RUGBY NEWS - The Cell C Sharks will go to Loftus on Saturday emboldened by the knowledge that they appear to be edging incrementally closer to scoring an away win over the Vodacom Bulls but also knowing a quantum step up in their discipline is necessary if that is going to happen.
Sharks coach Sean Everitt acknowledged after his team’s home win over the Emirates Lions that playing the Bulls in Pretoria will be the big test of any improvement his team has made since last season’s Currie Cup, where his team was edged in a dramatic Loftus final.
That game was a lot closer than the previous two Sharks visits to Pretoria in South Africa’s return-to-play season. The Durbanites returned from lockdown by being humiliated in a friendly game (Super Fan Saturday) at the end of last September, with the Bulls, playing their first game under the coaching of Jake White, having led 35-0 shortly before halftime.
It was a little closer when the Sharks went back there for the first-round Vodacom Super Rugby clash five weeks later, with the visitors acquitting themselves well in the initial stages of the match before Thomas du Toit was injured and the Bulls lifted a gear to power to a comfortable win.
There was a narrow, morale-boosting win for the Sharks in their home Currie Cup game but it was on the basis of their Loftus record that they started the domestic decider as rank underdogs. Yet they came within a few minutes of confounding the critics, and would have won were it not for an uncharacteristic off day from flyhalf Curwin Bosch with his place-kicking boot.
Mention of Bosch cues the area where Saturday’s game could be won and lost. With the Bulls fielding a young front row at present there may not be quite as big a mountain to climb for the Sharks in the forward battle as was perceived to be the case last time, so it could be the two place-kickers - Bosch and the Bulls’ Morne Steyn - who decide the game.
That’s not to negate the role of those players in the field-kicking game either. Although both teams have shown signs of moving away from the kicking-dominated approaches that marred the Currie Cup final, territory is still everything - particularly on the highveld. And those penalties that aren’t kicked at posts but are kicked into the corner to set up lineout drives will be as crucial to the respective teams’ chances.
That means both teams should be trying to minimise penalties, something that neither of them was good at last weekend. While the Bulls conceded 20 penalties against the DHL Stormers in Cape Town, the Sharks conceded 18 in their 34-26 win over the Lions.
“The pressure is on to win all your games in a short competition like this one is and we are thus really pleased to have got maximum log points out of both matches we have played so far,” said Everitt.
“But we know that Loftus is going to be our big test and we know we are going to have to improve if we want to stand a chance of winning. The Lions game was one of highs and lows. At times we played really good and entertaining rugby which is what we want to do. But we gave away a disappointing number of penalties.
“There were 15 that we gave away in the first game against the Stormers and then 18 this week, and there were also three yellow cards. Obviously I am not happy about that as it really put us under the pump and we know we can’t repeat that at Loftus. Our discipline is a continuous work-on and we know we need to address that before we go to Pretoria.”
One off-shoot of the number of penalties given away in their opening two games that works for them in a strange way is the way the Sharks forwards have started to defend the opposition’s mauling drives like it is second nature. That will come in handy against the Bulls.
“Our maul stoppages have been outstanding but I suppose we have had a lot of practice at it,” grinned the Sharks coach.
“The other positive is that we are now much better at set-piece than we were, with those aspects of our game working well against the Lions. While we conceded three lineouts against the throw in the first 20 minutes against the Stormers we conceded none against the Lions. And we did well to not give scrum penalties away when we were down two players at one stage because of yellow cards.”
