The Sharks suffered an embarrassing reversal against Western Province at the weekend, bumbling and fumbling their way to a 10-15 loss against a patchwork team missing umpteen regulars. Let’s rate the players involved.
1) Dale Chadwick. Continues to impress, building on a solid outing last week. Scrummed well and put in some good work with ball in hand, while maintaining his personal discipline, which was a worry earlier in the season. 6/10
2) Kyle Cooper. Put his body on the line and appeared to be trying really hard throughout. That side, lineouts were truly awful, which can only partly be blamed on the wind. 5/10
3) Eugene van Staden. The senior player in the tight five, yet we saw nothing exemplary from him all day. Seems to be coasting, quite honestly, which is not good enough. 4/10
4) Jean Deysel. A busy, physical performance and Wolla did well played out of position, scoring a good try to boot. The lack of variation in the game plan made it easy for Province to counter him, though, because they always knew exactly what he was going to do. Was shown up in the lineouts, though. 7/10
5) Ross Skeate. Tried hard and added some good physicality and intensity in the tight exchanges. Must take his share of the blame, along with Cooper, for a truly woeful Sharks line out on the night. 5/10
6) Jacques Botes. Another senior player that failed to stand out and against a Province loose trio bereft of any experience whatsoever, Botes should have dominated. 4/10
7) Marcell Coetzee. A far better game from the youngster who appears to be turning things around after somewhat of a mid-season slump. 6/10
8) Keegan Daniel. The same comments apply to Daniel as to Botes. Where was the skipper when the chips were down? He disappeared along with the rest of the seniors. 4/10
9) Charl McLeod. A useful performance the Bok scrumhalf, who executed the basics well without doing anything truly spectacular. 6/10
10) Meyer Bosman. We were expecting him to bring a physical edge at flyhalf and put the young Province midfield under pressure by running hard at them and playing close to the gain line. This wasn’t evident and once again, with a hugely experienced Sharks man up against a Province rookie, the wrong player came out on top. 5/10
11) Lwazi Mvovo. Probably the best Sharks back on the day, Mvovo ran hard at the opposition whenever he managed to get a decent pass and defended strongly. 7/10
12) Marius Joubert. An ill-disciplined performance and somewhat anonymous from the man who, based on experience, should have proved a dominant force in midfield. 4/10
13) Adi Jacobs. One of the few Sharks backs who showed any signs of incisiveness or unpredictability on attack, yet Jacobs was subbed off while the robots around him were allowed to play on. 6/10
14) Sbura Sithole. His education continues on the right wing with another performance that while promising in some ways, was far too inaccurate in many others. Needs to concentrate on his basics (such as catching the ball) and this is where the senior players should, once again, be helping him with a calming word when needed. This doesn’t seem to be happening. 4/10
15) Stefan Terblanche. Offered nothing other than a relatively safe pair of hands at the back and perhaps most gallingly, appears to smile and laugh when he makes errors. 3/10
16) Monde Hadebe. Unused.
17) Wiehahn Herbst. A good cameo, marked by utterly ferocious defence and a few good forays with ball in hand. 6/10
18) Anton Bresler. Bresler’s introduction did much to shore up a tight five that was creaking in the set phases. Surely must start next week. 6/10
19) Jandre Marais. A hugely physical showing from a young man who’s not afraid to get stuck in 6/10
20) Conrad Hoffmann. Unused.
21) Fred Michalak. Brought on to add spark, but alas the globe was faulty. 5/10
22) Jacques-Louis Potgieter. Unused. Pity… maybe he could have kicked a drop goal or something?
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You know we have a young tight 5 when v Staden is the senior player amongst them 🙁
We are going to have a tough S15 season, not so sure I want to come home to that.
Still deciding if I’m going to blog this week! 🙂
JLP should now have a shot in the midfield! Really! Just maybe he can spark SOMETHING!?
Hard to give meaningful feedback after that game, Rob.
I thought Mcleod’s dawdling at the rucks was very poor – I would score him lower than that. Chadwick is not very good in the loose – he also gave away a silly blocking penalty, so maybe dock him a point.
As for Stefan, a 3 is generous.
Finally, the coaches should probably get a 2.
Michalak…5/10 ???
