The Hurricanes have beaten the Sharks 32-24 in Wellington, scoring 11 points in the final 10 minutes to rob the Sharks of a famous win.
It was the visitors who started the stronger, keeping the ball among the forwards well to force a try to Bismarck du Plessis in the opening 10 minutes. Frans Steyn’s conversion gave them a 7-0 lead, but with the defensive system again proving rather naive against the fantastic running lines of the Hurricanes, it wasn’t long before that margin was eliminated. Corey Jane scored down the right hand side after a multi-phase build up that sucked in too much of the Sharks’ defence.
Conrad Smith scored the second not ten minutes later after Frans Steyn had again put the Sharks in front with a penalty. Smith’s score came off the back of some poor individual tackling from JP Pietersen, even though a pass in the build-up from Ma’a Nonu looked very suspicious indeed. The visitors survived the rest of the half well, even with Etienne Oosthuizen spending ten minutes in the bin for a high tackle, at 14-10 up, the Canes looked the better side at half time but were certainly not having things all their own way.
The Sharks came out and arguably had the better of the next half hour, going ahead again after a wonderful score to S’bura Sithole down the left wing. Steyn’s tricky touchline conversion saw them lead 17-14, but again some iffy defence saw Canes prop Reggie Goodes hit back almost straight away to give the Canes the lead. Odwa Ndungane scored off a great counter attack minutes later, that after the Sharks had been denied a clear try due to a technical line-out obstruction call that nobody but the referee understood. With the Sharks now seriously in danger of winning (Steyn’s conversion put them ahead 24-21), the referee stepped into action, proceeding to blow them out of the game in the last 10 minutes.
The fourth Hurricanes try went to Jeremy Thrush, with two very questionable penalties therafter robbing the visitors of even a consolation bonus point.
Hurricanes (32): Tries Jane, Smith, Goodes, Thrush. Conversions Marshall (3). Penalties Marshall (2).
Sharks (24): Tries B du Plessis, Sithole, Ndungane. Conversions Steyn (3). Penalty Steyn.
Tweet
Much improved effort from the Sharks, well done boys.
Hard luck guys
Well, Steyn for sure makes a huge diffs to the team.
Despite an obvious late charge in reckless manner which should cited and a disallowed try…we played like mambas!! Hope biz and Mvovo are ok. Well done boys! Welcome back!
Well I’m proud of my boys. I think we should build on this performance. Maybe carry it into the curry cup (oh well more than 60% of these guys won’t play there though and with the vodacom team being crap…) At least it was an enjoyable game.
Well played Sharks! Proud of that performance.
Such a pity Pollock was quite blatantly looking for any excuse to penalize or deny you guys whilst giving the Canes the benefit of the doubt throughout the game.
Yup steyn on 12. No substitute for experience. Bissie also coming back in force…loved it! Boys you must believe after this one…Injuries rob? I agree Bothma should put down a deposit on a house in kzn. I have always felt that.
@Sharkfinn (Comment 4) : I do take issue with some other f the referee’s decisions but I was happy with that one to be honest. Canes no. 2 had committed to the tackle, couldn’t see a way for that big boy to change direction at the last minute because Odders had him beat by a few milliseconds. Big head-on-head knock as a result but that’s rugby.
Ja greg akos but we expect that by now don’t we? SA teams will always get less love..because they fear us.
@vanmartin (Comment 8) : agree with you.
Biggest positive from this game for me was the service from Ungerer. Better than Reinach has been the whole season in my opinion. The less said about Hoffman, the better.
Well done Sharks. After reading, shyte EXPERIENCING Rob’s PAIN 🙂 these laste few weeks – at least he can shift blame to the Ref this game.
But let’s not stop pointing to facts :
JPP was to state politely not even worthy of any 1st School team – with his defensive incapabilities.
Somebody make a youtube video of his defense (sp) in this game – for a Master-class ‘How not to defend’.
The not-allowed ‘try’ by Coetzee : Illdiscipline from two Sharks forwards. Both not bounded – bound implies upto shoulder. One pushing players away with both hands, the other moving backwards pulling with hands on Coetzee and blocking defenders !
BUT – this was first game I watched of Sharks this season (3nd Super15) and I really enjoyed the Sharks game.
I can not (based on this game) believe “anything” Rob has been saying last few weeks ……. 😉 Hahaha
Well played boys. Guess we can’t really expect to win games with weak defense and kicking. But I saw a lot of improvement. Keep it up boys.
Not all improvement is in leaps and bounds. But this is definitely an upwards curve.
