It’s the first game of the new season for Gary Gold and his Sharks team.
Deon Davids has had his share of challenges in the build-up, but has managed to assemble a competitive enough outfit, who will want to repeat the Kings’ unique feat of winning their first Super Rugby game when they last played in 2013. The Kings will relish the underdog tag going into this game and will probably look to unsettle the Sharks; in Steven Sykes, Chris Cloete and Jacques Engelbrecht they certainly have the men to cause hassles up front, while the front row also looks ready to compete at scrum time.
Gold will have stressed the message of “no complacency” to the Sharks this week and one feels that their own attitude coming into this game is the only thing really limiting what they can achieve. Should they approach the encounter with the same fire and hunger that they showed on their recent trip to France, it’s hard to imagine any result other than a comfortable Sharks win.
The Sharks are a strange team, though and a big part of the “2016 redemption challenge” will be showing that they can be focused enough to remove the Mr Hyde aspects to their performances this season. The fans, battered and bruised after an awful 2015 campaign, aren’t expecting a perfect performance but are within their rights to demand a significant improvement in the performance level: commitment, attitude and defence are three key areas in which this Sharks team needs to show the progress they have made.
Kick-off at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is at 3pm SA time.
Kings: 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Luzuko Vulindlu, 13 JP du Plessis, 12 Shane Gates, 11 Malcolm Jaer, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Ntando Kebe, 8 Jacques Engelbrecht, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Chris Cloete, 5 JC Astle, 4 Steven Sykes (c), 3 Tom Botha, 2 Martin Ferreira, 1 Schalk Ferreira
Bench: 16 Edgar Marutlulle, 17 Sti Sithole, 18 Louis Albertse, 19 Schalk Oelofse, 20 Cyril-John Velleman, 21 Leighton Eksteen, 22 Louis Fouche, 23 Charles Radebe
Sharks: 15. Willie le Roux, 14. Odwa Ndungane, 13. Paul Jordaan, 12. Andre Esterhuizen, 11. Lwazi Mvovo, 10. Joe Pietersen, 9. Cobus Reinach, 8. Daniel du Preez, 7. Jean-Luc du Preez, 6. Marcell Coetzee, 5. Hyron Andrews, 4. Etienne Oosthuizen, 3. Coenie Oosthuizen, 2. Franco Marais, 1. Tendai Mtawarira (c)
Bench: 16. Kyle Cooper, 17. Juan Schoeman, 18. Lourens Adriaanse, 19. Dave McDuling, 20. Philip van der Walt, 21. Michael Claassens, 22. Garth April, 23. S’bura Sithole
Tweet
Its almost too tempting to think what it might be like looking back and commenting about how awesome the Sharks were in gutting the Kings. I get worried because pre-season means a bucket of warm spit and now is when it counts and the Sharks players may have dark thoughts and memories of the 2015 annus horribilis. Still, I shall try to be quietly confident in the players and their unity as a team and the preparation of the coaches. It is almost a given that the Kings will try to provoke the Sharks players into displaying their lesser person, and I think we are all hoping that the lads are squeaky clean and in a mood to bloody the water – within the limits and laws of the game of course.
Not much longer now……gooooo Shaaaaarksss!!!!!
(Big up for captain Beeeeeeaaaaaaaaasssssstttt!!!!!)
Time for Beast mode Sharks! Backing you all the way.
@SeanJeff (Comment 1) : Problem with these new teams is that they tend to drag you down to their level…as you say, let’s hope the Sharks stay on point.
Come oooooon Sharks!!
So the stadium that in the 2013 Super Rugby season was mostly packed is, in 2016, almost empty…
Tiny crowd…let’s hope it grows a bit more.
Not a big crowd
Coenie is 1.88m and jl du preez 1.91m
I know we undertook to give the refs a break but my word this Jaco van Heerden is just super super kak!!
OK I am gonna try say nothing about this ref.
he is a joke hahaha
@pastorshark (Comment 10) : Changing lanes, truck and trailer, skew feed to the lineout…my word he is crap…
And the TMO too…my word!
Geez dodgy reffing ….
Why do we get this bloody retard to ref our game?
Ag Jaco…the TMO says 2 black swinging arm…so Jaco walks to 2 white to penalise him!!! Just toss stupid!!
Swinging arm before try awarded refs
How do we get away from pathetic refereeing like this?
Skew lineouts, truck and trailer, oh shit the list goes on and the game has only started
And we are supposed to not say anything about these monkey refs? Why exactly is that when they are such blatant cheats and so useless, please do tell.
That was all pretty pathetic… 😯
Why Cooper did not start is beyond me.
HeHeHe . . .
Good Start for Me!
Got the First Try Scorer Spot On with Sportsbet
Nice work by the backs there…
Willllliiiiiiiiieeeeeeee!!!
