The Sharks travel to Loftus to face the Bulls in a crunch match, the Bulls favourites to take this clash having beaten (or drawn with) the Sharks in the last 6 encounters.
The Sharks come off a winning high having dispatched the Highlanders in spectacular fashion last week, and with all but one of that team taking the field at Loftus, one has to think that there will be momentum on the side of the Sharks.
That said, the Bulls come off a loss to the Stormers at Newlands but will be buoyed by the thought of beating the Sharks by 30 points at Kings Park less than a month ago.
All in all, it is lining up to be quite an intense match.
From a Sharks point of view, let’s look at the key aspects to get a win at Loftus.
It’s become a bit of a cliché, but the Sharks simply have to be consistent. If they show similar intent and passion and skill as they did last week, there are very few teams that would beat them. The key is to start well, and that doesn’t necessarily mean a try in the opening minutes. Basic skills to start the match, no silly errors, get the scrums right from the start, find the jumpers in the first line-outs. Those simple things could get the ball rolling to dominate the match later on.
A couple of key battles to look forward to, Handre Pollard vs Robert du Preez the juiciest of the lot. Then there is the small matter of Akker van der Merwe vs an in form Adriaan Strauss. My personal favourite will be looking at how Warrick Gelant compares to Curwin Bosch. There won’t necessarily be many one on one face off’s, but there is sure to be plenty of kicking between the two.
I feel the Sharks’ main concern is being flat after their super high last weekend, and if this Bulls team gets the slightest sniff at a win, they will be difficult to beat. If the Sharks are serious about being playoff contenders, they simply have to win this match.
Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Burger Odendaal (captain), 11 John-Ben Kotze, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Ivan van Zyl, 8 Marco van Staden, 7 Jason Jenkins, 6 Roelof Smit, 5 Lodewyk de Jager, 4 Rudolph Snyman, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Lizo Gqoboka.
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Frans van Wyk/Nqobisizwe Mxoli, 18 Conraad van Vuuren, 19 Thembelani Bholi, 20 Nicholas de Jager, 21 Andre Warner, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Divan Rossouw.
Sharks: 15 Curwin Bosch, 14 Sibusiso Nkosi, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Cameron Wright, 8 Daniel du Preez, 7 Jean-Luc du Preez, 6 Jacques Vermeulen, 5 Ruan Botha (captain), 4 Tyler Paul, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Armand van der Merwe, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Mahlatse Ralepelle, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Ross Geldenhuys, 19 Stephan Lewies, 20 Wian Vosloo, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Marius Louw, 23 Lwazi Mvovo.
Referee: Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa)
Assistant referees: AJ Jacobs (South Africa), Archie Sehlako (South Africa)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
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Should be fun to watch.
Blankets packed, Kit On on our way to loftus!!! Go boys!!!
We have to win this one. I don’t think I will be able to handle it if the Bulls win us again. Like I said earlier, our forwards will have a lot of work to do against this Bulls pack, they have such a high work rate. Most of it coming from their locks.
Gee glad we don’t gave mike Frazier reffing us tonight
@byron (Comment 4) : Be careful what you wish for, we’ve got Starving Marvin,the star of the show.
Please don’t lose to the bulls. Seriously
Bosch could get a yellow for that trip
@Bokhoring (Comment 7) : And he does
Geez ref … Surely that was too many phases?
@byron (Comment 9) : What did I tell you its the RASHAVENGA SHOW
And the Bulls open the scoring. Sharks must not let them get too far ahead
14 point turnaround
minutes go by, nevermind countless phases …. poor standard of reffing yet again
@byron (Comment 9) : Phases does not matter when foul play is considered
same as last time, exact same moves, exact same reffing decisions, exact same fucking everything
12-0 not the start the Sharks wanted
Twice he;’s told them to bind and twice he’s said he’s spoken to them. How about do your bloody job and penalise it you twat
@Bokhoring (Comment 14) : foul play would not come into play for a try review. Ref would have called it at the turnover
they also apparently have no offside line to worry about, these officials are golden 🙄
That was a neckroll
Good try by Bosch. Sharks back in the game
Try bosch … 12-7
Funny how this TMO has to check every try a Sharks team ever scores but opposition try, nary a peep …..
Gelant is causing us major trouble. He should be the shoe in for Bok 15
19-7 Bulls
A ruck formed in touch alliwed?
