It’s the first home game of the 2017 Currie Cup season and the Sharks will want a decent win for their fans against the solid Pumas.
Ruan Botha takes the captaincy reigns for the first time and will seek a maiden win as Sharks skipper.
The game kicks off at 5pm.
Sharks: 15 Garth April, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Jeremy Ward, 12 Lukhanyo Am, 11 Sibusiso Nkosi, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Michael Claassens, 8 Daniel du Preez, 7 Jean-Luc du Preez, 6 Keegan Daniel, 5 Ruan Botha (captain), 4 Hyron Andrews, 3 Ross Geldenhuys, 2 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 1 Thomas du Toit.
Replacements: 16 Franco Marais, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Tyler Paul, 19 Tera Mtembu, 20 Jacques Vermeulen, 21 Cameron Wright, 22 Inny Radebe.
Pumas: 15 Gerrit Smith, 14 Ruwellyn Isbell, 13 Jerome Pretorius, 12 Hennie Skorbinski (captain), 11 JP Lewis, 10 Justin van Staden, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Carel Greeff, 7 Lambert Groenewald, 6 Thembelani Bholi, 5 Hugo Kloppers, 4 Jeremy Jordaan, 3 Pieter Scholtz, 2 Marko Janse Van Rensburg, 1 Kwezi Mona.
Replacements: 16 Frank Herne, 17 De-Jay Terblanche, 18 Jannie Stander, 19 Chris Cloete, 20 Reynier van Rooyen, 21 Sias Ebersohn, 22 Devon Williams.
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Here we go !
off the topic whose looking forward to UFC 214 later tonight
Wonder if there will be a stream?
Sharks by 20-25.
@McLovin (Comment 3) : The way their handling is tonight they might lose by that margin
Are the Sharks serious about their rugby????????!!!!??????????????????????????????????
@GreatSharksays (Comment 5) : 😯 😆 😆 😆
Shocking rubbish, the normal Sharks are back, the ones that only play 2 or 3 good games a year.
Dan dupreez needs to wake up. A game is not built on defense can he at least try to catch a ball?
Maybe Marius was a blessing in disguise. Everybody on the field has played Super Rugby for the Sharks apart from Ross for the Kings. 14 handling errors in one half tells a horrible tale
@Bokhoring (Comment 9) : 14 to 3. A joke.
Player ratings for 1st half
15 April 0.5
14 v Wyk 6
13 Ward 5
12 Am 6
11 Nkosi 6
10 Bosch 3
09 Claasens 5
08 Dan 3
07 JL 5
06 Keegan 5
05 Botha 6
04 Andrfews 4
03 Ross 5
2 Chili 5
01 Tank 6.5
Sub Tyler 5
I know I have been generous.
@sharks_lover (Comment 7) : Yip, the team that couldn’t be bothered with teams they see as beneath them
@Bokhoring (Comment 12) : Agreed which why we can’t insist on a semi.
Much better Bosch starts 2nd half better, more passion.
Eventually
Good pass from Van Wyk makes that try
10-0
We manage not to drop the ball for 5 consecutive minutes. Yes! Do that….
@coolfusion (Comment 18) : 😆 😆 😆
that is much better
Another one to Nkosi
17-0 looking a lot better
@Bokhoring (Comment 21) : Nkosi, Butch said is fastest over 40 meters in the squad,
More points than handling errors. I feel like we’re winning…
I feel like the boys are making it much harder than it should be.
Wright up now let’s see if he can inject something. If the forwards can manage to hold on to the ball.
try although maybe lucky Van wyk
That looked suspiciously forward – but ref allows and Van Wyk scores
What are the rules for bonus points – same as Super Rugby?
5050 but van wyk has good hands and a nice turn of acceleration. Hope selectors are watching.
Nkosi has serious gas
Try to Ward
Nkosi has serious pace, great pass to Ward and he is no slouch either,
Backline just not getting go forward from the forwards and they can do so much with it
Am is also impressing at 12 – bloody good timing of the pass
So we still have the old system of bonus points – I actually prefer the new one
Our forward need to settle and get the basics. Backline has ample execution.
Sharks lead 29 points to 19 handling errors
coming alive in the second half
hyron looked full of running before he got hurt
Nkosi putting down the gas
still we may look great on paper but not that great today
These Pumas are kak – nothing like the teams Stonehouse use to put on the field
Sharks need to learn to stay on the right side of the refs
My MOM is Ward and Am lol
Game over 29-0
I guess i better do a 2nd half player rating and give them a match rating 😆
@sharks_lover (Comment 42) : They look very promising as a unit
@Bokhoring (Comment 45) : Now if Deysel was fit we could play him at 10 as he has played there before and play Bosch at 15, I reckon that backline could be quite potent.
@Bokhoring (Comment 40) : That defence was like soft butter pity we did trust the backs more. We should know our enemy and adjust. Tries realy came easy once we went thru basics and got the backs involved early and cleanly.
