Soooo…the Sharks have their destiny in their own hands. A win against the Jaguares in Durban today will seal their spot in the playoffs. Can they do it?
The clash is scheduled for 17:15.
Teams:
Sharks
15 Curwin Bosch, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Daniel du Preez, 7 Jacques Vermeulen, 6 Philip van der Walt, 5 Ruan Botha (captain), 4 Tyler Paul, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Substitutes: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 John-Hubert Meyer, 19 Hyron Andrews, 20 Wian Vosloo, 21 Cameron Wright, 22 Marius Louw, 23 Makazole Mapimpi
Jaguares
15 Ramiro Moyano, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Bautista Ezcurra, 11 Sebastian Cancelliere, 10 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 9 Martin Landajo, 8 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera (captain), 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Matias Alemanno, 3 Santiago Medrano, 2 Julian Montoya, 1 Javier Diaz
Substitutes: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Santiago Garcia Botta, 18 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Gonzalo Bertranou, 22 Nicolas Sanchez, 23 Emiliano Boffelli
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Question is, do they want to play in the play-offs? Let’s hope so.
Ledesma has not gone quite as far as Mauger, but he has moved a couple of his big guns to the bench.
With conditions unlikely to be great I reckon it will still be a tough game. Please pitch Sharks!!
Here they come. Wet and drizzling…
Ball slipping around and being knocked on all over the place in the first phase of play…
A great first scrum by the Sharks and they earn a penalty…
Good penalty kick by Rob du Perez from out wide and it is 3-0…
Another good Sharks scrum earns a penalty advantage but a wonderful break by Dan means it’s advantage over by the time the Jaguares intercept it…
Rasta allows zero advantage, but the penalty makes it 6-0 after 16 minutes…
Dan gets yellow for a grass cutter tackle…
Dan needs to start cutting out those grass cutters.
6-3 after 19 minutes…
Acker scores…
Brilliant from Akker
13-3 after 22 minutes…
That was important being a man down…
Bad missed tackles by the Sharks before Esterhuizen crunches the Jag…
Lucky for the Sharks Jags loose the ball with an open tryline
Jake White being vindicated 😛
Not clever play by vd Walt running the ball up on the wrong side of the scrum squeezed on the line.
Good defense by the Sharks near the tryline
Still 13-3 after 31 minutes…
We have to thank these jags, they are playing as if to give us a shot. The boys are putting everything on the line on defence, well done
Solid scrumming by the Sharks…
Sharks having to make a lot of tackles…
Tackle count now already 62-12…
@pastorshark (Comment 26) : We need to get Louis “pasta” to pass the ball
I fear that if we give the crusaders these territory and possession advantage, we might see 100 points against us
Sharks need to keep the mistakes down – they not getting a lot of ball to play with
So a shoulder to a player without the ball is no longer foul play, interesting………..
13-3 at halftime as the Sharks have the odd lucky escape…
@jdolivier (Comment 30) : Very high arm there as well.
Sharks need to make hay while they play the second stringers. Having Sanchez and Boffelli running at tired bodies from making so many tackles can mean problems for the Sharks
@coolfusion (Comment 32) : Also seeing the jags crossing and running players across at breakdown. Cynical at best. Ref however seeing what he wants to.
@Bokhoring (Comment 33) : The thing about hay is that it’s tough to make in the rain…
And England goes home without the football, a trophy or a medal
@Bokhoring (Comment 36) : I had France from the start just cause they had the best team cohesiveness. But flair could beat that.
@Bokhoring (Comment 36) : Shame…
@Bokhoring (Comment 36) : You sound distraught……;)
@Bokhoring (Comment 36) : @pastorshark (Comment 38) :
@coolfusion (Comment 39) : Not as much as the Pom fan who had an “England World Champions 2018” tatoo after the quarter final 😛
@Bokhoring (Comment 41) : kakaka…
@Bokhoring (Comment 41) : In circles I frequent England is like the stormers of WC no one likes them except their own fans. They would rather have the car guards win those matches…..
@coolfusion (Comment 32) : Some very dodgy cleaning out at ruck time the whole game
@jdolivier (Comment 44) : Jags doing what the jags do so well….negative off the ball play.
Rather take the penalty
DStv just went for a ball shit. Have rely on you guys for a play by play.