Sharks need to get their hands on the ball. Bulls doing all the playing
Bulls is targeting Bosch with high kicks and he is not handling it well.
Ref misses a clear forward pass from Pollard
Wow – actually penalizes Bulls for a late tackle
Thats not a big contact but it us cynical
@Bokhoring (Comment 30) : And gives Snyman a yellow
Clever dummy at the lineout and Vermeulen scores
Clever lineout move
19-14
Pissing me off you keep hearing the linesmen calling offsides but only against the Sharks 👿
This arrogant little prick is so out of his depth he should be reffing women’s 7’s
Second turnover penalty that Akker manages tonight
Sharks found their fetcher, the angry warthog
22-17 after great penalty from Bosch
@Mephisto_Shark (Comment 36) : The whole set-up is bent, like Supersport and SARU want the bulls top do well, its almost like its part of a narrative that’s supposed to play out.
We still in the game but needs more possession to play with
Ref keeping the Sharks in the game.
Why no red for a blatant trip by Bosch? Pathetic.
@SeanJeff (Comment 41) : Its because its a Vodacom competition and the Sharks are wearing Cell C colours,
Then in the build up to the 1st Sharks try, no.6 Sharks clearly obstructing no.8 Bulls from tackling no.14 Sharks. 🙄
@McLovin (Comment 43) : have some more drinks … Youll feel better about province losing in a little while
@byron (Comment 46) : If you can’t score more than 9 points in a match you don’t deserve to win. Chiefs did what they had to do. Fair and square. Well done to them.
Much better start from the Sharks
22-20 game on
^^ Must be related to the whiny stormers cnut we always seem to get commentating on the sidelines when we play
Not sure why we dont use Bosch for the line kicks
23-22 Sharks lead
Bulls ahead again. Gelant somehow manages to hold onto the ball. 29-23
Magic from Gelant.
And hats off to the officials for getting it spot on in real time.
Sharks getting some good moves going that just breaks down due to one poor pass.
Set backline moves not working so well. We getting much better result from the interplay between forwards and backs
Weeks and weeks and weeks of results showing that fucking with the scrum when it’s working is a bad thing but hey, lets fuck with the scrum in a tight game once again
Game set and match. Lood scores
Impressive play from the Bulls.
Nice to see from a Saffer side.
@Bokhoring (Comment 58) : YUP
36-23
We are simply not good enough!!!
@Mephisto_Shark (Comment 57) : nothing wrong with our scrum … Wasnt the best call by rasta
Red card coming up surely.
Season over.
We losing the game on the small things. Am getting yellow for dangerous tackle
Again the officials are soft on foul play. 🙄
@sharks_lover (Comment 65) : 39-23
At least we are consistent in the form of always being inconsistent.
That we lose someone like the creator of Sharksworld and retain the bitter trolling WP cunt really puts one off being here, good game or not. One less supporter
Great subs there by the coach, the result is showing on the scoreboard!
JLDP scores. 39-30
@Ben (Comment 69) : Bulls are just better overall. Gelant causing us major grief.
@sharks_lover (Comment 65) : Season was over when we lost to the Bulls by 30 in the 1st match against them. This will make it 4/11, one of our worst seasons in SR in recent history.
What a try from the Bulls.
Very impressive.
Or was it forward?
Oh well, still some great stuff from both sides.
Can the Sharks still salvage a bonus point?
Should have taken the kick there
Take the fucken kick
We got beaten because we were not good enough, simple, the Bulls played with much more intensity and wanted it more. Yeah Ref made some shit calls but that is not why we lost. Congrats Bulls.
39-33. Well done Bulls. JM is making a huge difference in Pretoria.
Sharks need to continue working on cutting down the mistakes. Too many promising phases of play break down. Also some rythm lacking in our backline sometimes. Too many players having to stop to catch the ball
Kriel and Gelant will probably start for the Boks
@sharks_lover (Comment 81) : Over scrutinized every try by the sharks and allowed 2 forward pass tries by the bulls no tmo. Rasta is a useless idiot, face it we don’t have captains that can communicate with a ref and that is why we don’t ever get equal calls. Great game and great advertisement for SA rugby
No disgrace in that loss, boys played their hearts outj just hope the negative shit doesn’t start here again
Good stuff from both sides.
Bulls were just too good today.
