The difficulty in coming up with ratings for last week’s match is to not get too carried away by the strong finish. The reality of the situation is that the Sharks were, for the most part, horribly pedestrian in the first half and the ratings should present a fair reflection over the full 80 minutes, no just the last half hour.
1) Eugene van Staden. Pulled into the starting fifteen as a very late sub and scrummed well in the loosehead position – which is not his most comfortable. I felt that his all-round impact from the loosehead position was less than we’d like, though. 6/10
2) Bismarck du Plessis. His usual abrasive self, although lineouts were still messy and his body position going into contact still remains suspect. Needs to look at discipline again as well. 7/10
3) Jannie du Plessis. A solid performance from Jannie – marked by scrum dominance – but not a lot to write home about other than in the set phases. 6/10
4) Steven Sykes. Did his basics well this week, but was responsible for a number of costly handling errors in the first half as well. Scored a lovely try and did improve as the game progressed. 6/10
5) Alistair Hargreaves. A very encouraging performance, particularly from a work-rate and continuity point of view. Lineouts were again a mess, though and as Hargs is the man calling them, he needs to take some responsibility. 7/10
6) Keegan Daniel. A furious performance, full of fire and brimstone from the “little guy” in the Sharks pack. Keegan kept the Brumbies on the back foot all night with his pressure defence and was ever-present in support of the ball carrier too. Should have been man of the match. 8/10
7) Jean Deysel. Great to see him play 80 minutes with such intensity, although he did appear to tire a little towards the end of the game. Wolla was very involved as a ball carrier and retained possession well, although it must be said that the combination between him and Alberts does lack a little subtlety and variation at times. 7/10
8) Willem Alberts. A quiet-ish game by his standards, which is not to say he wasn’t still bloody good! 7/10
9) Charl McLeod. I’m afraid the slide continues for Charl. He didn’t look particularly sharp on the night and his kicking game remains a weakness. 5/10
10) Pat Lambie. Despite a good goal-kicking performance, Lambie was a little subdued and failed to really get things going the way we know he can. 6/10
11) JP Pietersen. A few glaring errors – particularly a bad knock with the tryline open before him – don’t befit a player of his experience. JP scored a lovely try early in the second half, but otherwise there was little to write home about, other than his (as usual) rock-solid defence. 5/10
12) Meyer Bosman. After a poor game in Cape Town that saw him come under pressure during the week, Meyer unfortunately failed to show the sort of improvement this week that we’d have liked to see. Not one of his better games. 4/10
13) Stefan Terblanche. The captain played very well, particularly on defence. He took the criticism of last week’s effort to heart and seems to have turned it into a positive. 7/10
14) Odwa Ndungane. Didn’t get a lot of ball and as a result had very little to do on the night. 6/10
15) Louis Ludik. Tackled well and showed solid defensive positioning, as usual. Few options to accomplish anything with ball in hand, though. 6/10
16) Craig Burden. Bring him on for one minute at the end? What the hell’s the point. We’re going to lose this guy if we’re not careful.
17) Beast Mtawarira. Made a huge impact coming on in the second half and added real thrust to a pack that was making little impact with ball in hand. 8/10
18) Anton Bresler. Not on long enough to get a rating, but made the most of his five minutes, scoring a crucial try in the process.
19) Marcell Coetzee. Again, only got five minutes to show his stuff, but looked well up to it at this level.
20) Conrad Hoffmann. Did enough in the few minutes he was on the field to advance his claim for a starting opportunity.
21) Adi Jacobs. Changed the course of the game by adding incisiveness and unpredictability to the Sharks backline play. Surely MUST start next time. 8/10
22) Jacques-Louis Potgieter. Not on long enough to be rated.
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Fair enough…
Couldn’t agree more about Keegan!
Totally agree about Craig Burden and Adi Jacobs we will lose them – to the Lions more than likely who seem eager to lap up any peceived leftovers from the Sharks at glaringly higher rates of pay.
How come there was no ratings after the Stormers game??
@wpw (Comment 4) : wes, when a team loses that badly, there’s not really much point in doing ratings. Nothing positive can come from it.
Your vert generous with regards to Stef. Would have given him a 6 at most.
@Ben (Comment 6) : Also with Sykes imo. Nothing more than a 5.
But Rob: totally agree with Craig. What the hell is the use of playing him one minute?
Conrad should start. Charl bench.
Anton should start. Sykes bench.
Adi SHOULD start. Meyer…..
Meyer….. enough said….
@SharksRTB (Comment 7) : I still want to see Meyer play inside Adi before I write him off.
Is it just me or is Anton Bresler beefing up a bit?
Couldn’t agree more with the ratings. But you could have rated all the players for 1st half and 2nd half. We made so many mistakes in the 1st half but the team realy came out in the 2nd to nail the Brumbies to the wall.
Adi also made a huge impact when he came on. If it wasn’t for him I don;t think we would have got the full 5 points for the game.
@Ben (Comment 9) : Looks the real deal doesn’t he?