@jdolivier (Comment 44) : yup…all night…
Sharks turn down an easy 3 points and then lose the lineout 👿
Sharks should have scored in that whole last phase of play somewhere…I would have taken the 3…
9 handling errors for the Sharks already vs 7 for Jaguares. Scary when you consider possession has been 70% for the Jags
@pastorshark (Comment 50) : Could have put us almost 2 scrores ahead…
Good scrum by the Sharks – now a much more difficult kick for Robert
@Bokhoring (Comment 53) : Which hits the post. Still 13-3
What a try van Wyk!!!
20-3 after 53 minutes…
That arm around the throat deserved a yellow as well
@pastorshark (Comment 55) : Big Andre made that possible, he really has improved his overall performance. And van wyk is his usual hardworking self, that man bleeds black and white
Brilliant work by Esterhuizen and van Wyk!!!
@Bokhoring (Comment 57) : Agreed
@Bokhoring (Comment 57) : definitely…but Rasta hasn’t called numerous neck high tackles on the Sharks!!
@pastorshark (Comment 61) : Or shoulder only clean outs, or off the ball niggle.
Jaguares wings cut the Sharks defense to shreds, but fortunately our defense tightens up as soon as they get close to the 22
Helter skelter!!
@jdolivier (Comment 62) : plus tens of off the ball clean outs…but Rasta…
@jdolivier (Comment 62) : You still reckon Peyper is the worst ref we have?
Cam on now
@Bokhoring (Comment 66) : Peyper would’ve penalised us for their mistakes, so yes
Jags are really good at keeping the ball, but so far not going anywhere
Louw to run them ragged last 15
@Bokhoring (Comment 69) : Give the boys a lot of credit for their efforts on defence
Damn…
@pastorshark (Comment 72) : Thought there was a forward pass in that move
20-10, 13 minutes to go…
Jags scores after a clever kick back in field. 20-10
Creevy on
First box kick that works for the Sharks
@Bokhoring (Comment 75) : That was done masterfully
@Bokhoring (Comment 77) : Marius really pushing for big Andre’s spot
Bosch takes a penalty from halfway but pulls it wide
10 minutes – 10 points to defend
Am has really lost his composure the latter half of the season
@jdolivier (Comment 82) : But why the long pass in wet weather with 10 minutes to go, 10 points up in a game we have to win?!? Some brain dead tactics from the Sharks…
Not the best game of the season, but we can pull this off. Next weekend game of the season, we like playing kiwis in their backyard
The Jag backline starting to test our defense with clever moves.
@pastorshark (Comment 83) : No arguments here
Unlucky call there
Vermeulen falls over his own feet as he goes down to pick up the ball. Try scoring opportunity missed.
No touch from Vermeulen, but Rasta calls it a knock. Then after a replay clearly shows there was no knock Andy Cap confirms there was a knock. My word!! What a dog show…
2 minutes to defend 10 points
@pastorshark (Comment 89) : Sharks off to Christchurch, let’s do this boys
Well, after all that we are now in the knockouts!
The conditions were never going to make this a classic!! And after an uninspiring performance we at least don’t have to beat our hoodoo of playing two good games in a row!!
Sharks manage to not slip on the banana peel. Not sure if after all this tackling they will have any energy left in Christchurch.
Uninspiring is probably a bit harsh. We did well to win a real scrap…and our defence was very good even if our ability to play intelligently wasn’t always…
20-10 final score…
@jdolivier (Comment 91) : That would be the upset of the last 10 years.
@pastorshark (Comment 95) : Hats off to the boys, didn’t let the niggle and foul play distract them. Also we have enough tackling practice to be sure of stopping the saders. Bad game behind us, now for the good one
Akker is the MotM…AGAIN!!
@Bokhoring (Comment 97) : We’ve done it with 13 men, we can do it again
@jdolivier (Comment 98) : come oooon…
@jdolivier (Comment 98) : Rasta did nothing to address all that off the ball stuff…
What a gentleman old akker. Always humble
@pastorshark (Comment 102) : Definitely
@pastorshark (Comment 102) : Yup. From the start saw only what he wanted to. Makes you wonder why even play a clean game…
@coolfusion (Comment 105) : If you’re south African, you will get pinged.
Well good on the lions for showing composure. The only team with some consistency.
@coolfusion (Comment 107) : They need to take some penalties in the next games though.
@Bokhoring (Comment 108) : Yes this is knockout stuff. Someone needs to send them a memo that bonus points mean nothing anymore.
@coolfusion (Comment 109) : Send the memo to sharks as well while you’re at it.
Match report up…