Pat Lambie has stepped up as a goal-kicker with a haul of 17 points as the Cell C Sharks eclipsed the Hurricanes by 27-9 in Durban today.
The Sharks pack started like a house on fire, destroying their opposition and dominating possession by 70-30 in the opening half hour. A lone try to Willem Alberts, though, was scant reward for that dominance and with the Canes growing in confidence as the Sharks failed to capitalise on their strength, momentum duly swung as half time loomed.
A pair of penalties to Beauden Barrett and Marty Banks saw the visitors trail by just four points as the Sharks took a 10-6 lead into the break.
A more composed Sharks side kicked better in the second half and used their territorial advantage to push their lead out to seven again. The Canes never let them get on top though, until a late intercept try from Lwazi Mvovo finally gave the Sharks some breathing room. A pair of late penalties to Lambie sealed the result, but the Sharks, though now unbeaten in two games, will have plenty of food for thought ahead of the tougher games to come.
Scores
Sharks (27): Tries Willem Alberts, Lwazi Mvovo. Conversion Pat Lambie. Penalties: Lambie (5).
Hurricanes: Penalties Beauden Barret (2), Marty Banks
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Sharks!!
Well done boys, seems we played to JW’s script.
Happy enough, long season ahead and a nice points difference.
Some execution issues, but generally a pretty good game.
9 points after 2 games: I’ll take it.
@Big Fish (Comment 3) : Played two, won two, one bonus point scored, no bonus points conceded, plenty of room for improvement… for damn sure I’ll take it!!
Well done boys. However, we need to offload more and play for each other. Too many egos in our team still.
Decent game. Seems as if we were a bit slow to the breakdown.
Frans Steyn holds onto the ball far too often when he should let it go. Shouldnt turn down early points in the game, worry about the 4 try bonus points when the pressure of winning is off.
That is all.
Well done Boys!
If we can stop the Hurricanes from breaching our line we can stop every team!!! Well done!
Hats off to the Caines…. they made us fight for it. But the guys played well and at no stage did it look as though they would lose.
It was definitely a case of “win ugly” yesterday. Great to get the 4 points but the kicking out of hand and losing the ball in contact are 2 major areas of concern. Against tougher opposition those weaknesses are going to be exposed unless they are sorted by then IMHO 😐
@Greg (Comment 10) : spot on!
Well done guys. With our game plan I’d like McLeod and Keegan given a start. Our game looked more fluid when McLeod came on. Still some more work to be done, need to improve our finishing and decision making.
@GreatSharksays (Comment 12) : I like the idea of a start for Keegan at 8. Marcel had another good game in the fetcher role and the Alberts/Deysel combo is working a treat too 😀
The two major areas we need improvement on attack – players (especially the loose forwards) hold onto the ball just too long on attack. Secondly we arrived a second too late at the breakdowns, and Lam had a field day against us. I must say the way the referee handled the breakdown was dubious, but great teams quickly adapt to the ref’s interpretation.
Lambie had a mixed bag – great kicking to poles, couple of mistakes (one kick-off went out on the full, penalty kick not going out), some very poor tactical kicks at stages mixed with a couple of fairly good ones.
A bit disappointing to have such a domination at the set piece, only to stuff it up with silly mistakes.
Good result, but a lot of work ahead of the team
A very good win – but was very upset by the way Steyn played – he had in fact a very poor performance. He hung onto the ball and never once passed it to a player outside of him. He did it 11 times in the game – tried off-loads twice – lost possession 3 times and hung onto balls twice ceding penalties in the process. He attempted seven tackles – made 5 and missed 2 for a missed tackle ratio of over 28% – which is 18% higher than it should be.
This indicated a sub-par performance that damaged badly the Sharks efforts to maximize their potential log points.
The only difference between Steyn and Halstead is that Steyn can drop a ball quite far. Other than that he has the same limited ball distribution skills.
His job is to create space for Jordaan, but he doesn’t vary his play enough to cast doubt in the minds of the defense. They know he’ll just bash it up.