And then theres mossie returning soon as well>
Players like Alberts and Lambie have reach a bit of a trough as teams have began to work them out. It happens to all star players and they need to somehow begin to vary their game. Also the Sharks gameplan of using the big forwards to break the lines has been exposed. Hope Plum gets it right. We should also rate the refs and coach everyweek.
I think most of the ratings are pretty accurate but possibly a bit high considering the Brumbies are quite an average side this year.
How does Bismarck get a 7? His lineout throws were terrible- cant blame Hargs for that. His discipline is terrible and he never passes so any move ends as soon as he touches the ball. Yes he puts in sum good defensive work, but thaat alone doesnt warrant a 7-more like a 3.
I think Adi Jacobs deserves a 9! All the backline players looked completely different when he entered the game! Can he sustain that for 80min though.
Charl deserves his rating, but he also needs a rest-anyone can see that! And ive been impressed with Hoffman, and yes I would play him against the Bulls.
I think Odwa is good, but u cant buy the pace that Lwazi Mvovo has- he has to play!
@wpw (Comment 4) : I can do a player rating on Stormers vs Crusaders game…
Daniel was my MOTM as well.
WTH was the idea with picking a Brumbie as MOTM?
@Charlie (Comment 14) :
Please do.
Rob, the ratings are pretty good except that van Staden and Sykes lost lots of ball in contact, and the latter is unfortunately a non-entity at lineout time. A 5 at most for both.
Adi and Beast were game-changers, while Hoffman must surely be pushing hard for a starting berth.
@SheldonK (Comment 13) : “Bismark never passes”… except for that pass that put Adi away for a try, hey? 🙄
@CS (Comment 17) : 😈
@CS (Comment 17) : For every rule there is an exception…
Keegan constructed 2 of the tries we scored. How he didn’t get Motm, Heaven only knows.
@Big Fish (Comment 16) : The Hoffman’s-performance-vs.-Plum’s-preference sub-plot is now starting to take on “irresistable force meets immovable object” proportions. Ditto for Adi.
This ratings are the fairest of the season imho. Great stuff.
@Ben (Comment 20) : Agreed
I’ve been picking on Sykesie a bit lately. Felt the need to give the oke a bit of a break.
The problem with ST is that he does play good against weaker teams @13 and we think the problem is getting better,but he always seems to struggle against a quality 13.
Bressler deserves a 10, based purely on that smile after scoring his try. Im sure he is still wearing it. Good to see what it meant to him……and me.
@robdylan (Comment 24) : Maybe a article on that…
@Honey Badger (Comment 25)I agree
@franshark (Comment 28) : 😎 I thought I was going to get blasted.
Pienaar to play Super Rugby?
2011-05-09 08:35Email | Print
Ruan Pienaar (File)
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Pretoria – Don’t be surprised to see Ruan Pienaar in action for the Bulls in a week or so.
Depending on the progress of Pienaar’s Irish club, Ulster in the Magners league, the 47-Test veteran could find himself playing for the Bulls for the rest of the Super Rugby season.
Sport24 have been informed that Bok coach Peter de Villiers is busy negotiating with Pienaar’s club to try and convince them to allow him to play his rugby in South Africa for the next couple of months.
De Villiers is keen to let Pienaar and Frans Steyn – who plays for Racing Metro in France – get used to the tempo of Super Rugby.
Ulster are playing against Leinster in the Magners League final next weekend. If they lose, it will allow Pienaar to board a plane back to South Africa the next day to join the Bulls or maybe even the Stormers for the remainder of the Super-season.
It will be good news for both these teams, but probably more so for the Bulls, who have had a torrid season thus far.
@Loosehead (Comment 30) :
Saw that on the weekend…..but the question is where will he play, my guess is somewhere in the backline, but not at scrumhalf. I think that would serve Pdivvy fine but maybe not Pienaar.
@Loosehead (Comment 30) : JJ Harmse is a tard!
He can probably write himself in the bulls starting line up.
We’ll I for one is just overjoyed about the 5 points…no matter how we got them. And that’s all I have to say about that…
Spot on with the player ratings.
I feel that Stefan has played two seasons too many. As a captain he has no influence over the ref, unlike John Smit, and he offers very little on attack. I think the coach’s selection will cost the union in 2012 if we lose AD and don’t have a captain for the future.
@SheldonK (Comment 13) : I think Adi’s try on Saturday shows that Bissie can pass when he wants to. Keegan Daniel might have made the pass to Bissie but Bissie drew the defender before popping the ball back to Adi to run through for the score.
But Bismarck does have to look at his discipline.
I think the Sharks also have to look at their support running. Just before Sykes’ try, Lambie took the ball to the line and looked to pass and if there had been someone on his shoulder it would’ve been an easy run-in for a try under the sticks but he had to take it to ground for the recycle before it was worked out wide to Sykes for the score. The try was scored but it could’ve been scored earlier and closer.
Really pleased with the 5 points, it means that if you take away the stupid bye points, we’re tied with the Stormers and will take over the lead if they lose against the Chiefs this weekend.
@Butchie34 (Comment 35) : I will credit Keegan more with that try, he took out 3 defenders to create the space on the outside.
@Butchie34 (Comment 35) : Support running….Adi Jacobs does that naturaly…