It’s the big one, the Currie Cup Final, the showpiece of local South African Rugby in the longest standing rugby tournament in World Rugby, and the Sharks host Western Province in what is sure to be a cracking encounter.
The Sharks have opted to strengthen their forward pack, recalling the likes of Beast Mtawarira, Craig Burden and Willem Alberts, while Steven Sykes is allowed to play his last match in a Sharks jersey before heading down the coast to the Kings. The backline is unchanged from the combinations that did the job against the Bulls in the rain last week, and with more rain expected for this match, we can expect much the same from the Sharks in terms of kicking and playing the territory game.
Western Province got into the final with a try in injury time against the Lions last week, and have kept a mostly unchanged team, with the exception of bring Damian de Allende into midfield in place of regular vice-captain Marcel Brache. Western Province themselves have had their fair share of wet game time, and both teams will not use the weather as an excuse for losing this match.
Interestingly, Western Province hold the record for winning the Currie Cup the most times, with 31, while the Sharks trail quite some way back with only 6 victories, the first coming 1990, while Province’s last victory came in 2001.
Sharks: 15 Louis Ludik, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Paul Jordaan, 12 Tim Whitehead, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Pat Lambie, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Keegan Daniel (captain), 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Anton Bresler, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Craig Burden, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Kyle Cooper, 17 Wiehahn Herbst, 18 Jandré Marais, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Charl McLeod, 21 Meyer Bosman, 22 Odwa Ndungane.
Western Province: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Don Armand, 6 Deon Fourie (captain), 5 De Kock Steenkamp, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Deon Carstens, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Wilhelm van der Sluys, 19 Jebb Sinclair, 20 Louis Schreuder, 21 Marcel Brache, 22 Joe Pietersen.
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Come on Shhhhaaaaarrrkkkssssss!!!!!!!!
saaarks are favourites, wp doesn’t have a snow ball’s chance in hell.
Go Sharks!!!!
@Megatron (Comment 2) : the first sane thing you said all season 😆
If Reinach and Lambie fire today, I don’t see WP winning
@Megatron (Comment 2) : Don´t pull Keo moves here bru! Might just give us the kiss of death. 😆
WooooooooW!!!! Here we gooooo!!!!
Kick off
Sharks!!!
OK I’m here and ready to serve…
Penalty Catrikilas
WP 3
Sharks 0
3min
Alberts of side at the ruck
Province obstructing in an up and under and Sharks have a penalty.
Penalty Lambie
Sharks 3
WP 3
5min
Obstruction by de Jongh
SuperPat puts it over.
Sharks 3 – 3 Province
5 mins
Sharks playing crash ball at the moment.
It goes out right and Jordaan get JP deep into Province 22 before being brought down.
Sharks consolidating their position right now.
15 phases…and Fourie steals it.
Sharks running it out from deep in their own territory now.
Province putting lots of tackles in, but the Sharks keep coming.
Penalty Sharks. Habs off his feet at the ruck I believe.
If the game keeps on like this, this is going to be a good game
SuperPat is going to kick from about 40m out, 15m from right hand touch.
Penalty Lambie
Sharks 6
WP 3
14min
Habana not rolling away
He sneaks it over! Great kick.
Sharks 6 – 3 Province
14 mins
Habs is off injured.
Habana off. Replaced by Pietersen
Ag….lucky bounce for Province off the restart.
de Jongh steps past a few Sharks and Province are into the 22.
Pietersen intercepts a loop paas when Province looked like scoring and hoofed it down field.
There’s a penalty in the Province half for Province holding on I think.
Peyper is asking TMO to check Jannie for foul play.
Foul play review. Jannie slapped Gio Aplon, but nothing in it.
Nothing in it. Hand bags.
Penalty stands. Pat steps up again.
Pat is kicking from 40m….10m from left hand touch.
