 (Comment 41) : Send them your CV and hopefully we’ll see the Super 15 trophy in Durban with your name down as coach in a year or 2.
why are you getting your knickers in a knot? you would think after a year of the same shit, you sharks supporters would give up caring. you guys must hate life if you support such a b grade union. natal b section. 😆 😆 😆
@try time (Comment 43) : SHARKS SUPPORTER WHAT CAN WE SAY ITS IN OUR BLOOD
😉
@zvision10 (Comment 41) : 👿 👿 👿 👿 👿 👿 👿 👿 👿 👿 👿 👿 👿 😈
@The Sharks Sharkie (Comment 36) : “(to say The Sharks just brings a feeling of shame & dissapiontment)” is just a step too far….No Sharks supporter should express or feel that way…if he/she is a true Sharks supporter! Sorry…just feel YOU are now letting The Sharks down.
@try time (Comment 43) : “Thulla wena”….pop into the shop…I’ve got a really big wooden spoon for you
@Me2 aka Mama Shark (Comment 46) : So the Sharks didn’t disappoint you on Saturday? They certainly disappointed me and I dare you to tell me I’m not a real supporter…
Just because you love somebody doesn’t mean you have to be blind to their faults!
what happened whats with the devil face
I rewatched this match ,the griquas team is just better managed with a smaller budget ,how much smaller I don,t know but they have put together a good team ,I,d like to see Dawie Theron at a bigger union ,couldn,t hurt for the sharks or lions to give him a chance and there is hope for brian van zyl ,if rob wagner can pull his head out of his ass then mayb so can brian van zyl. whats really so hard about hiring the right commercial director and head coach i,ll never know
@try time (Comment 43) :
you shark supporters ????????????????????
Who do YOU support? Cheetahs? WP? Lions?
Still struggling to get to grips with the loss… 🙁
But still say: Screw the CC 2010. Bring in the youngsters and build from the ground up! 😮 I really think we have the guys there that really want to be there, and not because their reputationn says they have to be there. Chuck out the Stefs, Swannies and Dries’s. With these guys gone, I’ll be a lot more confident going into games. Now I’m scared of loosing to the Plat Leopards!!! For goodness sake. Oh yes, and fire Adolf. 😈
@Me2 aka Mama Shark (Comment 46) : ok, maybe it was a step to far but it was and still is a realy big dissapiontment!