It’s derby time in Durban.
Kick-off at Kings Park is at 17h15 SA time.
Sharks: 15 Curwin Bosch, 14 Sbu Nkosi, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Tera Mtembu, 7 Jean-Luc du Preez, 6 Philip van der Walt, 5 Stephan Lewies, 4 Ruan Botha (captain), 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 1 Juan Schoeman. Replacements: 16 Akker van der Merwe, 17 Mzamo Majola, 18 John-Hubert Meyer, 19 Tyler Paul, 20 Daniel du Preez, 21 Cameron Wright, 22 Marius Louw, 23 Kobus van Wyk.
Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Johnny Kotze, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Burger Odendaal (captain), 11 Divan Rossouw, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Ivan van Zyl, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 RG Snyman, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Pierre Schoeman. Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Frans van Wyk, 19 Jason Jenkins, 20 Roelof Smit, 21 Andre Warner, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Duncan Matthews.
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Will we see the same running rugby we have seen the boys play over the last two weeks? That is the crucial aspect. Hope we don’t revert back to labored style we saw before we went on tour.
Also, having Dan back from the bench is a massive boost. Bring him on to run right over those Bulls in the last half hour.
Beast is out. Schoeman starts. Majola to bench
@robdylan (Comment 3) : Oh FFS. What’s happened now to him?
@Dustin Emslie (Comment 1) : Unfortunately, that’s what has happened historically. We can’t seem to maintain the kind of intensity and focus against local teams, especially after coming back from NZ.
@robdylan (Comment 3) : Bulls scrum very good against the Stormers two weeks ago. Beast is a major loss
@Dustin Emslie (Comment 4) : dunno
groin injury
@robdylan (Comment 8) : eish if only id known, a before the game started, would have changed my bru pick to a bulls win by 3 points, instead of a sharks win. our scrum suffers without beast 🙁
The box kick exit is really stupid when you have Bosch and Esterhuyzen
@Bokhoring (Comment 10) : And Screuder being sooooooooo fucking slow. A blind 70 year old would’ve charged that one down
@Bokhoring (Comment 10) : And 7-3 to the Bulls. Not a good start by the Sharks
@Bokhoring (Comment 12) : That’s what happens when you fuck up the exit.
Same team that lost to rebels pitched up tonight……
Favored by a camera angle that try
@Mephisto_Shark (Comment 15) : Unfortunately the assistant ref and egon said decision is try. If he said no try it wouldn’t have been given
Bulls run in a try after a kak Sharks lineout near the Bulls 23
Nice obstruction on am there
14-3. All Bulls at the moment
@jdolivier (Comment 18) : careful, you’ll have some idiot telling you off about ref moaning. Was 100% obstruction and nothing was done, amazing ref this
Same kind of score as against the Canes before we got back into it.
Where was our world beating fullback on both those tries
Is it bad Sharks execution? Or have we no answer to their tactics?
@SeanJeff (Comment 23) : They thought they had one the game before kick-off typical sharks mentality, had everyone named the bulls as favourite we would’ve won
@SeanJeff (Comment 23) : Poor defense and discipline not great either
Chilli hasn’t landed lineout yet but hey, at least Akker is keeping the sideline warm …..
Gelant all over Bosch like a bad rash
Big Andre not made a single decent tackle yet. Gutless performance by the team thus far
@jdolivier (Comment 24) : We haven’t lost yet or am I missing something?
@Bokhoring (Comment 27) : Bosch is way out of his depth
@Spirit of Rugby (Comment 29) : 14 minutes in and we are hanging on by a thread not to get a rebels blow out
@jdolivier (Comment 31) : Same score at the same time vs Canes. Wouldn’t write us off just yet.
@Spirit of Rugby (Comment 32) : Bud, very glad there is a optimist here, unfortunately been supporting these guys so long that it is kind of written in stone that they will screw this up. Very happy to eat humble pie should they pull it together
…and you lost go the canes…
Hands off blue – then gives them the penalty but he’s lying over our players, too funny this clown
Hands off blue and then give them the penalty, egon is really not sticking to his guns in this game
Hands off blue…then penalty blue to the guy who didn’t take his hands off?! Huh?!
