Publications
Partners
Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – The arrest in soggy Hamilton of the Sharks’ rampant start to the Super Rugby season gives a bit of fresh inspiration to the two other juggernaut South African teams doing battle at Loftus on Saturday.
GALLERY: Sharks lose unbeaten run
GALLERY: Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha are 'blood brothers'
Friday’s 15-9, all-penalties defeat to the grimly-committed Chiefs at Waikato Stadium meant the Sharks experienced their first setback in five starts, and although they remain top of the overall standings for the time being – they banked a useful bonus point for losing within the seven-point margin – both the Bulls and Stormers, bracing themselves for a big Pretoria scrap, will feel that the SA conference is being “loosened up” a tad.
The Sharks had certainly seemed in the driving seat at the midway point of their four-match overseas mission, having banked five-point hauls in Australia against each of the Force and Rebels, and not too far off a massive run of fixtures safely back on more familiar soil.
But “third week syndrome” on tour certainly seemed to pay them an undesired little visit, as the Chiefs pack fronted up heroically to the much-vaunted Sharks eight, and the visitors found themselves tackling and scrambling rather more than they would have anticipated beforehand on the slippery surface.
These are incredibly early days anyway, but their loss will just have encouraged their main South African rivals, and last season’s Soweto finalists, because John Smit’s troops had begun to look as if they were going to open up some menacing daylight on both the overall and SA table – especially if they had kept on winning in Australasia.
Of course now they also have to contemplate the novel but still unenviable task of tackling long-time tournament icons the Crusaders at “neutral” Twickenham next weekend – at least a few bonus days back in Durban ought to have some sort of recharging effect.
Sharks coach John Plumtree had warned that a potential banana peel awaited his charges against the “desperate” Chiefs, who have not exactly been setting the New Zealand conference alight thus far.
And the Mooloo Men, not exactly shy of All Black caps, did appear that crucial bit hungrier on the night, despite the Sharks mostly keeping their defensive structure and desire intact.
Once again the mountainous Willem Alberts went out of his way to bury the notion that he should be considered mostly an impact player for the Springboks – he pulled off some big, consistent tackles and smashed the ball up quite nicely on occasion too.
But other aspects of the Sharks’ forward game fired too sporadically, including their lineout: surrendering their own ball too often had been a hallmark of some otherwise impressive early outings and it remained a bugbear in a Hamilton game where field position was crucial.
Every now and then the Durbanites got some strong, trademark rolling mauls going but, again, they would have wished for more of them to have been closer to the Chiefs try-line.
This reverse was certainly no train smash, although Plumtree will clearly seek much higher levels of urgency next week as the Sharks seek to atone for last season’s rather depressing 35-6 surrender to the Crusaders, when they were able to play the fixture in a pre-disaster Christchurch.
Then, the Sharks looked an early-season shambles.
They are an entirely different kettle of fish these days, and must remind themselves of that even as they nurse the minor wounds of Hamilton ...
Cape Town – The arrest in soggy Hamilton of the Sharks’ rampant start to the Super Rugby season gives a bit of fresh inspiration to the two other juggernaut South African teams doing battle at Loftus on Saturday.
GALLERY: Sharks lose unbeaten run
GALLERY: Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha are 'blood brothers'
Friday’s 15-9, all-penalties defeat to the grimly-committed Chiefs at Waikato Stadium meant the Sharks experienced their first setback in five starts, and although they remain top of the overall standings for the time being – they banked a useful bonus point for losing within the seven-point margin – both the Bulls and Stormers, bracing themselves for a big Pretoria scrap, will feel that the SA conference is being “loosened up” a tad.
The Sharks had certainly seemed in the driving seat at the midway point of their four-match overseas mission, having banked five-point hauls in Australia against each of the Force and Rebels, and not too far off a massive run of fixtures safely back on more familiar soil.
But “third week syndrome” on tour certainly seemed to pay them an undesired little visit, as the Chiefs pack fronted up heroically to the much-vaunted Sharks eight, and the visitors found themselves tackling and scrambling rather more than they would have anticipated beforehand on the slippery surface.
These are incredibly early days anyway, but their loss will just have encouraged their main South African rivals, and last season’s Soweto finalists, because John Smit’s troops had begun to look as if they were going to open up some menacing daylight on both the overall and SA table – especially if they had kept on winning in Australasia.
Of course now they also have to contemplate the novel but still unenviable task of tackling long-time tournament icons the Crusaders at “neutral” Twickenham next weekend – at least a few bonus days back in Durban ought to have some sort of recharging effect.
Sharks coach John Plumtree had warned that a potential banana peel awaited his charges against the “desperate” Chiefs, who have not exactly been setting the New Zealand conference alight thus far.
And the Mooloo Men, not exactly shy of All Black caps, did appear that crucial bit hungrier on the night, despite the Sharks mostly keeping their defensive structure and desire intact.
Once again the mountainous Willem Alberts went out of his way to bury the notion that he should be considered mostly an impact player for the Springboks – he pulled off some big, consistent tackles and smashed the ball up quite nicely on occasion too.
But other aspects of the Sharks’ forward game fired too sporadically, including their lineout: surrendering their own ball too often had been a hallmark of some otherwise impressive early outings and it remained a bugbear in a Hamilton game where field position was crucial.
Every now and then the Durbanites got some strong, trademark rolling mauls going but, again, they would have wished for more of them to have been closer to the Chiefs try-line.
This reverse was certainly no train smash, although Plumtree will clearly seek much higher levels of urgency next week as the Sharks seek to atone for last season’s rather depressing 35-6 surrender to the Crusaders, when they were able to play the fixture in a pre-disaster Christchurch.
Then, the Sharks looked an early-season shambles.
They are an entirely different kettle of fish these days, and must remind themselves of that even as they nurse the minor wounds of Hamilton ...
