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Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – A five-tries-to-nil triumph in your first overseas challenge of the Super Rugby season ... it doesn’t get much more heartening than that.
Say what you like about the limitations of the Force and general shakiness, it seems, of the teams in the Australian conference, but the Sharks are well and truly up and running in 2011 after their 39-12 win before a bumper gate in Perth.
It was the most meritorious South African result of the round, with the Stormers again strangely blunt in a plodding, all-penalties triumph over the winless Cheetahs, the Lions also yet to break their duck ... and then the Bulls having a veritable home howler against the Highlanders on Saturday night.
The champions, frankly, were made to look complacent, disorganised and even archaic at times as the Otago guests spectacularly burst the bubble of Loftus invincibility 35-28 – even having the temerity to win with a four-try bonus point.
It is not even as if the Highlanders, long in the relative doldrums, had gone on a stellar-name spending spree in the off-season: they haven’t. But they have introduced some slippery youngsters to go with their more stubbly old pros and simply proved in Pretoria that a cohesive and gritty team effort and morale can work wonders.
They are the surprise packages of the competition thus far, second at present on the overall table only on an inferior “for and against” basis from the Sharks, who are at least a source of assuredness for South African neutrals at a time when both of last season’s finalists in Soweto are strangely labouring.
Not too much should be read into the Force’s misfortune in losing kingpin fetcher David Pocock early on and also playing the vast majority of the game with 14 men after a red-card setback: the visitors from Durban had already shown strong desire and thrust and would have been odds-on to emerge victorious anyway.
With this encouraging “maximum” haul in Western Australia, and remarkably few signs of lethargy from the Indian Ocean crossing, the Sharks must be hot tips to earn a fourth straight success when they play battling newcomers the Melbourne Rebels on Friday.
The Rebels may have a surprise victory of their own beneath their belts, but that was against a Brumbies outfit clearly bedevilled by internal dissent last week and on the brink of dismissing their head coach: more accurate signs of their early limitations are the respective poundings at the hands of the Waratahs and now also the Chiefs this weekend.
So the Sharks appear rosily set to achieve what they so abjectly failed to do last season: get off to a really good start in the competition.
If you combine their late (just too late, alas!) head of steam in the Super 14 last year, with their Currie Cup supremacy in 2010 and now rollicking burst from the stalls in Super Rugby 2011, you sense a pattern of ambition, aptitude and confidence in their ranks.
A sterner examination awaits, perhaps, when they move on to New Zealand for dates with the Chiefs and then Crusaders, but even a slip-up or two there will still see them pretty firmly in the picture for the later stages of the greatly expanded tournament.
When they return they play handy home fixtures against the Stormers and Lions before the first of their two fairly well-timed byes, and perhaps the only slightly daunting aspect of their calendar is that they must end SA conference duties with successive away matches against the Cheetahs, Lions and Bulls.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of their comfortable disposal of the Force was the extra dimension they showed by using the width of the park to productive effect at times – bearing in mind that occasionally John Plumtree’s charges are rightly accused of being too obsessed with their obvious “contact” strength.
Not that they put that physical aspect onto the backburner: it was again a key element of their repertoire against the spirited but outgunned Force, with players like Bismarck du Plessis, Beast Mtawarira, the fast emerging lock pairing of Steven Sykes and Alistair Hargreaves and juggernaut blind-sider Willem Alberts contributing to plenty of hard yardage.
But on the day the super-fast and creative Keegan Daniel also provided a delicious element of balance, not only doing his “loosie” donkeywork well but also making some vital bursts over the advantage line – his influence played a role in the outside backs suddenly sparking to good effect.
Also so apparent is the way precocious Pat Lambie is blossoming with every game as a sharp and unflustered general in the flyhalf spot.
Unfortunately the Sharks will not move onward to Victoria without an injury toll: a hitherto lively Odwa Ndungane was stretchered off and then taken to hospital after a horrible dump-tackle, whilst JP Pietersen and Jacques Botes were also later substituted for non-tactical reasons.
It was a special shame that Pietersen’s role was curtailed, because the long-legged Springbok was showing positive signs of recapturing much of the X-factor for which he was so renowned when he first burst into international rugby.
There may be some lingering concern about the health of big bruiser Alberts, too, because although he played on for a few minutes in which he bashed his way over for the bonus-point try, he took a fearful smack to the head not long before and must have come mighty close to a concussion.
The Sharks lineout is still functioning a bit short of purring efficiency, but these types of issues are pretty common in early season and they are sure to examine it thoroughly on the white-board ahead of their maiden encounter with the Rebels.
For the moment, they are the South African team with the best cutting edge. By a mile or two, actually ...