@jdolivier (Comment 36) : Strange call that
Ref is a clown. Absolutely clueless.
@jdolivier (Comment 36) : Haha…that’s what I thought…
Horrible missed kick by du Preez there!!
@jdolivier (Comment 33) : Snap. Watched my first Natal game at KP in 1972 when I was 6.
Guys post scores please, not in the mood to ruin another weekend on these choke artists
@Spirit of Rugby (Comment 42) : Beat me by 8 years good sir
14 -3 bulls
@jdolivier (Comment 44) : 😆
Shreuder has had 1 game where he was semi decent, back to his slower than a cripple self …..
19-3
Bulls nailing us at the breakdown. Sometimes not legal but sometimes very.
We back in Durban, not like a home game anymore.
Can’t see us coming back from 21-3
No gusto in this Sharks team.
Again, bull with elbows on the ground past the ball gets given the steal as if it was all legal 🙄
Im sorry but this ref is a piece of shite. Bulls constantly not holdiing their own body weight with those turnovers.
21-3
even if the ref wasnt poor. we are still looking kak…
Ouch… come on Sharks, catch a bloody wake up… get back into the game man! !!!
@Bokhoring (Comment 51) : Ja, I may have to adapt my expectations a wee bit.
Gelant is looking very good. Could be the Bok 15 this year
We are getting fucked up in every single aspect of this game.
My arse is gonna fall off, a call back for foul play just got called in our favor
Seconds override Jonkers call
ANd shit ref overturns it for his team 😯
Fcuk this ref.
Egon Seconds! My word…
And Marius Jonker where are your balls?! You recommend penalty Sharks and then don’t say anything when it is reviewed?! My word…
@pastorshark (Comment 65) : Ref has the final say unfortunately
Bulls very committed on defence tonight.
@Bokhoring (Comment 67) : We’re not exactly asking any difficult questions
Andre is having a poor game tonight
@Spirit of Rugby (Comment 68) : Everytime a Shark gets the ball three blue jerseys all over him
Stupid tackle offloads by every player tonight, there is no flash play here ffs, just grind
@Bokhoring (Comment 70) : Because everyone’s just running into the closest defender and THEN trying to offload.
@Bokhoring (Comment 69) : And then he scores using immense strength
21-8
@Bokhoring (Comment 69) : You were saying?? lol Murphie’s law 😆 😆 😆
21-10 bulls
@Bokhoring (Comment 73) : We needed that badly!
@Spirit of Rugby (Comment 72) : Bulls working hard on defence – getting up very quickly. You can see Mitchell’s work ethic
Du preez kicking himself out of a book team
@sharks_lover (Comment 75) : Hopefully that woke him up ????
How many times is the ref gonna say 4 blue before he actually does something
@KILLER SHARK (Comment 79) : Bok
I had a feeling bulls would give us a game but without beast this is going to be a uphill battle
@Bokhoring (Comment 80) : 🙄 🙄 Hope so.
That try was crucial. At least we are still in with a chance.
Bulls getting away with murder and when they do get blown up no warnings for continues professional fouls.
@Mephisto_Shark (Comment 81) : Egon not his usual self. Having a shocker. That said if we play Shit , the calls will never be in our favour, the team with momentum does have the easier route to the try line
How long us the ref going to taje to realise that illegally slowing down the ball is a professional foul
My favorite … Both hands wrapped around a player in the air is fair contest?
Bring Dan du Preez on now.
Shocking how our game speeds up and we even score a try when Cam comes one but no coach can see it
and then not just not notice it but put back the slow one!
Eish. If Bosch held onto that ball could have been interesting
inconsistent as anything on the scrums too this ref, I mean …..
If that was not the definition of walking around
Maul defence crumbling now
Dan and Kobus on now
Bulls forwards fucking up ours properly. 28-10 and Thomas yelloe
Lol, making sure of their win this prick now
The reffing getting worse
Who thought Seconds would be a good ref earlier in the week?
