In a team performance that barely managed to edge the needle above 5 out of 10 at any stage, let’s rate the individuals who played against the Kings on Saturday. As a reminder, the results was a 21-12 win for the Sharks, with nary a try in sight.
1. Beast Mtawarira. Started brightly with a powerful scrummaging display, but battled to sustain the intensity and conceded too many penalties in the second half. 5/10
2. Craig Burden. Had a superb day in the lineouts, where he hit everything he aimed at. Was far quieter in other parts of play than we’d like to see, though. 5/10
3. Jannie du Plessis. Had his opponents under real pressure at scrum time. Also made a few vital carries. 6/10
4. Anton Bresler. Worked hard in the set pieces and made a few big tackles, but struggled for momentum with ball in hand. 5/10
5. Franco van der Merwe. Started like a house on fire, then faded into obscurity as the game got tougher. 4/10
6. Marcell Coetzee. Battled to switch contexts when asked to move from open side to blind. Needs to add variety to his ball-carrying game. Defence a strength, as always. 6/10
7. Jean Deysel. Started brightly and looked like he was on his way to another man-of-the-match display, before cruelly being forced off with an ankle injury. 7/10
8. Ryan Kankowski. One of the few Sharks forwards to look inventive – or even a little bit dangerous – with ball in hand. Kep up his end in the rough stuff too. 7/10
9. Cobus Reinach. An error-strewn performance from the young scrumhalf. 4/10
10. Pat Lambie. May not have tried much on attack, but his boot won the game for the Sharks and that drop-goal was beautifully struck. 7/10
11. Lwazi Mvovo. The old demons appeared to flood back this week. Mvovo looked like he was just going through the motions at times. 4/10
12. Frans Steyn. Looked disappointingly one-dimensional on attack. Did well to keep the team composed when the ref was blowing against them, but there remain question marks about his ability to galvanise this team and get them moving in the right direction. 5/10
13. Paul Jordaan. Tackled like a machine and really tried hard to make things happen with ball in hand. 6/10
14. JP Pietersen. A bit of a mixed bag from JP, who’s battling for good ball at the moment. Looked strong as always, but battled to achieve much with ball in hand. 6/10
15. Louis Ludik. Mr Consistency again had a superb game, coming close to scoring twice in the first half and generally delivering an assured performance in all he did. 7/10
16. Kyle Cooper. Lineout work remains a concern, but so strong on the carry that he inevitanly makes things happen when he gets the ball. 6/10
17. Wiehahn Herbst. Did a holding job, at a time when the ref was blowing the Sharks to pieces at each and every scrum. 5/10
18. Pieter-Steph du Toit. Not on long enough to rate.
19. Jacques Botes. Got stuck into everything, as is his wont, and delivered a workmanlike performance, though lacking in any of his customary moments of magic. 6/10
20. Charl McLeod. Looks hungry to have an impact and delivered a superb cameo in the last 10 minutes. 7/10
21. Meyer Bosman. Had little to do other than defend, which he did acceptably. 5/10
22. Odwa Ndungane. Looked in reasonable nick and made a run or two, but ultimately failed to achieve any more than Mvovo. 5/10
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Does anyine know how serious Deysels injury is?
I want to know why exactly Jafta was so poor on Saturday, like the commentators said how can such a dominant scrum pull the scrum down why would they want to when they are killing the opposition. Poor showing by him i held him in higher regard than his performance on sat.
@West Indies Cricket Board (Comment 1) : he’s going for a scan today. Bad news expected
Aggenee
A 3 at best for the ref. How he concluded that Beast was infringing was beyond me. When you’re making your opposite number run backwards at every scrum, why would you drag the scrum down suddenly.
The 9-10-12 axis was very poor on attack. 3 step passing from Reinach, no creativity from Pat and Frans just not off-loading like we know he can.
I thought Botes had an absolute blinder.
McLeod should have come on much earlier. In fact he should have started this game. We really need to rotate our players.
@Big Fish (Comment 5) : I have always rated Jafta as showing a lot of promise, but I must say he had me seriously scratching my head a few times. I can only guess the very vocal crowd got to him.
@Bokhoring (Comment 7) : Well then he should at best not get anywhere near SuperRugby.
Vodacom Cup should be his ceiling.
Charl should have started, and I don’t think Frans is at this stage the player that the people think. On Saturday he was poor.
With Charl and Meyer on the field it looked much better. A pity they did not come on earlier
Penalizing Beast for Jafta’s mistakes there. Many an occasion he got called for pulling down, but you could clearly see the Queen’s hand on Beast’s elbow
Frans Steyns selfishness is beginning to bother me.
Twice he decided to go on his own when there were overlaps on his outside.
@John Galt (Comment 11) : i keep waiting for him to use his strength to unleash jordaan or jp on the outside, but it just doenst happen. Very early though. Class is permanent and so and so forth….
You are very generous in giving Paul Jordaan a 6. He is the primary reason why our wings are looking like retards – he doesn’t straigten the line. Everytime our wings get the ball, they are virtually on the touch line. Jordaan needs to straigten the line so that the wingers can run at pace. Alternatively he needs to swop jerseys with JPP.
HARSH HARSH HARSH on Beast and Jannie. They were superb, in fact, the Queens are still trying to extract their heads that were shoved all the way down to their anal cavities at scrum time.
Jafta however, was an absolute *sensored*
Four red zone penalties and a further 5 penalty advantages in the 22 at the end of the first half, that ended up a mere 3 point dropgoal?! There should have been a couple of yellows there – something that would have happened with any other team and any other ref.
@Die Kriek (Comment 10) : Exactly. Jafta was way below par.
Really rate Paul Jordaan!
1. Beast Mtawarira . Started brightly with a
powerful scrummaging display, but battled
to sustain the intensity and conceded too
many penalties in the second half. 5/10
tee hee hee jaco engels got in and shoved beast’s neck in, saw his gat 😀
@Megatron (Comment 17) :
Yeah sure.
New bait neded. 🙄
@Big Fish (Comment 18) : megas guilty of listening to the commentators, rather than watching the game
@robdylan (Comment 19) : no commentators at the game, saw it with me own two eyes mayne. 😀
jaco is a beast!!!
@Megatron (Comment 20) : the kings scrum went three ways: backwards (sometimes faster than other times), up and down (btw the last two should have resulted in penalties against them). Can’t remeber them going forward more than once. I’m sure if need be we can all recommend a good eye specialist for that “jaco engels”-eyes of your. 😈
@GreatSharksays (Comment 16) : Jordaan is good ,one on one he will turn most defenders inside out, however he could still learn alot from Whitehead and Im sure he will. I don’t have a problem with players who don’t run straight so long as they are able ,by not doing so ,to create a numerical advantage ,draw and pop the pendulum pass.
@Megatron (Comment 17) : Mega – were you the ref perhaps?
You okes are really missing Tim, the sooner he returns the better
@Ludz (Comment 24) : agree