I think the Sharks can be glad Rob did the ratings and not Plum or myself! Having watched closely from my almost touchline seats I noticed a few things. 1. I lost count the number of times we tried to offload in the tackle and either knock it on or drop the pass! 2. Chadwick is the laziest player ever! He gave away 1 penalty for obstruction and was lucky not to concede more as most of the time he was on the WP side of the ruck! I could go on with the bad points but there was some good points believe it or not! 1. I think Bosman did well at 10 and if the people outside him could catch he would have looked even better. I wouldnt have brought Michalak on, it was his attempted grubber that lost us the game. 2. I thought the locks were good, both Skeate and Deysel as well as their replacements. Dont blame Skeate for the lineouts as twice his lifters didnt get him up and he had to deal with Cooper throwing curve balls. Lets hope we beat the Leopards…
@SheldonK (Comment 6) : 😉
@SheldonK (Comment 6) : Sheldon is so pissed he can’t get past 2. 😛
Too many forwards in the backline. Think it was the wrong game to change the 10, 12 and 13. Think Adi must get a change at 13, because Marius just running around. Can’t understand that the players never expecting the ball.
SHELDONK – you obviously have something agianst Chadwick – he seems to be the only player you criticise. Plum obviously doesnt agree with you though – he’s the only player to have started every game so far! and by the way, he is young and still has a lot to learn… Encourage the players, dont bring them down when there are 14 other players involved.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 8) : 😆
@s.h.a.r.k.s (Comment 10) : I have nothing against Chadwick, he is probably the best scrummager in the side at the moment. But he was lazy on Saturday. I never said the others were perfect. And age cannot be used as an excuse, if you are selected it means your good enough to play but also means you are open to ctiticism. Believe me I am being a lot kinda than Plum will be this morning in the video session!
Plumtree is using the wrong gameplan with the wrong players. I know this has been pretty clear for a while, but there seems to be no point mentioning anything else. Once he implements a gameplean his players, especially forwards can work with I’ll make a bigger input.
We need to have a look at pLum first, we are really not looking like a team and we are not transferring the right culture to the youngsters. We have Piet and Paul/heymar that we need to pull into the fold. Chadwick I doubt his ability then you start to match with the other young props in the Currie Cup, we doesn’t match up.KYle Cooper!!! I wonder where he left himself before the game. I this weekend heard what we Pay Maruis Joubert. And it is a shocker!!! We really need to have a look at who we pay what. We could of got 6 youngsters for that price-absolute shocker…let’s give Jordaan a run on. Even with Joubert at his best he’s not worth that salary! And then my final customer, Charl Mcload!! He has watched to many of fourie du preez games of late…he shocked his back lines space with his slow ball, and walks!!! To a ruck when we are on the front foot, where does he get of on that style of play! Again I feel(let him and Hoffies watch from the crowd. We were shocking and I can’t help but feel we are letting ourselves down by procurement and selection-we need more merit at the Sharks.
@SheldonK (Comment 12) : Plum needs to look at himself…managing players…no clue…coaching players that needs coaching seems far fetched…Question, is he really that good coach, or maybe just a scenario of the players making a actual average coach look good…
Poor Plum, standing next to the field the whole game on Saturday. It must be difficult to see your team struggle like that. It was pretty hard to watch as a supporter. I can only imagine how it must feel for the team. I hope they can get it together in the last few weeks.
ShElDoNk – Does your “lazy” refer to getting to the breakdowns first? Why do you then single out Chadwick as having a poor performance? Yes, you never said the others were perfect, but you didnt criticise them either! Your criticism is unwanted on this website, especially if its unfair and unjust. Im glad you know what goes on in the video sessions 🙂 🙂
Letgo – Hope so too 🙂 Totally agree…
I was really pleased to see that Plum made some selection changes. Adi in the backline did make a difference. Hopefully he saw the other weaklinks in the team and has the guts to make a few more changes this week. Not just to players, but to the gameplan.
@Letgo (Comment 16) : Well he’s the script writer of his own destiny…but hopefully it’s not how he started but rather how he finish…
@Letgo (Comment 19) : Are there a gameplan ?
Plum to start this season with a plan to building for next year. He didn’t. He planned to win a watered down Currie cup and now that other teams are stepping up, he’s being left behind.
This team needed to be just about ready to take on the Crusaders (with just a few players coming in to strengthen the team), can anyone even start to imagine this team against any S15 team, nevermind the Crusaders or the Reds?
Plum was clearly never thinking about this and that’s where he made his first mistake. The poor performance of this team will not only be bad for this Currie Cup, but won’t be any good for starting of a S15 campaign with.
If anything, Plum needs to use these last few, hopefully at least 3 games, to make some adjustments.