Very poor play… Sharks must lift it now or Rebels score might be in jeopardy… stupid penalties
Ref can go to hell
Bhwaaaaaa clumsy ref…
Someone tell the ref the ball was out and turned over
What?
Geez this is shit … Even bulls now confused
This whole game Seconds has been trying to make the game all about himself.
What an amateur ref
So we lose our turnover, what the fuck is going on, he’s just calling shit how he wants now
Did an old Sharks player screw his girlfriend?
How can Outsurance allow this guy to wear their logo
Cam really needs to find another team to play for.
3 scrumhalfs at that lineout mr ref
The thing is nothing gets done to these refs. No matter how shit they are they are never held accountable.
Bulls will be happy to play dryfings with the Sharks. Sharks need to run the ball back
No penalty even for an air tackle but instant shrill blast when it’s his bulls
Ruan Botha well done you brilliant player……. #SHIT
3 sharks ahead of the ball in the ruck and no turnover … Gees ref wake up
leave it blue, leave it blue, leave it blue, comes to fucking blue and play the fuck on, for fucks sakes
Geez off the hand …. Yellow
Sharks kicking their season goodbye…
Schreuder you were absolutely dismal yet again. Shameful!
@Dustin Emslie (Comment 123) : how that shitter gets 60mins every week, maybe he has something on old coach
Why are they knocking so much? The bulls are not… jeeezzz
@Dustin Emslie (Comment 123) : What is shameful is the coach starting him every single game
Frustrating Sharks!!!!!
@KILLER SHARK (Comment 122) : Season has been shot against the Brumbies and Rebels already. Sharks playing for pride only
How much f’ing time has this ref wasted this game? He is clueless.
Sharks should ask to play all away games. Cannot hold onto the ball at home
@Dustin Emslie (Comment 129) : gotta slow the game down … Bulls are tured
Literally came from the side and fell on our ruck but ref is knock on, scrum for his team. I give up, being useless and having a one eyed ref does not a good game make
Shimmy talks sense for once. Bulls look more cohesive as a team
This thing of our players trying to offload everytime they go to ground is clearly not working. Yet they insist on doing it
Mitchell handing all the Du Preez theirs…
Time off …. Time off…. Time off
@KILLER SHARK (Comment 135) : He is starting to make his mark at the Bulls. I cannot believe we ignored him when he lived in Durban
This has turned into the slowest second half ever
We had our great game last week, game over season over, we can plan for next year lol
Sharks brought back down to earth… Won’t challenge the Lions for conference this year…. very disapointing game by them
Gelant really shows the Sharks all theirs. Scores a hattrick
I am sorry we can blame the ref all we like bug in Durban we have become totally shite, infact bar playing in New Zealand we should be in the bottom 3.
Bosch got outplayed by Robert du Preez on flyhalf an today by Gallant. Pollard outshined Robert….
Sharks getting pasted. Fucking embarrassing
Time to buy players that actually are SR level.
We deserved that hiding, Congrats Bulls by far the better team.
Want to give trash a minutes silence, karma gods showing you what’s what 😆
Sharks getting sodomised in their own back yard…
@sharks_lover (Comment 145) : Good players become kak in Durban. Must be too much poison or something
@sharks_lover (Comment 142) : We are the new Cheetahs. Im done.
All 3 of gellants’ tries was due to us not having a decent fullback
Blue bulls man of the match curwin Bosch, take a bow you useless twat
When last did the Sharks play well in Durban?
Well, that was crap, no doubt…
…but how quickly fans can change their tune! 😛 😮
Sharks union will soon face dire financial woes as even less fans will go to game or support them via merchandise…. amateur performance
@jdolivier (Comment 152) : I agree. He is costing more games than winning. He makes 1 good move for 5 bad ones
@Quintin (Comment 150) : Sorry! Cheetahs have rarely been demolished to this degree by the Bulls in their own backyard.
