Another 80 minutes without being able to score a try saw the Sharks lose to the Stormers, by 15 points to 22.
Pat Lambie’s unerring goal-kicking boot salvaged a bonus point for his side, courtesy of five penalties but it was ultimately a first-half try by Stormers centre Juan de Jongh that proved the difference between the sides. Some poor defence amongst the Sharks outside backs after a good line-out ball saw the Bok number 13, playing his 50th game, scythe past a grasping Frans Steyn to score the points that mattered.
The Sharks, it must be said, were horrendous in many aspects of the game, particularly the set pieces and on attack, where poor decision-making and worse execution saw a number of potential scoring opportunities wasted. Some good defence in the second half managed to keep the Stormers from going further ahead, but apart from Cobus Reinach, who had a busy game, nobody else on the Sharks side really looked as though winning this game was a real priority.
Lambie’s final minute penalty, to bring them back within 7, earned a vital point on the log to keep the Charks at the head of the South African conference log, but the Sharks once again have gone for 160 minutes without scoring and that must be a concern with some tough games to come.
Scorers:
Stormers (22): Try Juan de Jongh. Conversion Joe Pietersen. Penalties: Pietersen 5
Sharks (15): Penalties Pat Lambie 5
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The Sharks are looking a bit like whale sharks at the moment. The great white is sleeping still.
Maybe part of the reason the Sharks didn’t look so flash was the fact that they were outplayed in pretty much every aspect of the game?
Just one of those things. Happens to every team.
Next week they klap the Cheetahs and Durbs is ‘weer’ British.
The Sharks were beaten by a better team tonight. Newlands is a very tough place to play, a losing bonus point is a decent result. Congrats Stormers!
Reinach and PSDT I thought played well, but there weren’t many others.
Very disappointed with our scrum!
Please John Plumtree, no more Odwa.
@McLovin (Comment 2) : British? đŸ˜†
Who was MOTM?
Rhodes was MOTM
War1 -Can’t say I agree. The Sharks were nowhere. If they put in a decent effort, I’d take the loss on the chin, but that was no “effort” – Congrats to Stormers, having said that, though.
Where are our forwards if we need them to fight for a ball in the lose? Hanging in the effing backline!! We KNOW these are upfront derby’s, but they were nowhere close?!?
I am extremeley dissapointed with the team. And you all know – I normally see the bright side. Dismal effort to say the least.
No ways we would have beaten the Saders if we played like this – so yes – not taking away from Stormers, but this was not Sharks playing.
Well done to Reinach, who I thought really tried hard, and even took old Koper-koos back a few yards in one of his runs!
Oh – and McLeod with his – flip, I don’t even know what to call it, but let’s make a difference and ef it up in the process, over-hasty type of ADD play! Where is Uli now?
Reinach is a much better player than McLeod and with so much potential to improve his game!
@SeanyJMc (Comment 4) : Agreed, if it weren’t for Reinach, Stef-Du Toit and Keegan we would have copped a hiding. Eish, but our backline is impotent at the moment.
If this wasn’t a Sharks fan site I would have said more but “He Who May Not Be Criticised” has become a Morne Steyn/Peter Grant Wannabe
Reinach was good, PSDT is consistently good – he is by far the Sharks MVP for two weeks running now.
@Baylion (Comment 11) :
Sadly true. There is nothing innovative happening on attack.
@Morné (Comment 12) :
Yup. Nice to see both developing so well. Its Jordaan I’m worried about.
@Big Fish (Comment 13) :
Get the feeling he is trying too hard. Very few folks have natural talent for a game as brutal and skillful as rugby – he does – he needs to realise this.
Tough night for Sharks, Robinson’s selection was a huge miss plus Steyn and Jordaan have been rubbish this season. Lambie doing basics well, but he isn’t showing any of that x-factor
Jannie and Beast being schooled by boys who were still at school when they became Boks
@Ice (Comment 7) : Eks hier … Did not watch the game. Will catch up on it bit later today and see if all these comments are true đŸ˜€
ok just from watching the 5 minute highlights , this is my assesment awaiting the full game later today.
the first time the sharks has the ball Reinacht passes a shit pass the beast.
keegan needs to Stop his high tackles. he was very lucky last week as the lame ref missed it. its a old trick of his that.
Frans steyn is obviously not welcome in the sharks team and should go play for the cheetahs. I wish him luck there and know he will prosper.
Plaing like this in round 9…. Good luck Sharks, you’ll be lucky to still make the playoffs after the tour.. I suspect some tuff times during those 4 weeks.
Shit passing, Knock-ons, bad decisions all of this with pretty much 3 clear cut try scoring opportunities… What is the problem????
@Baylion (Comment 11) : agreed. The robot is our biggest reason nothing is happening in the back.he has forgotten to think on his feet
@catfish (Comment 21) : Perhaps the “robot”, as you put it, is fed up of being the only back who knows what to do with a rugby ball? Maybe you’d prefer it if the “robot” stopped putting points on the board? After all, we’d be in MUCH better shape then, wouldn’t we? đŸ™„
@SharksRTB (Comment 20) : I recon the team is not happy, every player tries to do everything himself instead of looking left and right for his mate. Not playing as a team.
I think some of the people here on this chat are being a bit too harsh on the Sharks. Yes, we didnt win but I thought most of our players tried as hard as they could. This was one game where I knew if we win, its gona be a hard match won on defence. Stormers were trojans on defence. On the scrum, some of our scrums were good, some were not so. Thats normal.
For me the difference on defence was big hits. Stormers put in more big hits and kept us back. Siya Kolisi should walk the bok side. But we know HM is an idiot. I thought he shouldve got man of the match.
We missing our three big boys dearly, i.e. Bismarck, Willem and Deysel. These guys against a physical team like Stormers are massively important.
Unfortunately, we had Daniel and Kankowski who arent really ferocious on defence but we know when they get the ball in space, we can move forward.
They only scored one try and we never missed too many tackles. Not many teams do score many tries against Stormers becuase thats the way they play. Stormers are the same as last year so I am not worried about them.
As for overseas, those teams do not play as much with their forwards like SA teams do. Thus; i believe we will get at least 2 wins on the road because the opponents play attacking rugby which means we can attack back at them and all those games should be open.
@McLovin (Comment 2) : Well said. We were comprehensively outplayed.
@Baylion (Comment 11) : I think you should look further down the line for the problem mate. If Frans Steyn and Paul Jordaan can learn to pass the ball, then the Sharks will score tries at will. Unfortunately the two of them either bash straight into a number of defenders, or they crab horizontally to the point where our wings have to come back inside to try and be involved in the game.