@The hound (Comment 85) : Absolutely no disgrace in that loss. It was a good game overall. If we look at the season so far though, theres no way to sugarcoat it. We aren’t getting results.
Losing is never easy, but the Sharks played right to the end.
@The hound (Comment 85) : @The hound (Comment 85) : Saying we not good enough on the day not negative mate, it is a simple fact, Yes played a full 80 minutes etc but they made the better decisions, I reckon we missed PvdWalt more than we realize as our Rucks was not as good as usual. Defense also not as great today, but overall great game but the best team on the day was the Bulls.
Some say Ref was KAK, Mallet says ref brilliant.
@sharks_lover (Comment 90) : Mallet thinks that the sharks should all be shot just for living in kzn. What does he know
@sharks_lover (Comment 90) : Ref was good, even though he was very soft on Sharks’ foul play.
@sharks_lover (Comment 90) : @jdolivier (Comment 91) : Please, the ref was better than most NZ and Ausie refs were this whole season. Lets not bring that into the conversation. The Bulls were better than us today.
@Quintin (Comment 93) : Uhm I never said ref bad, read my posts.
Leinster take the Euro Champions Cup.
We just need to keep at it. Not loose hope and revert to kick, tackle and bash rugby
@sharks_lover (Comment 94) : I didn’t say you said the ref was bad. I did read your post.
@sharks_lover (Comment 89) : Btw agree with you on ginger ninja, he puts in some good work off the ball. Which is pretty much what we needed.
Really bad under the high ball in the first half and some second half too. Mapimpi refusing to jump for an easy bouncer backline needs to tackle better jldp has to come back and show them how to stop a man instead of playing tickle fight.
@coolfusion (Comment 99) : Scrumsvget worse when beadt and Akker go off. Many people talk smack about him but we don’t appreciate how much work he puts in.
We gave some soft tries away.
We are not as good as JM’s bulls, they have our number, its like they are perfectly suited to beating us.
Gallant is class
Mapimpi really stuggled today under the high ball, and general play, still good on attack, is he another Ruhle ?
Maybe, just maybe we still make it into the play offs, tough games coming up.
Looking forward to seeing the second team play tomorrow at 3pm on Ss1 and Ss10
@revolverocelot (Comment 102) : I disagree, we are better. This match was fraught with errors and I’ll discipline. Also we sucked under high ball for some reason but kept on pursuing that strategy. But when we get these things right you can compare the two again. I think we have some winning formulas but mastering and making that our iwb will take time and lots of practice.
@coolfusion (Comment 103) : We sucked under the high ball because that is a collective weakness of our back three. The only one of the three that is relatively good under the high ball is Nkosi. The times Pollard targeted us with the high ball mostly worked in their favor.
The Bulls were just better polished across the board and that made a difference. Also Gelant really is turning out to be a special player – pretty much everything he tried in this game turned into gold for the Bulls.
However still some good signs for the Sharks but we need to keep at it, and also work on our weaknesses.
@Bokhoring (Comment 104) : Agreed. If we don’t get the high ball situation sorted our own kickers should also not be trying to play it all the time. Rather make metres ball in hand once your in their or put those kicks much further ahead when you are on the halfway. Better yet drill the backs on gathering balls from the air. We kind of helped the bulls by kicking balls we couldn’t contest properly. We should have read it and stayed away from the tactic. But hopefully we learned.
@Bokhoring (Comment 104) : And you’re correct on Gelant. They call him bok hopeful but I say he’s bok front runner for 15 with Coetzee behind him.
@coolfusion (Comment 103) : Add the non existence of an offside line for the bulls defence, 2 yellow cards and pollard passing every second pass forward without any look in. We are better than the scorecard suggests
@sharks_lover (Comment 90) : Mallet has his own agenda. Rasta on my shit list. Would prefer a kiwi ref.
@coolfusion (Comment 103) : I hear what you are saying however the thing is all teams are different and right now the bulls strengths seem to be our weakness and we cant seem to execute a game plan that works against them. we lost to them twice now this sr season.
not to say that we dont have a chance of beating them in the unlikely chance we meet in the play offs
right now they definitely have our number.
Sharks second team having their way with Jonathon Mokoena’s very young leopards teams. makes for exciting backline moves. lots of varsity cup final players in the leopards team.
winnar who I didnt rate as good last season is showing a lot of promise at fullback this year. had three good games in the SRC thus far.
