It’s the big showdown in Johannesburg between the Golden Lions and the “Golden” Sharks today.
Kick-off is at 14h30 (so don’t be caught unawares).
Golden Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Stokkies Hanekom, 12 Howard Mnisi, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Marnitz Boshoff, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Fabian Booysen, 7 Kwagga Smith, 6 Jaco Kriel (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Lourens Erasmus, 3 Julian Redelinghuys, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ruan Dreyer.
Replacements: 16 Robbie Coetzee, 17 Jacques van Rooyen, 18 Luvuyiso Lusaseni, 19 Stephan de Witt, 20 Jaco van der Walt, 21 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 22 Antony Volmink.
Sharks: 15 Odwa Ndungane, 14 Wandile Mjekevu, 13 Paul Jordaan, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Sibusiso Sithole, 10 Joe Pietersen, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Philip van der Walt, 7 Jean-Luc du Preez, 6 Francois Kleinhans, 5 Marco Wentzel (captain), 4 Etienne Oosthuizen, 3 Gerhard Engelbrecht, 2 Franco Marais, 1 Thomas du Toit.
Replacements: 16 Monde Hadebe, 17 Dale Chadwick, 18 Dave McDuling, 19 Daniel du Preez, 20 Michael Claassens, 21 Heimar Williams, 22 Garth April.
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Oh boy, the Sharks should issue a pack of Eno’s, bottle of Merlot and an anti-depressant for supporters with every game. I feel very morose about the prospect…I’m watching the Georgia versus Tonga match. Perhaps the Sharks can look into enlisting the help of the guy who is in charge of getting the Georgians to defend
@SeanJeff (Comment 1) : You cannot teach someone to defend if their heart is not in it.
Sharks need all the help they can get in fact the Holy Man’s employer would do right now,eish
I hope the Sharks show lots of “character” 🙄
@Orlok Tsubodai (Comment 4) : We will and Gary will point it out to you. Stay tuned….
Lions 0 – 0 Sharks
24 minutes.
Lions 3 – 3 Sharks
33 minutes.
Lions 6 – 3 Sharks
37 minutes.
Half Time
Lions 6 – 3 Sharks
How anti Sharks are these commentators?
Very much in this – particularly up front. Encouraging.
Lions need to be brought back down to earth; Sharks need a win like a thirsty man fresh out of the desert; could we hope?
The tight 5 actually not sucking atm.
Blow everyone’s mind and shift esterhuizen to wing Heimar at center reinach on other wing and bring Claasens on?
Will we see an eighty-minute performance today?
Lions 9 – 3 Sharks
43 minutes.
Kleinhans two knocks in a row.
Possession seems to mean nothing to this lot.
Man not sure I can keep watching this crap
Lions 12 – 3 Sharks
52 minutes.
The Lions forwards have better handling skills than our backs.
Lions 12 – 6 Sharks
54 minutes.
Hadebe has come on for Engelbrecht. Franco to scrum at prop?
Uncontested scrums. Didn’t notice that Chadwick is on the field already.
Lourens Erasmus scores for the Lions. Piss poor defense. The writing is on the wall now.
Lions 19 – 6 Sharks
60 minutes.
Claassens on for Reinach. Finally!
absolutely rudderless …… coaching team that is imparting ZERO.
Gtfo Gold!
As sad as it is the best thing for the Sharks would be to lose every game because if our director is content with this rubbish then at least the board would feel there needs to be massive changes
Skosan scores for the Lions. No fucking backbone in this Sharks team.
Lions 26 – 6 Sharks
65 minutes.
Schoolboy stuff.
Jaco van Heerden is useless
Jaco van Heerden almost as useless as the Sharks
Joe Pietersen scores for the Sharks.
Lions 26 – 11 Sharks
77 minutes.
Kleinhans scores for the Sharks.
Lions 26 – 18 Sharks
79 minutes.
John Smit en sy ou pelle moet waai. Hy het die klomp slegte goed aangestel so hy moet saam met hulle waai. Ek al vir meer as 30jaar ‘n Sharks maar wragtig nou kry ek skaam – dis ‘n skande. Ek nie om wat al die slim manne op die forum se nie – ek bly by dit – SMIT en sy pelle moet waai!!!!!!!
FULL TIME
LIONS 26 – 18 SHARKS
I have never called for a coach to be fired, but shit I am getting thrre fast, this team looks damn unfit
There is no pride in the jersey, no fire in the belly, no grunt.
Sucking again. I’m getting tired of this.
The ref making his own rules. A pass into a lions player – knock on, forward knock by lions – nothing wrong. Sees an offside – blows after 5 phases. That said – what a poor period of 20-25 minutes after half time.
Marco admitting that they don’t know what’s wrong and they do not know how to fix it…
Thankfully the problem is not with our coach 🙄
The april guy looked sharp when he came on
Oh well. Losing doesn’t bother me any more. I expect it. Should I be worried?
@Poisy (Comment 46) : I stopped watching by that time….just too darn frustrating…much more entertaini.g watching the Irish scoring tries with their backline.
