Sbu Nkosi makes a welcome return for the Sharks along with Kerron van Vuuren and Henco Venter on the bench. Yaw Penxe will make his debut for the Sharks should he come on as a replacement.
Marius Louw is still preferred at 12 with Jeremy Ward covering the centres from the bench.
Against the Lions the Sharks managed to show off their high paced ball-in-hand game for 20 minutes, but then lost momentum and shape pretty much after getting nailed in the first scrum. Likewise they struggled in the lineouts where young Richardson had a bad day after starting really well. They have reportedly been working hard on the set pieces over the past two weeks – so hopefully that aspect of the game can be put right against a strong Bulls pack.
I would also say the Sharks need to adjust their exit strategy from kickoffs. It does not make sense at every kickoff to play a lot of rugby near your own 22 – especially if you are not dominating the breakdown. Rather uses Bosch’s big boot to kick yourself out of trouble once in a while.
Sharks – 15 Manie Libbok, 14 Sbu Nkosi, 13 Lukhanyo Am (c), 12 Marius Louw, 11 Werner Kok, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Sanele Nohamba, 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 7 Phendulani Buthelezi, 6 James Venter, 5 Hyron Andrews, 4 Ruben van Heerden, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Dylan Richardson, 1 Ox Nche.
Subs: 16 Kerron van Vuuren, 17 Mzamo Majola, 18 John-Hubert Meyer, 19 JJ van der Mescht, 20 Henco Venter, 21 Grant Williams, 22 Jeremy Ward, 23 Yaw Penxe.
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Solid enough side, but I’d probably prefer Ward to Louw, although Ward’s discipline is an issue.
@Karl (Comment 1) : I remember just a couple years ago it was Louw with the discipline problems. He seems to have sorted that out now, and for me is the better option at 12 now. He seems to be more of a physical presence, with Ward’s discipline problems seeming to be perhaps a bit of trying too hard to exert his physical presence.Ward will be a much better player when he plays more within himself.
@Dancing Bear (Comment 2) : Good to see you back.
Still think 13 is Ward’s position. For me Louw is a better 12 than Ward, although still not close to big Andre
Louw is a warrior. Not as big as Andre or Jeremy, but plays with all heart. Jeremy is a card machine currently, he needs to sort it out.
Koster is another for the future, decent sized, and also played 10 so a nice second playmaker at 12 If needed.
I still want to see Werner Kok at 12. .
Scrum working much better so far, but lineout still a bit of a mess
Think we only got past the Bulls 10m once.
10?6 Bulls lead. Sharks kicking game is just handing over possession
Bulls playing good rugby with very good offloads. Scoring second try. 17-6
@Bokhoring (Comment 9) : Worth watching or are we just normal post bye weekend kak
Richardson is a menace at the breakdown but he needs lot of work on his throw in
@jdolivier (Comment 10) : Not the greatest game from the Sharks so far. Far from the levels of March
@Bokhoring (Comment 12) : I just asked, we are always lethargic after a bye
I’m sure second half will be better. . a tale of two halve..
@CrazySharkFan (Comment 14) : Nope, we suck even more
We keep kicking short box kicks from inside our 22. Bulls keep catching them and then striking back immediately.
Have to say Gans has been very impressive at 13 for the Bulls.
Libbok has been a total failure at 15, the backline is out of whack, and also Peyper still sucks at refereeing.
Well done Bulls. I reckon you outclassed us at especially numbers 4-10, 13 and 15.
Reckon they may have to use Bosch at 15 because Libbok was shocking. Unfortunately that means Libbok at 10. Kok did nothing for me, and Richardson was great in the loose. Sharks got a lot of problems
@SeanJeff (Comment 20) : Maybe they should start penxe at 15 have grant at 9 and Nohamba at 10, Bosch also didn’t impress tonight
@jdolivier (Comment 21) : Interesting ideas, they sure couldn’t be worse than sticking with the status quo. It seems the team didn’t even think about adjusting tactics. Kick from the ruck but I don’t think Sharks ever regained possession. They kept banging their heads against a brick wall. I saw Marius Louw put in two dominant tackles but then little else. The centres were not able to get the ball to the wings and that was that. The bulls were helped in their momentum with Peyper blowing what seemed to me to be dubious calls at the breakdown and then not penalising the bulls’ offside line when Sharks on attack. That said, the first half’s possession and territory and missed tackle stats were dire for the Sharks. Pumas next, and they were done in with a faux pas from AJ Jacobs and Marius (clear forward pass). Their fallback flyhalf (Niel Marais) looked sharper than Bosch and they may be more motivated than the Sharks this weekend. Flip, it hurts losing to the bulls by that much…
@SeanJeff (Comment 22) : I don’t recall a single kick resulting in a benefit to us. Every single one surrendered possession to the Bulls. Since we also kept using box kicks as an exit strategy, these surrendered possession to the Bulls inside our 10m line.