Fucking pathetic. Season over
Well done Bulls. Great work rate on defence and attack. JM is definitely fitting well into the Bulls setup
@jdolivier (Comment 152) : Great kicker, good runner but totally lacking on defense and the high ball
@KingCheetah (Comment 157) : you have only ever beaten the bulls a few times in super rugby.
2012: cheetahs 19 – 51 Bulls
Everyone that had a chance to get John Mitchell, namely Us and the Stormers on numerous occasions. Is kicking themselves.
All you had to do was have a decent team and let him implement his system.
Slim chance we make the play offs now
No chance we win the whole tournament
Not one to blame the ref but Seconds made some strange decisions today, for example, we take the quick tap and get tackled 3 metres out, not ten, but play on ???
@SeanyJMc (Comment 161) : Fair point. How many times in the last few years have the Sharks beaten the Bulls? We beat them last year at least. Sorry, but the Sharks can at least, or used to be able to match the Bulls in terms of player strength, something the Cheetahs could never do.
@SeanyJMc (Comment 161) : when was that huge blow out? 👿
The odds were heavily weighted in JMs favour. Sharks have had 2 big games and have come back from tour. Bulls off a bye . ..
@KingCheetah (Comment 157) : Dude don’t even. You guys have been wrecked plenty of times in SR.
Tough luck guys. The Bulls came to play and the Sharks were still on Kiwi time.
@KingCheetah (Comment 157) :
Sat, 16 Jul 2016 17-43 Bloemfontein
Sat, 03 Mar 2012 19-51 Bloemfontein
Fri, 12 Feb 2010 34-51 Bloemfontein
Sat, 17 May 2008 20-60 Bloemfontein
@Baylion (Comment 167) : think Sharks should relocat to NZ as they perform way better there than in SA!!!
@Baylion (Comment 167) : Sigh 😥
marginally better than the Sharks vs the Bulls in the past few years 👿
Those were the old Cheetahs 😛 that didn’t want to tackle!
When last have the Sharks beaten the Bulls? 2014? And maybe again in 2012! 😛
Cheetahs at least beat the Bulls 3 times from 2104, including a Cheetahs 42- Bulls 29 score.
So we still are
@Baylion (Comment 167) : That never seem to bother the Kiwi teams when they fly across. We did not even have to play at altitude
@KingCheetah (Comment 169) :
The Bulls do seem to have become the Sharks bogey team of late, taking over from the Cheetahs
@Bokhoring (Comment 170) : lot more difficult to return than to fly out
@byron (Comment 172) : As someone who has done the cross time zone trip a lot, west to east is always much much worse than east to west.
I’ll leave this here for Sallie, if he’s still interested.
About the US Census.
The Constitution stipulates that there must be a census of every person in the USA every 10 years for the purpose of evenly apportioning Congressional seats.
Evenly by all residents, including immigrants, not just by number of voters.
Since immigrants typically reside in pro Democrat areas, it is in the Republicans obvious interest to count as few of them as possible.
Hence The Trump administration’s plan to add a question asking people if they are illegal immigrants or not. I doubt this will fly though, because I’ve read somewhere that there was a court decision in the past that outlawed questions specifically designed to intimidate people to not participate.
In the 90s the Clinton administration had a sort of similar plan. They wanted to use statistical methods to correct for the known under counting of poor people and minorities. They had a long list of reputable statisticians lined up to testify that the count will be more accurate that way. There was also the argument that census data is used for assigning resources to states and cities by all kinds of Federal laws and that more accurate numbers will ensure that the money goes to where the law intended. The courts though, ruled that while they may use statistics for every other purpose, the Constitution requires that an actual head count be used for Congressional districts.
Further back, when the Constitution was written, the southern states wanted all the slaves counted, because that would amplify the votes of southern plantation owners. The northern states were naturally opposed. This led to the now infamous three fifths of a person compromise. Every 5 slaves, were counted as 3 persons. Understandably there is still a lot of resentment among African Americans about this specific clause of the Constitution, but in reality, it would have been better for the slaves if they were not counted at all. After the Civil War, when the Constitution was amended to count everyone equally, but blacks remained almost completely disenfranchised, white southern votes were even more amplified. Hence it took another 100 years before blacks were treated as equal citizens.