A good SRC could bode well for the cc, as we dont know who from the SR squad will be unavailable cause of bok call up, playing in japan or just leaving for Europe.
Looking at the game again it must be noted that we lost by 6 points, not even by a converted try, this game was that close.
We played foe 30 min with 14 men, and one can only wonder what the score could have been if we hadn’t had those 2 cards, we also had a very good try disallowed for an incident that happened way ahead of the try.
Bosch had rush of blood with that trip and Am was just desperately unlucky, no huge foul play in either of those cards, the Bulls card on the other hand was for a brutal no arms very late hit on a small guy Wright by a huge thug Snyman.
Hope he is sited and banned ,if that happened in NewZealand as it did with the Bulls prop’s late forearm smash to the head of another little guy Damien McKenzie during the Bulls/Chiefs game, he would have got 3 weeks.
Wright wasn’t the same after that hit and Schreuder just never had it when he came on.
1. Mzamo Majola
2. Andrew du Plessis
3. Khutha Mchunu
4. Gideon Koegelenberg
5. Hyron Andrews
6. Cornelius Otto
7. Kwanda Dimaza
8. Tera Mtembu
9. Grant Williams
10. Garth April
11. Leolin Zas
12. Johan Deysel (C)
13. Jeremy Ward
14. Aphelele Fassi
15. Courtney Winnaar
16. Kerron van Vuuren
17. Jordan Els
18. Andrew Evans
19. JJ van der Mescht
20. Francois de Villiers
21. Danrich Visagie
22. Tristan Blewett
Any Europe team must be waiting eagerly for Johan Deysel’s sharks contract to expire, that guys way too good for SRC level, we are lucky too have him
On the Bosch incident – the law states that the TMO is free to communicate with the referee at any time if he sees something he suspects is foul play. When the game stops, the TMO will then ask to review some play earlier that caught his eye. Personally I think it is better to let play continue in case the incident was nothing of note, and then review at a natural stoppage in play.
I don’t have an issue with the handling of this incident. It looked like an instinctive reaction from Bosch, but a trip is still illegal and an immediate yellow.
@Bokhoring (Comment 112) : I concur, inexperience from Bosch, but his been more good than bad this season.
JJ van der Mescht is huge, his bigger than hyron and his bigger than droste, his arms are massive, and his only 19.
@Bokhoring (Comment 112) : What annoyed me about that incident is that the touch judge was about 2m away and the ref not that far away either. If they officials on the field arent going to make any calls and just send things upstairs to the TMO then why have any onfield officials. The number of times the TMO is used is increasing drastically. Im not saying the wrong call was made, just that the refs need to man up and make the calls as its killing the game as a spectacle
@SheldonK (Comment 115) : Touch judges are there to assist the ref in guessing scrum calls. The amount of forward passes that are not picked up is also worrying.
@SheldonK (Comment 115) : I am assuming the TMO alerted the ref though. I can’t recall if it was the assistant ref that flagged it.
@Bokhoring (Comment 117) : It sounded like Robbie Kempson alerted it on commentary to the TMO who then relayed to the ref. My point being was the touchjudge running down the line with his eyes closed?
@Salmonoid the Subtle (Comment 116) : Seems none of the refs or touch judges are keen to make any decisions and send anything possible up to TMO. Varsity Cup want to trial all these crazy rules, how about trialling only having 1 ref and no touch judges like the old days….just let the teams have a go at each other
@SheldonK (Comment 118) : If that was the case, I would have to question the legality of the ruling.
These touch judges are now so-called assistant referees, but it does seem that they are just there as a “keep referees fit” exercise.
@SheldonK (Comment 119) : More and more people would rather we got back to the old way of blowing a game. Ref is the sole judge.
I cant see it happening because the advent of all angle, slow motion television has meant that the ref him/herself (for you Aimee) is just as much under scrutiny as the actual play. Refs are now using the referral as a cop out but can they really be blamed.
I am also starting to get annoyed with all the niggles that are being treated on the field at critical times and in critical zones of the game allowing a breather for all and a heap of coaching and strategy to take place. Nothing wrong with treating the player with a niggle on the sidelines while the game continues – obviously this should not count for clearly serious injuries.
@Salmonoid the Subtle (Comment 121) : Yeh fully agree with your comment