Odwa scores after more good work by Willie!
Rubbish kick by Joe…5-8 Sharks after 18 minutes…
Another average Joe kick…
Eish bad luck after a good break away
😯
Penalty reversed…come on Sharks…pull it together…
What did the ref see there… 😯
Is it just me or is Van Heerden covering for the Kings?
Hes getting black and white mixed up
The Kings seem scrappy and negative
Jaco, Jaco, Jaco…
Imaginary not rolling away…
@byron (Comment 36) : 😯 Just WOW…
@SeanJeff (Comment 34) : Give them a break, if I had to stay in PE I`d be pretty negative as well . ..
An Aussie ref couldn’t be this useless if it tried.
Geez this is poor … the ruck wss over
That should have been a scrum penalty to the Sharks…good pressure…whole Kings front row popped!!
The player lying on the floor is just a padestrian
Again … how far must the player be from the ruck
Super, super, super kak Jaco…
High tackle ref
TMO to check for try…
8-15 to the Sharks after 32 mins…
Dan du Preez scores…
J-L du Preez scores…
Can someone explain these ‘previous ruck’ calls. Does one breakdown consist of multiple ruck episodes now?
@pastorshark (Comment 48) : Oops…
@vanmartin (Comment 50) : Alternatively, the answer may lay simply in the fact that the man with the whistle is…well…Jaco…
Lineouts are rubbish!
@Spirit of Rugby (Comment 53) : Big time…
Joe is having an average game…
There are masses of space out wide, but nobody knows how to use it
I actually cannot watch crap like this where the Ref is simply a cheat, I am yet to see a match he controls and the Sharks play where he is fair, even Joe got warned for a nothing push,
A good team will just forget about how kak a ref is and win on the scoreboard.
Boys we are playing without any heart, where is the team from the warm up games?? no passion. no leadership Yes ref is Super KAK, but hell the errors, we get Bullied off the ball, The lineouts a mess.
Ja ja simply 6,9.10.11.12.13 need to get off the field
Got to reduce our penalty count.
All in all….a mixed bag – let’s hope the Sharks finds some rhythm in the 2nd half.
Good to see Rob Du Preez staying composed in the coach’s box, while the rest of our coaching staff loses their heads.
It’s so so hard to tolerate this rubbish refereeing. That’s the reason the Kings are one try adrift. Every Sharks move is called back by van Heerden. That’s why the Sharks have no fluency.
Naas summing up nicely:sharks must walk out and clean-up what is in front.
When the Ss commentators at half time complains about the ref and that he is killing the game and biased then you should know
Xola just mentioned on SS that the ref was heavy on the whistle without mentioning who was the most penalised. I wonder what the penalty count breakdown is.
@benji (Comment 60) : maybe put vd walt on at no8.more experienced and could play the linking game between forwards and backs better.
As a soutie I’ve switched to Afrikaans commentary, Joel does my head in, and Naas and Nick are tiring too, Breyton, AJ and the Kiwi geyser were far more new age……..out with these painful dinosaurs,
Sharks just need to cut down on the mistakes, and get to grips with the refs interpretation at the breakdown. We knew before the game that Jaco is a very pedantic ref.
@Bokhoring (Comment 69) : You miss spelt pathetic.
That’s why we bought him, well done Willie.
Haven’t seen that Willie in ages
That try by Willie should count 9! What brilliance!
Great try. That is the way to start to half.
When a saru ref blows a game involving the saru Kings, should we really be surprised when said saru team is favoured?
@Seth101 (Comment 70) : I don’t rate him, but he has been appointed for our match – so we need to deal with it.
Loving the handoffs by the Du Preez boys:)
Jordan!!!!!!
Yes please! Sharks on fire now!
This is better.
Beautiful try that by Jordaan! Pace! Great drive by the forwards to give the backs the space
Great pass from Peterson in Jordaan’s try.
Odwa is to damn slow.
The solution to this ref is to play away from him, go as wide as you can and minimize his involvement as much as possible….
Much better in the first 10 minutes of the second half by the Sharks!
Andrews compounding his very average game .
Claassens on…
Pity Hyron knocked that…
Can’t blame Andrews for that, only one person knew what was happening there. He wasn’t ready again all.
Odwa is soooo slooooow
Kings look much less fit than us.
Easy to tell that our backline players are scared to death of MMA-Joe….they literally ran as if their lives depended on it.
Mvovovovovoovvooooo!!!!
Now the boys are on fire. Try Lwazi
What was in the water at half time.
Another great try.
@Seth101 (Comment 95) : Rob Du Preez’ bile
Love the way saffa teams are doing backhand offloads suddenly.
Kings are running on empty now.