@Orlok Tsubodai (Comment 47) : lol maybe! I know I still get pissed off we losing even if I do expect it hey
@Poisy (Comment 46) : Ja that kid needs game time. We must not lose him
If I owned a house I would bet it on the Sharks not making the semis. 🙄
I didn’t get to see the game…I was at the very enjoyable 90th birthday party of a healthy, happy person I admire…
#perspective
@FireTheLooser (Comment 48) : the backline actually worked well with him in it passing, maybe time for him to be given a go at flyhalf I iked what he did in the 10 min he had
@Ben (Comment 51) : I reckon it will come down to the Cheetahs Sharks game in Bloem…?
@Poisy (Comment 53) : Good to hear…but I’m sceptical about Gold’s ability to actually nurture a talent like that.
Marco’s post match comments confirmed my worst fears….we are clueless.
@FireTheLooser (Comment 55) : ya that was uncomfortable to hear and worrying. To actually have no clue is scary
Fire John Smit first. Since he is there Sharks going DOWN. I cant support this team much longer. Wont watch the games anymore it is a waste of time
@Poisy (Comment 56) : at least we have a Bok game with which we can wash this garbage out of out memories.
Nothing wrong with players. Big proms with management starting with John Smit. Time for complete new management team. All sharks teams are at the bottom. For sure not the players
@Sharks maybe not for long (Comment 57) : so because we not doing so well you want to bail? All teams have ups and downs we are all pissed off but keep the love for the team and our union things will get better
A little bit of good news is that the Sharks u21 beat the Lions u21 27-23
Under 19’s lost
@sharks_lover (Comment 61) : Seems Horak is doing quite well with our u/21’s…clearly he wasn’t the weak link during SR 😯
@FireTheLooser (Comment 63) : lol who knows boet, our rugby is “in groot KAK”
Stop ref blaming and excuse making,fact is this once mighty,feared franchise has been run into the ground,what a disgrace
@sharks_lover (Comment 64) : dit is blerrie hartseer 😥
@FireTheLooser (Comment 66) : Vir seker, when will we realise we need locks? A tight head of note, and another top 30 players? LOL
@sharks_lover (Comment 67) : I’ll be happy with a decent coach – look at Ireland…not the top 15 players in the world, and very little depth, yet with the right coach they are very competitive.
@FireTheLooser (Comment 68) : very true
@pastorshark (Comment 54) : I reckon it will be all over before then.
Being a Sharks Supporter today makes me feel like being a teenager being punished twice for the same mistake. NO Sharks NO Bokke
@Sharks maybe not for long (Comment 59) :Nou praat jy – kyk maar na wat ek alvan die begin van Super Rugby 2015 gese het – John Smit en sy ou pelle moet uit. Hy kan vir Cell C gaan advertensies maak en. Fiets ry.
No Gary Gold, we haven’t forgotten about you. 😈
Spineless!
So, the one good thing about the Springboks losing is that nobody is likely to hassle the poor, beleaguered Sharks supporters. They did better in the scrums and line-outs and Joe was decent and Kleinhans scored a good try, however losing concentration at around the 60 minute mark again cost them the match. And when Joe or Little-John (Kleinhans) made a break, its like, where was everyone else backing them up? Why can we score 2 tries in four minutes but only leave it to the 75th minute? The breakdowns were terrible and the skills were again generally poor in the second half. Are the Sharks fairies? I mean, where is the grunt and chutzpah? When is the last time the Sharks rumbled 40 metres down the field in a maul? Where are the bone crunching tackles? If flipping Japan can be tactical with the Springboks, why can’t the coaches come up with a plan for different opposition to take advantage of their weaknesses? It’s not rocket science.
@Orlok Tsubodai (Comment 47) : Losing still bothers me although it no longer surprises me. Its death by a thousand paper cuts
Put all your money for star players away and buy Eddie Jones.
I saw a comment during the week that one of the Marais brothers was spotted in Durban. Peet got married, so that’s probably the reason.
I think we should remember to keep this result in context- Lions top of the log,unbeaten and playing well. Sharks struggling to hold onto 4th and not playing well. So taking that into account did we really expect to win in jhb? There were better patches but can clearly see we just lack the quality and cohesion to close out a win. We simply lost to a better Lions side. What is worrying is how badly we seem to be playing at the start of the second half lately
@Ben (Comment 78) : Of course it would have been the ideal opportunity to have a heart to heart with the brothers…please?
@SheldonK (Comment 79) : Agreed…I’m disappointed with where we’re at…but given where we’re at, Saturday was not particularly gut wrenching…
Morning guys, how was the Sharks game? Could not watch, had an Irish buddy over so we watched the Ireland game instead of the Sharks. The score at least didn’t give me nightmares as I thought it would have been.
@KingRiaan (Comment 82) : Basically like you said…still disappointing but no nightmare…
@pastorshark (Comment 83) : I never had any doubt that we’d end up losing, just glad it wasn’t the riot I expected.
@KingRiaan (Comment 84) : It’s a sad place to be in…but you are correct…man, an upset against the Bulls would feel good…
@pastorshark (Comment 85) : It’s sad that it has come to this point, where us die hard supporters are ok with the fact that our team didn’t get bulldozed but just lost. What has happened to this one great team? 🙁
@KingRiaan (Comment 86) : 🙁
@pastorshark (Comment 81) : Yeh look as i said lets not kid ourselves about where kzn rugby is at the moment. So in that context the first half on sat was actually fairly pleasing- i actually saw some aggression in our defense. That second half pretty much sums up sharks rugby at the moment though. But kudos to the u21s-great result