Cameron Wright did more in 20 minutes than Claasens and Reinach did the whole season. Good pass to both sides plus not scared to mix it. Oh yes and big to KD one of my all time favourite Sharks.
@sharks_lover (Comment 46) : At the moment even chilliboy at 10 would be an improvement, Bosch has amazing kicking skills, on attack, he is yet to convince
@jdolivier (Comment 49) : Give him some time with a quick scrummie you will see some inspired play.
@coolfusion (Comment 50) : Cameron Wright just impressed, doesn’t he?
Guys, just leave Bosch at 10. We’ve looked best when he is there. He has all the talent and I think you seem to overlook some of what he brings on attack. He’ll learn and grow…
I know we made a LOT of handling errors, especially in the first half…but we outplayed the Pumas completely, won with a bonus point and keeping the Pumas scoreless. Our forwards dominated a pack many thought we might struggle against and our backs did a lot of good things. I’m pretty satisfied…
@pastorshark (Comment 51) : He did and I suspect he will get the most out of Bosch who has been untapped till now.
@pastorshark (Comment 53) : though not the best game, they did seem to find a nice balance in the second half, all the subs looked promising as well.
Once bosch and april settled they looked why more cohesive in the second half, it was like having two fh on the field, sort of like the Barret brothers did earlier today. Still a long way to go though.
who do we play next week ?
@coolfusion (Comment 50) : Cameron Wright did make a huge difference, agree that with time Bosch will be there, just not yet. If someone like Fred michalak was around to tutor, pretty sure our backline would be so much more clinical
@jdolivier (Comment 56) : is the frog fullback still with us ? we cant be critical of his signing as we dont know his salary, his not in the announced cc squad but neither is a few of the guys that played for us last week. mentorship is important. personally I was campaigning for mvovo to get the fullback spot in SR since white put him there.
we have a lot of good young backline players: van wyk, cam, ryno smith, bosch, april, inny, benji, mara louw
next week friday its Griquas at the shark tank.
@revolverocelot (Comment 57) : Ya he is. Taking up space if you ask me.
I really don’t agree with some of the negative comments made here about the team and their performance today. I think the team played well if you look at the bigger picture.
• The Pumas beat the Lions (2nd stringers) last week with a decent score.
• Our Team has played less than a week as a full team together.
• What really motivate them taking into consideration last week performance, the lack of recognition we (especially SARFU) gives CC and I think there not even 3000 spectators with the presidential box less than 10.
Yes there were some handling errors. But to keep the Pumas scoreless
I am really happy that they kept Keegan on for the full game and that he was chosen in the team prior to some other regular flankers. I do think they should give the captaincy back to him and dropped Garth April, please.
BTW when I left for our game, the Hurricanes were leading and I thought – why did we dropped Plumtree and Boyd. And I just knew there would be another yellow card forthcoming. Don’t know it was a fair call or not, but the perception remains that the Lions needs that additional “assistance” just to make sure they won the little more difficult games.
I don’t say they didn’t deserve to won this game as I have not watch the 2nd half. Frankly, I have no interest to watch it either.
The Sharks u/19 got a hiding against the Bulls – this was the curtain raiser for the Sharks game. Apparently our u/21 is not doing well either and we know what happen in the last Craven week match. Maybe out problems are tooted much deeper than the senior side.
The Sharks plays two (2) difficult teams away in the first week of August. Wow, how fair is that?
@revolverocelot (Comment 57) : If memory serves me, he was brought in as a player coach, but haven’t heard anything about it. Think Rob might be our best hope of understanding the situation
@BluffShark (Comment 59) : April had a disappointing first half, like a few others, he did show glimpses of the type of play that got him in the SA A mix in the second. The thing that struck me about that second half performance was how the intensity and finishing improved with Cameron and the replacement loosies. The dup boys bashed the pumas into a pulp and the young guns started running them ragged. Why was this strategy not used in the Superrugby comp? Welcome back Cameron has to be our new slogan
Frog has left.What a waste
@BluffShark (Comment 59) : This is not sharks second stringers. This is the team. The lions will still get back team members after supers. So you are comparing apples and oranges.
@robdylan (Comment 63) : Well at least it wasn’t prolonged.
@BluffShark (Comment 59) : The bulk of this team played out of their socks against the Lions the week before. That first half was really poor and they had no excuses. Rob must have been apoplectic during the break, and the second half was streets better.
Yes, I agree they had a much better 2nd half, but I am not really convince that it was just due to the impact of the reserves (or the inclusion of Cameron). It just might have just have been that we drained the Pumas with our massive attacks in the 1st half.
Unfortunately, our next match is against the Griquas and they should not be much of a challenge for us. The matches thereafter against the Bulls (five (5) days after the Griquas match) and Lions (three (3) days after the Bulls match) would provide a much better indication of the strength of our CC team.
Bottom line, I am satisfied with our 1st outing.
Ps – Just a friendly reminder that the TMO was Johan Greeff. Do I have to say more.
@robdylan (Comment 63) : nice try but really did not work!!! Hell that guy was skinny!!! 😯