The one time he actually managed to break the line, he blindly passed to Perenara.
what did you guys think of Marais yesterday? I thought he had a huge game….
@Michael (Comment 15) : I thought that Frans did play a little selfishly on attack (as did a few others… I mean, Pieter-Steph cost us a try by not passing to Odwa with the tryline a-begging) but otherwise did quite well. His big boot came in handy on a number of occasions and I must say, I didn’t personally see him losing the ball in contact (even if he did seek contact too often). In fact, I remember remarking during the game about just how well he does to place the ball when tackled.
An average sort of performance, in line with the rest of the team. He was not great, but was no worse than Lambie, or Ndungane, to name just two other backs.
@robdylan (Comment 18) : same with Deksel, holding on, when there was a huge overlap that could have put Odders into space for a good try.. Think Michael is a bit harsh on Steyn. And the bit I saw Frans made some solid tackles.
@Greg (Comment 13) : I thought Kanko did well again??…certainly well enough to warrant another start. Those steps off the back of the scrum with support runners alongside him were great!!
McLeod deserves a start.
We certainly lacked in execution at times (as mentioned about PSDT and Deysel on specific occasions), but I seriously feel that the ref ruined the momentum we created at the set piece and then towards the end of the game the same happened at breakdown time!!!
@robdylan (Comment 18) : Frans wasn’t as terrible as he said, but I don’t see all the hype about him. He has never been a consistently good decision maker…mixes the brilliant (like the cross kick last week) with the bizarre. Has done so for many years…
I mean Im not saying he is a bad player but ja…doesnt strike me as the smartest players
@robdylan
I agree with your comments about selfishness of players. I think too many of them suffered from white line disease – but my problem is that Steyn never once passed a ball to any player outside of him. He was utterly predictable – which is a serious deficiency in back line play. It allows for defenders to deal more easily in defence and that is where I believe most of our backline attack came to a dead stop. I am afraid I differ from you about Steyn playing a “little selfishly” – I think he was virtually totally selfish in the handling of balls he received.
@Michael (Comment 22) : fair enough…. maybe I’m trying too hard to give him the benefit of the doubt. Will look for him to distribute a lot more against the Lions
I see Charl McLeod has signed with Grenoble. Not clear yet but it seems to take effect after Super rugby only. Pity as I rate McLeod better than Reinach.
Which up and coming scrumhalves do the Sharks have on their books as understudy to Reinach and McLeod?
http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/Super15/Grenoble-sign-Charl-McLeod-20140223
@Feather (Comment 24) : Ungerer is prolly next in line with Hanco Venter
@robdylan (Comment 23) : I do not think you have judged him to harshly, I have just watched the match again and of the 11 Michael talks about only 2 should have been passed, defense lines were up and had he passed he would have given the ball to a player in a worse position than he was.
Besides a few mistakes you mentioned a try scoring chance was lost when Mvovo decided to cut inside instead of passing to a speeding Jordaan on his outside with an open line, I am not blaming Mvovo here as much depends on his vision at the time as he looked for support, chances are he did not hear Jordaan call.
What amazes me is how our armchair critics are whining as though we lost? yes it was no where near perfect, but again most forget with the Humidity in Feb in DBN ball control is not easy, we forget it is only the 2nd match and like last week our backline was in good shape and the forwards a little less so? this week was the reverse.
Here is a fact none can get away from, we have played 2 matches and won both comfortably, we top the tables and most importantly have no injuries that we are aware of.
I’ve asked the Sharks for clarity on this McLeod story.
Remember we’ve seen LOTS of cases where a French team will report a signing even if nothing has in fact actually been signed. You should also know by now how much fact checking Sport24 does… as long as it’s appeared somewhere on the internet, they consider that a good enough reason to run it on their site.
@robdylan (Comment 17) : I thought Marais was the pick of the backs along with Mvovo. The guy has huge talent and I hope he has Springbok ambitions which should keep him with the Sharks for many more years to come! 😀
@sharks_lover (Comment 27) : Humidity isn’t a factor in terms of the aimless kicking out of hand 😛 Against the Chiefs, Crusaders or ‘Tahs that kind of kicking will get us lots of practice standing under our own poles!
