The Sharks have beaten the Bulls 13-12 in appalling weather conditions at Kings Park. The victory was all the more remarkable given a shocking TMO call ten minutes from time that saw hooker Pieter Dixon red-carded for a completely unintentional boot to the head of a Bulls player.
In a game where kicks were the order of the day due to the teeming rain that fell for 80 minutes, neither side tried to do much with ball in hand. An early Louis Fouche drop goal was cancelled out by a somewhat opportunistic try from Sharks winger Paul Jordaan.
The Bulls man got his side back in front, though and then on top, stroking two penalties to give the Bulls a 9-5 lead at half time.
The Sharks hit back shortly after the break, though, with Cobus Reinach and Keegan Daniel combining superbly to record the side’s second try, scored by the captain after his scrumhalf broke superbly from a line out. A Meyer Bosman penalty (his only good kick for the night) gave his side a 4-point buffer, but it was the Bulls who then stepped up a gear and had it not been for some dogged defence from the Sharks in the final quarter, the visitors may well have snuck the win.
They were well in control when Dixon, in falling over at a ruck, made contact with the face of Arno Botha. Everyone in the entire world, bar the idiot of a TMO, could see that it was a freak accident and could not have been less intentional; however, Hero of the Hour Johann Meuwesen decided that Dixon should walk for the infringement. In a bizarre way, the resulting penalty was a relief for the Sharks as the Bulls duly took the points on offer, rather than pushing for the try. That single point deficit ended up being too much for them to overturn in the final, desperate ten minutes, despite being a man to the good.
Scorers: Sharks (13): Tries Jordaan, Daniel. Penalty Bosman,
Bulls (12): Penalties Fouche (3). Drop-goal Fouche
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TMO’s have been against us recently.
The Standard of Reffing this entire currie cup has been extremely poor … giving the tv refs more influence is merely highlighting how poor they have actually been in the past….
What happened with the juniors?
@JarsonX (Comment 3) : we won both
@JarsonX (Comment 3) : 21’s won big… But no bonus point, top the log, bulls second with game in hand…
@robdylan (Comment 4) : great 🙂
Jinne you are quick Roberto!
Well done Sharkies!
@byron (Comment 2) : 😈 Agreed! I saw top class guys blow 2nd division games and CC gets the second string jokers. 😈
@robdylan (Comment 4) : @Franshark (Comment 5) : Very nice 😎
Dixon knew exactly what he was doing. His head was up while he was falling and he was looking right at the area that he was kicking to ( Stander´s head) before he went over. Correct TMO decision. Let´s see what the judiciary decides.
@rhineshark (Comment 10) : IF he made an attempt to kick it looked like he went for the ball…I am sorry , but in slo mo a lot of things can look worse /otherwise than they appear…Seems you and TMO (and Bulls) are the only people who think it was deliberate.. 😈 In FAST mode – you really think he had time to aim for a head or a ball that was next to each other?
Anyway – who could blame the guy – not much diffs between a rugby ball and a BB head…
@Ice (Comment 11) : Hey what do you mean don’t be rude you can use a rugby ball. 😉
@rhineshark (Comment 10) : I can see how you could think that, but I don’t think you can ascertain a player’s mens rea from the position of his head. I don’t think he could tell, from the angle at which he was falling, what his foot would connect with. I personally don’t think it’s a deliberate kick, just a desperate attempt to find his footing. I also, personally, don’t think you can award a red card so definitively if you, as a TMO require the footage to be repeated 18 times for a perceived piece of foul play. Dubious decision, third week on the trot…
@Ice (Comment 11) : 😈 Ditto! Slow-mo is very deceptive! 😈
who made the call to review?
Those last minute changes to the starating team was at the root of our poor performance….we played much better than this against Proobblems, so the weather can’t get all the blame.
Plum really has to learn to hold his nerve.
Anyways, useless TMO, sadly we couldn’t hear the discussion at the end, but from Lawrence’s reaction it seemed as though the TMO was more than willing to push for a Bulls penalty.
the tmo said it was nothing but a bit of handbags
Meuwesen was my science teacher two years ago here in PE,maybe he should stick to teaching!Go Sharks!!!
Abcdefghiej was hearing the TMO said it was a reckless event it was lawrence who said it was dangerous and warranted a red card. Had nothing to do with the TMO from lawrence’s reaction.
Riaan Viljoen sucked! Why he wasn’t taken off is unexplainable.
@Bite me:
To be fair, Riaan’s game has come down substantially the last few games. But Plum and Heyneke suffers the same dilusion of persisting with a choice. Viljoen should get bench time next game and see either of Rosco or Sithole on the wing (with Jordaan, Whitehead and Bosman shifting in).
Glad ol’ Cobus got a full game at 9. He played excellent once again and varies his play. Is calm when it counts and his box kicking is better than Charl’s.