So Jaco says ruck now, hands go in to steal…and he says it’s good… 😯
@FireTheLooser (Comment 97) : 😀
@Seth101 (Comment 89) : Sure…still a pity… 😆
Notice the ref has calmed down to protect his performance now that the SARU kings are now blasted into submission
Jaco, bist du bekloppt?!?!
He is just an idiot…just an idiot…for pete’s sake!
So now you can go to the tmo after the try is awarded? Joe was setting up hid kick already ffs.
Does TMO protocol allow a ref to award a try…see a replay on the big screen two minutes later while the conversion is being lined up and then to call for the TMO?!?!?! Surely not…
These maul laws are way too complicated.
@Bokhoring (Comment 108) : TMO protocol is now not complicated, though, is it? Surely that wasn’t allowed…
That scrum was fed the same way every try today has been fed?
Odwa still contributes though…try time!
Bonus point should be safe now.
Oosthuizen just booked himself a sighting with that clean out of his.
Jordaan is doing a good job of drawing his man and then passing.
And that’s why odwa is still starting..
April’s hands are a bit of a worry
Jaco is not very consistent at blowing the breakdowns though.
If you offered me 43-8 this morning I’d take it. Messy start but we played well.
I thought he was pretty consistant … if the sharks competed they were penalised for not rolling away
Sharks struggled to get going in the first half due to mistakes and struggling to come to grips with the refs interpretation. Much better second half on attack. Need to put a lot more work into the line out and kickoff. We will be up against much better locks than Sykes and Astle in the coming games.
Second half certainly lived up to expectations. Wel done boys.
Not bad, but loads to improve on.
Astle is one of the better lineout locks …
That 2nd half was fantastic. Thought Reinarch was electric, van den Walt added something special when he came on and our back 3 were constantly looking for work. Say what you want about Odwa but he still finds himself on the score sheet. Andrews hands are a worry and Coenies scrumaging is a worry. At the end of the day I’m very pleased with that performance, it was very mature.
Re: penalties at breakdown for not rolling away: sharks need to show greater urgency to get back on their feet and thus back in play.tackle.get up.compete for the ball.player on the ground is out of play.get back on feet and back in play.
Throwing-in at the line-out still a concern.
@50shadesofshark (Comment 125) : They were pinned more than once though and still getting pinged
@vanmartin (Comment 127) : that’s how refs blow that at the breakdown.perhaps need to look at technique in the tackle so as not to go over to opponents side of ruck in the tackle?
Our backs were very good in the second half! I liked what I saw there…
What a shambles of a disgrace,even the public stayed away from that mess which is the Kings,empty stadium evidence of this fact
Marcell was surprisingly quiet. Who got man of the match?
@Ben (Comment 131) : Yup…Marcell was quiet…
@Ben (Comment 131) : Jean-Luc du Preez
@Ben (Comment 131) : @pastorshark (Comment 132) : think he should get better when all the dust and s&&£# settled down (or at least I hope so)!!!! @robdylan (Comment 133) : must say the Ginger Ninja looked good and competition for starting spot will be huge!!!!
@pastorshark (Comment 10) : van Heerden is nou maar net eenmaal en vir altyd ‘n dom blou nul – wragtig die man laat ‘n mens nie kwaad word nie jy lag van verbasing oor sy dom beslisings. As die ref kak is hy kak en dan se ek dit – vergeet van oordentlik wees.
@JD (Comment 134) : @pastorshark (Comment 132) : @Ben (Comment 131) : I’m no expert but to me,beside all the hype and smoke blowing on this site is that the Kings did homework on him and weighed and measured him very well,problem is if Kings can do that it might turn out to be a long season for MC unless he changes and adapts
@benji (Comment 136) : Cloete played a massive game and still cant believe the Stormers let him go. Our loosies probably made more offloads this game than total 2015.
Kings pack was not bad at all but nothing behind them. Their halfbacks are old Vodacom level at best.
@benji (Comment 130) : previous time Kings played the entire community was behind them and a few shrewd purchases game made them competitive.
yesterday the few of us that went (in our full Sharks kit) agreed that it is such a shame as the day was enjoyable and experience getting too and from stadium was a breeze. The facilities are truely great but one idiot has ensured that the whole community has turned their backs on the team. Watson is like a cancer and it is clear that he will use any means necessary to stay in power. Only once he leaves will sentiment change. This Kings side will be competing with Rabble and Farce for worst side
@Kabouter (Comment 137) : Ntando Kebe has a good pass, though.
@benji (Comment 136) : yes they did their homework but concentrating so much on MC gave the other loosies space to do damage!!! Still think MC will produce better games!!!
@robdylan (Comment 139) : certainly but tough being plucked from Voda level into SR. Watts was major disapointment as he had quite a few good games at Cheetahs. Fouche is massive and Du Plessis is same as always – strength and speed but no hands.
Cudos to Willie for standing up in defence as well.