Cape Town – A five-tries-to-nil triumph in your first overseas challenge of the Super Rugby season ... it doesn’t get much more heartening than that.
Say what you like about the limitations of the Force and general shakiness, it seems, of the teams in the Australian conference, but the Sharks are well and truly up and running in 2011 after their 39-12 win before a bumper gate in Perth.
It was the most meritorious South African result of the round, with the Stormers again strangely blunt in a plodding, all-penalties triumph over the winless Cheetahs, the Lions also yet to break their duck ... and then the Bulls having a veritable home howler against the Highlanders on Saturday night.
The champions, frankly, were made to look complacent, disorganised and even archaic at times as the Otago guests spectacularly burst the bubble of Loftus invincibility 35-28 – even having the temerity to win with a four-try bonus point.
It is not even as if the Highlanders, long in the relative doldrums, had gone on a stellar-name spending spree in the off-season: they haven’t. But they have introduced some slippery youngsters to go with their more stubbly old pros and simply proved in Pretoria that a cohesive and gritty team effort and morale can work wonders.
They are the surprise packages of the competition thus far, second at present on the overall table only on an inferior “for and against” basis from the Sharks, who are at least a source of assuredness for South African neutrals at a time when both of last season’s finalists in Soweto are strangely labouring.
Not too much should be read into the Force’s misfortune in losing kingpin fetcher David Pocock early on and also playing the vast majority of the game with 14 men after a red-card setback: the visitors from Durban had already shown strong desire and thrust and would have been odds-on to emerge victorious anyway.
With this encouraging “maximum” haul in Western Australia, and remarkably few signs of lethargy from the Indian Ocean crossing, the Sharks must be hot tips to earn a fourth straight success when they play battling newcomers the Melbourne Rebels on Friday.
The Rebels may have a surprise victory of their own beneath their belts, but that was against a Brumbies outfit clearly bedevilled by internal dissent last week and on the brink of dismissing their head coach: more accurate signs of their early limitations are the respective poundings at the hands of the Waratahs and now also the Chiefs this weekend.
So the Sharks appear rosily set to achieve what they so abjectly failed to do last season: get off to a really good start in the competition.
If you combine their late (just too late, alas!) head of steam in the Super 14 last year, with their Currie Cup supremacy in 2010 and now rollicking burst from the stalls in Super Rugby 2011, you sense a pattern of ambition, aptitude and confidence in their ranks.
A sterner examination awaits, perhaps, when they move on to New Zealand for dates with the Chiefs and then Crusaders, but even a slip-up or two there will still see them pretty firmly in the picture for the later stages of the greatly expanded tournament.
When they return they play handy home fixtures against the Stormers and Lions before the first of their two fairly well-timed byes, and perhaps the only slightly daunting aspect of their calendar is that they must end SA conference duties with successive away matches against the Cheetahs, Lions and Bulls.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of their comfortable disposal of the Force was the extra dimension they showed by using the width of the park to productive effect at times – bearing in mind that occasionally John Plumtree’s charges are rightly accused of being too obsessed with their obvious “contact” strength.
Not that they put that physical aspect onto the backburner: it was again a key element of their repertoire against the spirited but outgunned Force, with players like Bismarck du Plessis, Beast Mtawarira, the fast emerging lock pairing of Steven Sykes and Alistair Hargreaves and juggernaut blind-sider Willem Alberts contributing to plenty of hard yardage.
But on the day the super-fast and creative Keegan Daniel also provided a delicious element of balance, not only doing his “loosie” donkeywork well but also making some vital bursts over the advantage line – his influence played a role in the outside backs suddenly sparking to good effect.
Also so apparent is the way precocious Pat Lambie is blossoming with every game as a sharp and unflustered general in the flyhalf spot.
Unfortunately the Sharks will not move onward to Victoria without an injury toll: a hitherto lively Odwa Ndungane was stretchered off and then taken to hospital after a horrible dump-tackle, whilst JP Pietersen and Jacques Botes were also later substituted for non-tactical reasons.
It was a special shame that Pietersen’s role was curtailed, because the long-legged Springbok was showing positive signs of recapturing much of the X-factor for which he was so renowned when he first burst into international rugby.
There may be some lingering concern about the health of big bruiser Alberts, too, because although he played on for a few minutes in which he bashed his way over for the bonus-point try, he took a fearful smack to the head not long before and must have come mighty close to a concussion.
The Sharks lineout is still functioning a bit short of purring efficiency, but these types of issues are pretty common in early season and they are sure to examine it thoroughly on the white-board ahead of their maiden encounter with the Rebels.
For the moment, they are the South African team with the best cutting edge. By a mile or two, actually ...