Even more back the Roman Republic referred to citizens without property as the Capiti Sensi. Literally, the head count. Counting them was all they were good for because they could neither serve in the army nor vote. Hence why the conservatives reacted with violence when the Gracchi brothers proposed to hand out plots of state land to all citizens. Later when Rome was threatened by German invaders and Gaius Marius needed recruits for the army, a deal was struck give plots of land to retired soldiers. That however, did not make much difference, because the Romans had a vote by “tribe” system and all the lower classes were stuffed into the same tribe where their votes counted for almost nothing.
Likewise when citizenship was extended, after the “Social War” to all Italians, the new citizens were all stuffed into the same ‘tribe’ as to not upset the balance of power.
In fact the Roman conservatives were so well ensconced that their hold on power was only broken when the Caesars effectively disenfranchised everyone.
Hopefully we won’t have to resort to equally drastic measures in the USA.
My prediction is that the next time Democrats control the government they’re going to permanently shaft the Republicans by granting statehood to Puerto Rico and perhaps DC.
Footnote:
The Roman “Social War” was ironically a war by Rome’s Italian Allies against Rome for the right of the Allies to become Roman citizens. Rome won, but only after granting citizenship to all allies who’d fight on its side. By the time the killing stopped, the surviving Italians had won the Roman citizenship the dead ones went to war for.
The original Italian gripe was that their treaties with Rome forced them into fighting and dying in all of Rome’s wars but their lack of citizenship granted them no say in the matter.
This had a bit of a modern echo in 2004 when there was an op-ed in a British newspaper complaining about the fact that Brits were fighting and dying in America’s wars, but had no vote in presidential elections.
Imagine Brits and Canadians going to war against the USA for the right to become US citizens!
It may turn out pretty good for Mexicans. 🙂
Rob,
If you delete that for being boring and full of grammar and spelling mistakes I’ll understand.
Anyway.
Thanks for all the good work.
It’s going to be a sad day when I start posting on http://www.bullewereld.co.za
If this really is the end I’ll have to buy a Norton 500 motorcycle and blog my diaries.
@fyndraai (Comment 174) : Thanks Fyndraai. Jeepers but the old world was a crap place to be if you werent born to the right parents.
magine Brits and Canadians going to war against the USA for the right to become US citizens!
It may turn out pretty good for Mexicans. 😆
Jeepers but that was a real blowout from the Sharks. Bulls played well though and I think Sharks are in desperate need of the bye. I hate the result but Im not going to slit my wrists about it. The previous 2 games showed me what this team is capable of.
@Bokhoring (Comment 170) : To my knowledge no Kiwi or Aussie team has ever been away from home for more than 2 games – double that time and you are in a whole different ball park. The playing fields have never been equal on this one with South African teams always being disadvantaged. This year Bulls and Stormers had 3 games in Oz and NZ while the Sharks and Lions have 4.
@Salmonoid the Subtle (Comment 179) : Two factors here:
1) Effects of jet lag – west to east generally takes double the time to recover from than east to west.
2) Spending a long time on the road – that does tend to get you down at some point. Strangely the Sharks put in their best performance in the fourth week – usually when teams play with on-the-plane-already syndrome. However I would expect that being home again would lift your spirits.
I think the problem is that all 23 players have to play at 100% to put in a decent game overall, i.e. the team relies a lot on “gees” to perform. Just a couple of players slightly off their game and the entire unit folds.
A long stretch of tough matches may have asked for a bit more rotation of players at this stage.
@Bokhoring (Comment 180) : Most don’t take into account that Sharks left everything on field in last game in New Zealand physically and mentally no recovery time ,while Bulls had a bye.No excuse but hardly a level playing field.
In working out the calendar teams should get rest after tour, doesn’t take a brain scientist to work that out.
Indeed doesn’t take a brain scientists. .. hehe
@The hound (Comment 181) : @blesbeer (Comment 182) : And just to even out the playing fields the Sharks now have to take on another local team that has just come off a bye weekend. Strange but true.