@Charlie (Comment 20) : Yes but the start indicates what the finish will be. We would have to make a turnaround from where we are heading right now.
Things don’t look good for the Sharks, and it’s dissapointing given that or Junior teams have been looking so good the past few years.
Rugby here seemed so heathy, Plum is making it look old and wilted.
I’m very dissapointed in the fact that he has not utilised this pool of talent to better effect.
Province is straggeling right now, but at least they have identified quite a few stars for the future.
@Letgo (Comment 22) : @Letgo (Comment 23) : Time to think outside the Plum box…
@s.h.a.r.k.s (Comment 17) : Bit sensitive on Dale issues? Sheldonk is just giving his opinion – chillax!
Let me give u my opinion…I cannot stand the sloppyness of Dale’s socks hanging on his ankles! Same with Freddie – it LOOKS untidy and generally give the idea of people not wearing the uniform with pride – ready to take on the battle..I am sure he will look less “lazy” then too!
On Jean Deysel – he needs to alter his game – I have never seen something so predictable in my life! And that one hand-go-into-the-brickwall-of-players and more than nothing lose the ball in contacts is driving me up the walls!
Glad to see Marcell’s game picking up again. Stef had a schocker and I agree that his lacksydaisy smileys after mistakes did more harm than good.
McLeod’s shitting in his pants about everything, doing the referee macarena before he passes a ball is also getting very irritating.
We need to get A into G!!!Sharks, this is not gonna get u anywhere!
@Charlie (Comment 21) : Yes, someone mentioned it earlier last week.
It’s predictable and one dimensional, but definite.
Bash it up with Deysel and Alberts. (Coetzee).
Send ball to backs on front foot quickly.
Bash it up again with Bismark (other forward) and Alberts. (Coetzee).
Send it out to backs again, bash it up with Strauss. (Other back possibly Terblance or Bosman, maybe Joubert).
Bash it up again with Deysel.
Send out to backs quickly. 🙂
Mvovo to score in corner.
@Ice Ice Bokkie (Comment 25) : HOOR !!! HOOR !!! Give that Tannie a Bell’s !!! 😆
@Letgo (Comment 26) : Taken out of last years playbook, but clearly updated to suite the new team! 🙂
@Letgo (Comment 26) : With all this bashing…maybe the blame should be laid infront of coach Bashford’s door… 😈
@s.h.a.r.k.s (Comment 17) :
Just relax dude..
We welcome all opinions on this forum.
I for one thought Dale had a pretty poor match, and I can see where Sheldon is coming from.
Question, were you at the match or did you watch on TV?
@Charlie (Comment 29) : 😆
I’ll bet Plum had some ‘stern words’ for his players AGAIN. What a laugh.
What a farce this CC campaign is becoming for the Sharks. I have no effing clue how we are still 2nd on the log. Its perhaps and indication of the inconsistency of other teams that we find ourselves in this position.
Its certainly not of our own doing thats for sure.
I see Prinsloo and Jordaan had decent games against a very good WP U21 side?
I wish Plum had the balls to drop Stef and Joubert. WTF is he thinking playing Marius at 12?!!
The mind boggles.
@Charlie (Comment 29) : I don’t like playing the blame game and I know the Sharks are still in contention for the semi’s and even home semi’s, but that’s just not good enough this year. The Sharks keep dishing up below par performances and the coaches keep blaming the players, yet they are the ones that keep selecting those players, and I’m the one that keeps going to games in the rain shouting like a maniac. It’s frustrating being a Sharks fan. I’m telling you. This year more than ever.
@Letgo (Comment 22) : You make a heap of sense as usual.
I just wonder if the ‘building for the future’ is not something that should happen in the ‘structures’? To me that is where one should identify talent or lack of it.
The senior team and its coaches are getting paid to do a job and they are not doing it well enough now.
Sigh
@Letgo (Comment 33) : Just getting some humour in this sad affair…but this is surely tough on all die-hard Sharks supporters…
Here’s Paul Jordaan’s latest bit of individual brilliance. This time the unlucky victims are WP u21. It feels like Paul just executed this one run against a green screen background coz the only thing that ever seems to change every other week is the colour of the jerseys of the players being wrong-footed. 🙂
http://m.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en&client=mv-google&v=mOCmNvpQYpw
This Currie Cup was the perfect opportunity to blood some new young talent such as jordaan and Prinsloo. But instead Plum persists with oom Stef and Marius Joubert. I guess it is not totally his fault though, he can hardly not pick Joubert after having to pay him that fat salary each month.