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Sharks nurse their bruises

By Rob Houwing - Sport24 chief writer

Cape Town – The Sharks’ desperate defensive effort in holding off the Chiefs by the skin of their teeth in Hamilton looms as their biggest obstacle to retaining their unbeaten record this weekend.

One of three sides – with the Bulls and Waratahs - with a trio of wins from as many rounds of the Vodacom Super 14, the touring outfit now face up to the resurgent Blues on Saturday.

In their favour, of course, is that they will be well over “travel fatigue” and it is the Aucklanders who must square up to that disadvantage after the long haul back from Cape Town, following their tense but heartening 14-8 victory over the Stormers.

But the Sharks were pretty much dead on their feet (those who weren’t gasping for air on their backs from the grass!) as the final whistle sounded in their 22-15 win against the game Chiefs, who were smarting over a couple of key TMO decisions that went the way of Johann Muller’s team in a frenzied last few minutes.

The Sharks were also not helped by the early knee injury to Jean Deysel, a vital link in their game-plan with his robust presence at blind-side flank. The Sharks scrum, worryingly, could not establish nearly the same foothold over the limited Chiefs tight five which the Waratahs had managed a week earlier, but their tactical kicking game was superb, with Ruan Pienaar, Frans Steyn and evergreen Stefan Terblanche leaders in that regard and two-try JP Pietersen a grateful - and encouragingly zestful - beneficiary in a brace of outcome-swaying attacking situations.

Also still in the Sharks’ favour, despite their being restricted to third on the table at present because they are yet to bank any bonus points, is their reputation as willing and competitive tourists.

Quite the opposite situation continues to plague the hapless Cheetahs, rooted to bottom of the log and lacklustre in arguably their best opportunity for a maiden overseas win, against the almost as ordinary Reds in Brisbane on Sunday.
The Reds had travelled back from successive defeats in South Africa and Naka Drotske had tried to gee up his troops by suggesting they would be “lying in wait” for them on the Aussie east coast – instead the Cheetahs were as clawless as ever in this competition.

They succumbed by nearly 20 points in stifling, tropical heat and now face three further weeks of likely misery in New Zealand – next up are the Hurricanes in New Plymouth and smart money will be on the hosts to bank a bonus-point win within an hour.
The rest of the South African-linked action this weekend (the Lions have a bye) focuses entirely on the north-south derby at Loftus between the Bulls and fragile-once-more Stormers.

Habana-less the hosts may be, but they will back their physical pack to do a customary bullying job on the visitors’ tight five, who were given a roasting by Messrs Woodcock and company at scrum-time. With Danie Rossouw as Bakkies Botha’s second-row partner, they are even more blunt and uncompromising than when Victor Matfield is in the picture, and their lineout hardly struggled without the legendary jumper in the 16-9 win at soggy Coca-Cola Park.

They will also go in Saturday’s clash armed with the ammunition of 75-14 and 49-12 grillings on the last two occasions the Cape side visited Loftus in this competition.

A certain unease is building all over again in Cape Town after one Newlands win from three for the Stormers, which makes it imperative that they now earn some wins against the odds, especially on this year’s Antipodean “tour from hell”.
A shock victory on Saturday would be just the tonic, although it is hard to envisage.

That said, the Stormers are hardly lacking in the grey matter department and when they click they are capable of heady, try-laden triumph against just about any side in the competition. Not especially helpful right now, perhaps, is coach Rassie Erasmus’s suggestion that he will step down if he feels his charges are not buying into his longer-term vision for the success-starved franchise – it smacks of unnecessary alarmist and cop-out sentiment just because some early heat is rising in the kitchen.

South African Super 14 matches this weekend (all Saturday): Hurricanes v Cheetahs, New Plymouth (04:30); Blues v Sharks, Auckland (06:30), Bulls v Stormers, Pretoria (17:00). Bye: Lions.
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