The worrying aspect is our forwards’ ability to string phases together AND protecting the ball. The Bulls did 15+ phases on a number of occasions. When we tried that with 2 minutes to go, we lost the ball after about the 3rd attempt of a phase.
I’m not going to comment on the Dixon issue. All I’m going to say is that we will get to see Kyle starting with Monde on the bench. Otherwise Plum might have been reluctant to drop Dixon just like Viljoen.
And Dixon is not the long term prospect for the Sharks. God forbid
you will see bosman at flyhalf next week i am sure ❗
Reinach was brilliant. Reminds me of Craig Davidson. This Bulls flyhalf made me laugh in the game last night. On more than 5 occasions he had a 5 on 2 overlap but still kept kicking the high ball. Must be programmed into a no. 10 when he enters Loftus.
You win some pretty, some ugly. This year my (school) team played the same team twice. First time was in beautiful sunny conditions – we thrumped them. Next time was rainy, cloudy, wet – the scores were much closer. Same teams.
Conditions were never gonna favour the 60-0 ( 😉 ) scoreline I was hoping for but we pulled through with a win in the face of odds that piled up right against us.
I do think the Kings Park management should invest in a draining system… The picture of Cobus on Sport24 kicking a ball sees him in a whole puddle of water… difficult to play attractive rugby in that!
Refs aren’t helping to maintain interest in an already dwindling interest mass…
@JustPlainSHARK (Comment 21) : I wouldn`t say Viljoens` game went down, to me he`s a steady performer. Remember how he cost us in the super 15 as well?
We know what to expect from him.
But don`t worry we shouldn`t see much of him once Lambie gets back.
@JustPlainSHARK (Comment 21) : Curious on why you think Dixon was terrible.the scrum went backward when he came off.good player and I like him in the team.
@Ice (Comment 11) : Even if he went for the ball it would fall into the reckless and dangerous category.
@MerckZ (Comment 13) : Well, both the TMO and the ref ascertained Dixon´s mens rea from exactly that. It´s called common sense. I personally have never seen anyone try to regain their balance by kicking their leg out in the manner that Dixon did.
I´m not talking about the replays in slow motion. The moment that it happened I told my wife that Dixon was going to get cited. Didn´t realise that the officials had seen it as well.
But it´s obviously one of those subjective things. If it was Wepener who kicked Bresler in the face in exactly the same way the entire Sharksworld would have been praising the TMO today.
Word on the street is that Reinach had another blinder. What’s the opinion here?
@klempie (Comment 30) : Absolutely awesome that boytjie. Showed he can play any kind of game and in the horrible conditions we had yesterday only made one error, which was dropping the ball trying to catch a garryowen.
Going wear the Green and Gold sooner rather than later.
I really hope they don’t select Reinach for the Bokke soon. Not that he won’t deserve it but they will only teach him how to organise a “treintjie” and how to be extremely slow in picking up and passing.
@klempie (Comment 30) : he played like a champ! I was praying that McLeod does not get a go! MOTM as well.
@rhineshark (Comment 28) :
The comment was that the red card was because it was reckless and dangerous. I’d like to, at this point, refer us back to the sharks vs lions match. Same ref – butch james boots riann viljoen in the head when trying to kick a loose ball. BJ was very late and only managed to kick RV in the head. The analysis – it was dangerous, reckless and from a player known for foul play. The result – ruled accidental even though reckless. No penalty, or card.
@klempie (Comment 30) : @Ice (Comment 33) : Nice!
Is “Mens Rea” related to Chris Rea? Loved that guy back in the day, but his last album was crap.
Jip he wanted to kick the ball and got a face lol
@robdylan (Comment 36) : Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. 😕
@Dunx (Comment 19) : Agreed. This wasn’t a poor TMO decision. The ref made the call in this case.
@cody007 (Comment 1) :
Not really…can I remind you of the Cheetahs game…you got 2 forward pass tries and only won by 2 points…
Only one… The pass by Bosman to Ndungane was backwards from the hand and carried forward by the wind.
@byron (Comment 34) : There´s a huge difference between kicking at a loose ball, where a player might be in the process of diving on it or trying to pick it up, and kicking at a ball being held by someone in their arms.
You´re comparing two chalk and cheese incidents.
@shaniboi (Comment 27) : the scrum went backwards when Dixon went off because we were suddenly a man short… 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 43) :but didn’t they bring on kyle cooper to fix that?or am I missing something? Even still dixon is a good player..like him in the squad..
@shaniboi (Comment 44) : Yes, but a 7-man scrum is never going to push very hard.
@TRF_Ezequiel (Comment 45) : the point I’m trying to make is dixon in that scrum seems pretty solid..we pretty much have dominated last couple of weeks..
@shaniboi (Comment 46) : Dixon is a very good scrummager – of that there is no doubt. I don’t think, though, that we can accuse Cooper of not being a good scrummager based on the fact that he never got the chance to take part in an 8-man scrum on Friday night.
Ok wait, actually he did, but Meyer Bosman was on the flank.