Through
Sharks 9 – 3 Province
18 mins
Penalty Lambie
Sharks 9
WP 3
18min
Pietersen holding on
Reinach screws up by clearing out on the full. Province get a lineout on the 22.
Reinach kicking the ball out on the full.
Province not making much ground in the 22 atm.
Sharks pressure causes the mistake.
First scrum of the game after 20min
Burden and Eben have a cosy moemnt.
Pretty amazing that it took 20mins before the first scrum set.
Peyper screws up a call by ruling that Joe Pietersen knocked on when he didn’t. Gives the Sharks a scrum just inside Province terriotry.
From the scrum, Lambie kicks the ball down field and Pietersen stops the ball with with his leg, but Peyer says he knocked it on. Bad call
Sharks driving the ball up into Province territory…loose pass causes them to lose about 15m.
Steenkamp blown up for coming in from the side.
Sharks have a lineout about 15m into Province territory.
Sharks DESTROY the Province scrum…penalty advantage.
No advantage so we go back for the penalty.
SuperPat from basically the same position as last time.
Penalty Lambie
Sharks 12
WP 3
27 min
Scrum penalty
He’s on FIRE!!
Sharks 12 – 3 Province
27 mins
Ludik blown up for not rolling away….personally I don’t get that…looked like Catrikilis was holding on.
Bad line out kick by Catrikilas. He is having a bad game
Province set up a maul from the lineout. They fluff the move with a long chip down the throat of JP.
Province scrum in the middle of Sharks half.
Province out of ideas already…Catrikilis tries a chip through despite being on the front foot.
Etzebeth steals a Sharks throw.
JduP gets a final warning for a dangerous tackle. Pietersen will kick from 45m more or less in front.
Sharks 12 – 6 Province
33 mins
Pietersen going for posts and over
WP 6
Sharks 12
33min
High tackle
de Jongh NEARLY intercepts…
I think he was going for the intercept and then changed it into a tackle.
de Jongh under the posts.
What a try by de Jongh beating 3 Sharks defenders
Converted
WP 13
Sharks 12
36min
Awesome try by de Jongh! Pulled a Lambie on Keegan there.
There was a Province scrum in the middle of the field. de Jongh ran a counter line when it went to the backline and skipped through the gaping hole in the defence.
Converted.
Sharks 12 – 13 Province
37 mins
De Jongh having a great game
van den Heever holding on on the wing. Pat sets up a lineout just outside the 22.
And the lineout is an abomination… 🙄
Sharks lineout with 30 seconds to go.
Up to shit lineout play costing us here. 4 lost so far.
Etzebeth wins the throw and Province have the ball on the 22.
Catrikilis tries a DG…misses but Lambie offsides. Going to be an easy kick.
Penalty Catrakilis
WP 16
Sharks 12
Halftime
Lambie offside
We need to wake up here.
HT Sharks 12 – 16 Province
WP played well the last 10min, the Sharks needs to wake up here
@klempie (Comment 70) : You spelled “another fuckup” wrong.
Why does our lineouts suck this much?
Come on Sharks, we can do this!
@rhineshark (Comment 79) :
Alberts lost two go-forward balls to turnovers. We can´t play this kind of game.
@rhineshark (Comment 79) :
Come oooooon Shaaarks….
besides the line out, wp always competing for the ball is the difference here. What exactly has coetzee done this half? The scalk burger days of running around mad are over, we need deysel to cancel out fourie. Plum will bring deysel on for alberts but it should be for coetzee.
Target Catrakilis, he is having bad game, not knowing what to do with ball in hand
So I just spent an unsuccessful 15 minutes on the phone with DSTV regarding my smartcard that was delinked from my account. Apparently there is another number that I must dial… Some serious bitching on hellopeter to follow.
What seems to be the main problem with our game so far? Was expecting to be firmly in control…
@King Shark (Comment 88) : Lineouts and the breakdown.