You might call it aimless, and yes some of it was, but again because of the conditions the idea is for them to run back at us where on most occasions the ball is spilt because of the slipper conditions 😉
If the whole McLeod thing is true, I would be concerned. Not only would we lose him, but Reinach would in all likelihood go a bit dull. The competition between the 2 is what keeps them on their toes.
In terms of the game, I recall the same problems with Steyn last year. The only thing that solved the problem was switching him to 13, which I think COULD be his better position (as long as he’s not too big). I was somewhat disappointed with the performance, but it’s early. One thing for sure is that Lambie needs to make sure he has Saturday’s kicking boots on for the Lions. We are going to need to score tries and watch our discipline.
@sharks_lover (Comment 32) : Don’t you just hate slipper conditions?
And the Supersport story that Charl has signed for Grenoble? Is there truth in that?
@perran_dw (Comment 34) : Sadly, Charl acknowledged on Twitter that he’s leaving after the Super rugby season ends for Grenoble in France.
@perran_dw (Comment 34) : yes, he has now confirmed it himself via Twitter.
Will get it up in the morning
Sad that Charl’s leaving but a huge break for the two youngsters.
@robdylan (Comment 36) : I struggle to get it up in the morning
Very sad to read that McLeod will be leaving us. He is 30 years old after all and should think about his family. Could this be the reason why we haven’t been starting him?
@GreatSharksays (Comment 39) : I suspect it may well be.
@West Indies Cricket Board (Comment 38) : I struggle to get it down in the morning
No. I think the Sharks were awesome until around minute 20, when they started to play seriously dumb.
If you dominate the collisions and the set-pieces, why would you avoid them?
The wild passing and off-loading, turned the game into something the ‘Canes like and are pretty good at.
Frans Steyn was the only guy who seemed to get this. The rest of the guys played the typical stupid stuff of years past. Hopefully Jake White will fix them soon.
@Michael (Comment 15) : What rubbish…..Frans passed the ball 5 times, kicked it twice and beat 2 defenders in the game……he had another solid game
@robdylan (Comment 17) : Great player, first instinct is to attack and he does it well…..is Bok material
@sharks_lover (Comment 32) : That is negative play…what happens if they run it 10 times and break through only 3 times…that is still 3 tries.
You can’t lose if you have possession. That being said u need to find the balance. EVERY KICK should have some thought behind it – i.e.. the chance to get it back or put big pressure on the opponent
I think before we over analyse the performance lets remember that we have won 2 form 2 and quite comfortably. I did think during the game that we kicked too much ball away, especially onto Cory Jane who is very good in the air. But in hindsight i see JW’s thinking that he would rather the opposition play from deep with a slippery ball than us try and play in our half and concede silly tries from turnovers- which the Sharks have been known for. We are still very messy and sloppy at the breakdown so i think that would be his only concern. We also tried to push the advantage too much on our scrum ball and ended up getting messy ball- although the ref didnt exactly help with that.
@robdylan (Comment 41) : 😆 😆 😆
@SheldonK (Comment 46) : Exactly what I said Sheldon, you must play the situation on the day and the conditions.
@sharks_lover (Comment 48) : For sure, its very easy to assess the conditions while you warming up. If guys are saying the ball is really slippery then makes sense to kick it deep and make them play. U cant play the same way every week against every team.
Jake White was rather critical in respect of some aspects of the performance of players – one clear point he made relates to the issue of not passing when in fact player should pass the ball.
Think he would have had some candid discussions with some players – particularly Francois Steyn and the loosies – otherwise he would not have made a public statement containing a reference to the passing game of players.
Think it would not happen again.
@ROB DYLAN COMMENT 17: I FULLY AGREE! MARAIS HAD A REALLY GOOD GAME AND CONTRIBUTED A GREAT DEAL!
@[email protected] (Comment 51) : eina bliksem, my ears! 🙂