@The Brand (Comment 12) : hey man – nice to see you!
And when have you ever believed anything I’ve said anyway?
So your take on today’s game rob?
Rob your PAIN was soooo real ! I was a believer !!!
Today’s game was GOOD.
Ill-discipline still major handicap with Sharks.
Ill-discipline is not only yellow-red-cards and penalties.
I liked this new scrumhalf – at times touch too slow … But I would rather my scrummie err on side of caution, than afkop-hoender en double-stepping like most. He brought calmness to attacks by both forwards and backs.
Now if only both backs and forwards can be taught to RUN onto the ball and not standing-still when receiving. Most times they surprisingly did run-onto-ball we crossed the gain-line and had nomentum.
With this scrummie delivering – they CAN run-onto-ball !!!
Pleasure to be able to read blog AND comment – with 5/5 signal 🙂
@coolfusion (Comment 16) : better. Sucks to lose, but that was better.
We are still not where we need to be in terms of having a squad that all deserve to be there, but at least there were more good performances than bad today.
Cronje is a beautiful passer of the ball. Chop his foot off so he never kicks. Ungerer was mostly very good, bar some wayward passes.
Lovely work from the props, esp Jannie in the first half. Lourens worked very hard when he came on.
The locks were disappointing in loose play (although Marco superb in the lineouts). Oosthuizen remains too slow and dimwitted for flank, even though he works very hard and covers a lot of ground.
S’bura Sithole is a potential match winner if we can use him better.
Ja agreed. JP will deliver more value on wing in my opinion. Sbura will be dangerous on center. Cooper? I don’t thinks he adds anything on loose.
@robdylan (Comment 18) : Why on earth did it take an injury to Reinach for us to clearly see that Ungerer is at least our second best option at 9? And how on earth can the coaches not see that JPP should be moved to wing and Sithole should play 13?
@Ben (Comment 20) : Maybe they only just started reading Sharksworld
Hahaha Rob – maybe they did not want to experience your PAIN !!!
Is Sithole a 13 ?
Can’t Waylon Murry(sp) play beter 13 … ?
Are there nobody else at Sharks for 13 ?
Wishlist? Jordaan to join murray to return. Jordaan covers wing and center. Du preez or mtembu for flank or nr 8 cover (either). Send Cooper back home.
@The Brand (Comment 22) : You’ve missed a lot.
Hahaha last THREE years to be precise !!! 😉
GOOD to be back though !!!
@The Brand (Comment 25) :
@Ben (Comment 24) : @The Brand (Comment 25) : On second thought. You really haven’t missed anything. 🙂
Great result I am so happy that the return of Frans Steyn was the catalyst in this resurgence.
Ungerer the difference at 9, can only imagine how good we could have been with him there earlier.
Saw a couple of sparks of what Venter must have been thinking with a Steyn /JPP 12 and 13.
Hell when that combination finally fires it will be Guy Fawkes,Diwali and Hong Kong new year in one
.Considering they were playing against the worlds best 12/13 combo in Nonu and Smith.
This is the game a lesser team would have been buried in.
Morne if you still want to know exactly what the Sharks culture is,watch this game.
@vanmartin (Comment 8) : Had Bismarck done the same to Jane what do you think Pollock’s decision would have been. Should have been a penalty for late charge at least. And he hit him with the shoulder in the head.
JPP was actually a handful on attack today. However his front on defence has always been poor – definitely not good enough for a 13.
@Bokhoring (Comment 30) : Spot on!
@robdylan (Comment 18) : Cronje should never be allowed to kick in open play, except to exit the 22. His little kick over the defense had some merit, but the rest were just awful. He was a bit out of sorts in the defensive alignment but improved as the game progressed. Worth keeping him for the next game, but geeze – how much do we miss Lambie?
Disappointed in the result but good improvement. Silly tactical play in last 10 cost an unlikely upset. Still cant handle JPPs shite effort
Poor defensive technique, alignment and poor tactical kicking persist. It seems there is a major disconnect between one coach and the players.
@Bokhoring (Comment 34) : Let’s see. Who coaches our defense? Who coaches the kicking? Hold on, it’s the same person – Michael Horak
I still believe this is the the source of some of our problems.
Lionel panics sometimes and makes some poor decisions but with enough time his bmt can be improved. We really must get better cover for loosies than cooper, and they do exist so the longer we continue the bigger the threat. Marais stepped up nicely.
@robdylan (Comment 21) : Too little, too late.