Sharks just can’t seem to break the defense of WP and going in to high in the tackles, not tackling province back and line outs need improving
@klempie (Comment 89) : Dang! Hope we address it quick! Makes one wonder if they should not have gone for PSDT afterall, I mean, we struggled with our lineout last week too.
Here’s the second half
2nd half starts
Fuck! Whitehead chases a Pat chip down and is nearly away…but there’s a knock on.
Sharks wheel the resulting scrum. 😎
Jeez, Alberts is as good as pointless in this game. 😯
Penalty Lambie
Sharks 15
WP 16
43min
Collapsing the scrum
@rhineshark (Comment 95) :
Agree sub him for Deysel.
Pat going for goal from about 35m out, 13m from left hand touch.
Through.
Sharks 15 – 16 Province
44 mins
Keegan you beauty…
Ping pong stuff atm…
And it ends with a nasty bounce in front of vd Heever. Province lienout on their own 22.
Babyface Assassin
Sharks win the ball off a Province ball…they’ve got it on the 22 now.
5m out!
10 phases…
WP defense holding
Penalty Sharks….Province not releasing Jordaan on the right hand touch. Sharks take a scrum.
Kick able penalty. Sharks going for the scrum
Our players are far too slow to get in position. Reinach shouldn´t have to wait at the base of a ruck for some kind of line to form to pass to FFS!
Sharks wasting their go forward…lots of spills. Lost ball by JP not picked up by Peyper.
Mvovo is eventually bundled into touch.
Seriously kak play from that scrum.
Province clear and the Sharks have a lineout on the 22. Etzebeth steals another.
And we lose our 5th lineout.
Etzebeth has the Sharks number in the line outs
Penalty. Malherbe not rolling away. Well that’s what Peyper thinks anyway. Easy kick for Lambie.
Penalty Lambie
Sharks 18
WP 16
56min
Malerbe not rolling away
Sharks 18 – 16 Province
56 mins
So we started the second half like the first. Let´s hope we don´t end it that way.
Shit….Groom dabs through to force a Sharks lineout on their own 5m line.
Brave lineout that…smacks of desperation. Burden threw over the top of the lineout deliberately for Alberts to run on to. Thankfully it worked.
I hate Etzebeth…
WP playing the right kind of game. We haven´t created space like they have all game.
And Province take another Sharks lineout…
Sharks lost another line out
Lineout number 6 lost. 😯
Province 5m out.
WP scrum 5m out
Come on Sharks…BIG scrum needed now.
How we´re still in the game is a mystery.
Deysel’s on for Alberts.
Sharks!!!!!!!!
Catrakilis inches short.
Sharks offside on defence.
Easy kick for Catrakilis.
Bosman and Cooper on!
Penalty Catrakilis
WP 19
Sharks 18
64min
Offside
Sharks 18 – 19 Province
64 mins
Mcleod on!
Fourie burst into the Sharks 22…
Catrakilis DG.
Sharks 18 – 22 Province
66 mins
Drop goal Catrakilis
WP 22
Sharks 18
66min
And Catrakilis lands the drop.
Sharks need to wake up
All of a sudden Catrakilis looking better than Lambie.
Sharks stupidity…Lambie kicks out on the full after McLeod took it back into the 22.
Sharks FINALLY win a lineout…off Province ball!
Province destroy the Sharks scrum….but McLeod gets the ball away just in time.
What is going on with the Sharks?
And *SHOCK HORROR* we win a lineout against the throw. 😯
Sharks scrum just outside their 22.
Sharks blown up. Province counter ruck and win a penalty…not sure for what.
Pietersen going fro poles.
Short…
We don´t deserve to win this game. If we manage it I´ll be the first to feel a bit sorry for the WP supporters.
Penalty Pietersen but short
WP 22
Sharks 18
73min
Not sure for what
@rhineshark (Comment 152) : Ditto.
73 mins
Province win the ball off Sharks scrum.
WP scrum the Sharks off the ball
Province 10m out looking dangerous.