Louis Ludik with two tries for Ulster so far, always loved watching him play.
In the backline, I’m worried about 10 and 15. Bosch is in a slump and Libbok is not a 15. Midfield a slight concern too. Louw is good, but we still want to play as if we have massive Andre at 12. So disappointing after the aborted season. There’s just no controlling force from 9-10-12 who can steady us or just get things level when the ship starts to wobble. We are young, and some will be learned, but we also need a seasoned head from some playmaking spot.
I’m glad to see the usual suspects aren’t placing the blame on the ref, as usual. No matter what the ref does, nobody can blame him when you ship almost a half-century!
A disappointing game by the Sharks. Quite a few areas of concern:
1. Lineouts were a huge issue. I counted about 5 lost.
2. Gameplan doesn’t suit the peronnel. We can’t smash the ball up without Andre there. Use the skills/players we have and play a style that suits Ward and Louw at 12.
3. Nohamba had some bad passes. Possibly trying too hard.
4. We weren’t offloading the way we have been.
5. The ball didn’t get to the wings. I think Nkosi had only 2 or 3 touches
6. The kicking game was hopeful rather than intentional. We weren’t really pressuring the catchers.
7. A LOT of missed tackles.
There were positives though. I thought we competed well at the breakdowns. Our scrums were also brilliant! 🙂 I think with a few tweaks we can start scoring more tries.
@ChrisS (Comment 26) : We competed well at the breakdowns (until Richardson went off) but we struggled to protect our own ball against Van Staden and Vermeulen. Too may one-off runners trying to smash through a wall of blue jerseys
@Bokhoring (Comment 27) : I also noticed that. They’d take the ball from the scrummy and run outwards from the ruck instead of back towards the support. We didn’t seem to have pods.
We played badly and got what we deserved. The good news is that we still have a lot of potential. We just need to learn from our mistakes and turn this result around next time.
@ChrisS (Comment 28) : This felt like a carbon copy of the defeat we suffered in the warmup match. No plan b and hurts me to say this but zero captaincy from Am, he seemed absent in the adversity
No need for all the doom and gloom. Effects of the lockdown are evident. There was no proper pre season. Our pack is not the biggest and n probably needs a bit more time to get competitive in the collision again. The guys don’t look as fit as they were during Super Rugby. Bosch is the 1st choice 10. Don’t forget how good he’s been this year. Andre, Mapimpi and Fassi are huge losses. The team will gel and make us proud again.
@sudhir (Comment 30) : Honestly all the teams have been in the same disrupted situation. No is shouting doom and gloom, merely pointing out the deficiency in the current game plan. Big Andre and fassi are a massive loss and their impact is sorely missed, but the coaches have not found a way around the problem yet. So let’s see what happens this weekend
@jdolivier (Comment 31) : *No one
@sudhir (Comment 30) : Feeling proud of the team is nice, but would have been far prouder if they had started strong and put themselves in a position to win this tournament, which now looks increasingly unlikely. Scanning the comments on Rugby365 after the game (what was I thinking!) it took all my self-control not to tell a windgat bulls supporter not to eat a bag of ‘something’. I despise arrogance and their fans have gone there rather quickly.
@jdolivier (Comment 29) : I think it may have been completely pointless of Am to have approached Peyper with his concerns (over what we could see on TV on the day, like constant offsides); Peyper is not one to cultivate obvious rapport with captains, but I didn’t notice Am being very chatty or encouraging with the team either. Maybe he withdrew into himself a little after a poor start.
I think most of us are just disappointed that the team went in March from having a real chance of at least appearing in the Super Rugby final to looking like we will struggle to finish (unless we see some major improvements) in the top 2 of Super Rugby Unlocked. At this stage I am really not confident in results against especially Free State, Griquas and Pumas going our way.
@Bokhoring (Comment 35) : totally agree. To me it was the most coherent and fluid we had looked since 2012 era Sharks. I hope we can make a step up again, but it’s just so cruel to have what looked a promising season cut down, and now reopen to this rather shambolic start.
Not sure if anyone has seen this but I see Anthony Volmink has joined the sharks.