@Bokhoring (Comment 29) : If it had been different to this call it would have been the wrong call in my opinion. And if this guy had gone in to tackle Alberts he would be the one that lay prone 🙂
@vanmartin (Comment 38) : The commentator mentioned a similar incident in an earlier game in the season in Christchurch. In that case the player involved went to the bin. My problem is that Pollock did not even refer the incident to the TMO at least to check. The laws should at least reffed with some consistency.
For that matter could Oosthuyzen have argued that the player slipped as he tackled him. Still a high tackle, and the yellow was probably still justified.
@Bokhoring (Comment 39) : No argument there, consistency has been sorely lacking for way, way too long.
This is the most unemotional I have ever felt after a Sharks loss perhaps for the first time ever I felt the Sharks had no chance of winning.It still hurts a little though.
At least Craig Joubert know the rules around malls.
Despite the hitherto unseen fighting spirit it has been FIVE losses in a row now. GOLD OUT.
@Bokhoring (Comment 42) : No parking in the handicapped zone? 🙂
@Ben (Comment 44) : LOL. Sorry – mauls
That daydreaming look in Murray’s eyes whilst lounging on the bench 🙄
He clearly had somewhere better to be 😡
Played out of our skins and still gifted the opposition 4 tries. Still poor kicking game. Still crap discipline.
Much better, but still way off what one expects from a pro outfit. Typical for a Sharks team with fuckall to lose and only pride to play for.
That was much better! It really was very hard luck for the boys at the end there with a few 50-50’s and even some 75-25’s going seriously hometown. But at least a bit of pride was shown and we were seriously unlucky not to win!!
Our backs finally showed a bit of constructive play!
@pastorshark (Comment 48) : I’d say we were unlucky not to get a bonus point for losing by less than 7. I wouldn’t go as far as to say we were unlucky not to win.
Well done sharks. Well played except for JP. Pity that we had a kuk ref.
Just watched high school derby match between Wynberg Boys and Grey PE. There is a brilliant young fly half at Grey High named Kirwan Bosch. SHARKS should consider signing him.
PS. Bulls already circling.
Did not se the game… heard bismarck was injured!
How did it look? Bad? Any news yet?
The possible injury reports are haunting me. I sincerely hope the boys are okay. Happy mother’s day to all the mothers frequently this site.
@Stiko85 (Comment 55) : Pollock was appalling,but having said that Joubert and Berry were just as biased.
If the Stormers had been riffed by Pollock and we had been reffed by Berry the results would have been totally different.
Berry and Pollock were appalling. Berry AND the assistant’s should have nipped the niggle in the bud.
As for Pollock the less said the better. I have yet to see a match with him as ref wherein he was competent.
I think before we get too excited lets not forget we still lost and fairly comfortably. Our attack was a lot better and as I expected with Ungerer giving Cronje quick ball and him taking it to the line and passing. JPP was a bit better on attack but he needs to learn to run off Cronje/Steyn like he used to on the wing. Then our Defense-eish!! Our defense is horrible and non-existent. We really have no idea what we are doing and if it wasnt for our improved attack we would have had to defend for longer periods and the score would have been much much higher. For a professional side it really is unacceptable for us to be this clueless on defense. Defending like that will mean you lose more games than you win no matter how good your attack is.
Well we lost but there was improvement at least – some unnecessary kicks that cost us and POOR defense especially by JP. Luckily for JP on attack he was better and created a good try. I will choose rather not to comment on the ref 😉
I was quite impressed with Ungerer – hope he starts again this weekend. Was a pity losing Mvovo early in the game. There I would have moved Jp to wing and Andre to 12, Sbu to 13 and Frans to 15, but that’s just me lol. Another tough game this weekend – goodluck boys!!!
The Sharks need some serious analysis into how and where they are going wrong…if only they have someone like that employed as opposed to the thousand coaches…oh wait Brendon Venter where art thou??
Oh well it wasnt all doom and gloom for us Sharkies, at least the boss impressed on the weekend.
“There was an equally impressive result from former Special Vehicle champion Terence Marsh and former Springbok rugby captain John Smit. With Smit competing for a second time in the Imperial Auto Celebrity Challenge, a steady performance took them into seventh place in a Regent Racing Nissan Navara.”
Mooi man.
@The hound (Comment 28) : Considering how it is widely acknowledged that they struggled in their 9/10 axis, I think you are reading too much into your JPP/STEYN centre fantasy…
Ungerer, Sithole probably the standouts on the day. Cronje got the backline going far better as well