75 mins.
WP setting up another drop.
Catrakilis left foot DG.
Sharks 18 – 25 Province
76 mins
Another drop goal by Catrakilis
WP 25
Sharks 18
76min
Sharks have the ball in Province territory.
Fourie wins a penalty. Keegan holding on.
Deon Fourie steals ANOTHER ball. But we don´t believe in fetchers. 😯 😯 😯
I think that’s game over.
Province maul into the 22.
Sharks win a penalty 8m from their own line. 79 mins.
FUCK!!! Lambie…fuck man!!!
All over
Well done Province….
Sharks you were fucking pathetic tonight.
Congrats WP – definitely deserved it.
It’s not over! We have the ball!
Sharks in the 22!
Congrats wpw, Clayton and the other province supporters, we were well beat
Cooper spills it…
Well played Province. Well-deserved win. Last bit of hope from the counter, but excellent defense from WP.
Great game of rugby! Thanks to both sides.
That’s it WP are the 2012 Currie Cup champions
You can’t win a final without a functioning line out… Epic fail in that department!?
FT Sharks 18 – 25 Province
Sharks didn’t use the chances they created.
The try by de Jongh was the turning point in the game
Geluk wp
oh no!!!
Still congratz to WP for winning the Currie Cup and Sharks for reaching the final
We were seriously kak tonight. How we still can´t win a lineout at this level is shocking.
Mcloed wtf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Advantage for a penalty and he knocks the ball on purpose to take a quick tap.
We would have had advantage till we could have scored.
Fail
@Megatron (Comment 185) : yes gloat now, we know
@Megatron (Comment 185) : 😆
Just one thing I want to ask, no beg, the Sharks bigwigs. GET A FUCKING MENTAL COACH PLEASE!!
Anybody that wants Burden as Bok hooker must get his head read. Lineout was inexusable. Pretty much where we lost the game
Bloody well done Province. Well deserved – you guys pitched up and hung in there when all had written you off.
To the Sharks, it was not your day but take note of the
amazing season you have had and build on that.
@Bokhoring (Comment 192) : Our lineout has been equally KAK with Bismarck throwing in. It´s not a new problem.
@rhineshark (Comment 194) : Kak man.
Sharks lost 6 of their own 9 throw ins….
@rhineshark (Comment 194) : We have never lost 6 lineoutd in a row with Bismarck. Plum is going to sort his hookers out before the S15.
@klempie (Comment 195) : @Bokhoring (Comment 197) : You have short memories dudes.
@rhineshark (Comment 198) : Please refresh mine…I must have forgotten how the world’s best hooker fluffed all the Boks lineouts this year…
Sharks have a really crap finals record. 0 from 3 in the last 2 years.
Hard luck to all the Sharks supporters.
WP jou lekker ding! 🙂
@wpw (Comment 201) : Nothing to do with hard luck. We were kak. You were good.
@lostfish (Comment 200) : And with all that mental preparation they did as well… Oh wait…
@wpw (Comment 201) : Congrats dude, you guys played well, we played like we played at the start of the S15.
@klempie (Comment 199) : OK pressing F5. I wasn´t referring to this year only. Our lineouts have been shit for a LOOOONG time, irrespective of our hookers or our jumpers. I´m talking the last 3 years at least for the Sharks. Nobody was talking about the Bok lineout..
Klempie
You played as well as we allowed you to. 😈
@Megatron (Comment 185) : And you still wonder why we didn’t wanna buy into the whole “Sharks are favorites” tag? 🙁
@FireTheLooser (Comment 207) : no, you’re avoiding the “chokers” tag, unfortunately now it seats like a albatross over you team.
@FireTheLooser (Comment 207) : no, you’re avoiding the “chokers” tag, unfortunately now it seats like a albatross over your team.
@Megatron (Comment 209) : have to agree… not worth hiding it… that was anEPIC CHOKE