Steyn key in title charge
16 Mar 2009
Frans Steyn will face one of the biggest challenges of his short career over the next three weeks.
With Ruan Pienaar expected to be sidelined for that period having damaged knee ligaments in their match against the Reds, Steyn is the most likely candidate to fill the void at flyhalf.
Steyn was ordinary at pivot in Brisbane when Pienaar was substituted, but it would be unfair to expect him to excel in a position he hasn’t played in consistently since 2006. However, he will have to front in Pienaar’s absence if the Sharks’ title challenge is not to falter.
His task will be an arduous one, with the unpredictable Force laying in wait on Saturday, followed by matches against the Brumbies and Hurricanes in the fortnight that follows.
Of course it would be an exaggeration to suggest that their fortunes will hinge entirely on the 21-year-old. The pack must improve on the limp performance they produced against the Reds, thereby establishing the type of platform they set for Pienaar over the first four rounds.
There’ll also be an onus on scrumhalf Rory Kockott to lift his game further and take some of the pressure off Steyn, particularly from a tactical kicking perspective. Former Springbok coach Jake White consistently praised this facet of Fourie du Preez’s play, and has been quoted extensively saying that his kicking game eased the pressure on his flyhalf significantly.
Du Preez is the standard Kockott will measure himself by and if he hopes, as he should, to unseat the Bulls No 9 in the Springbok side in future, it’s an area of his game that needs to improve.
The other conundrum coach John Plumtree will have to negotiate is who he pairs with Steyn at 12. Adi Jacobs has played there in the past but is settled at outside centre and Plumtree would be reluctant to shift him a channel inside. One option is to bring Riaan Swanepoel into the run-on side at inside centre, but his inexperience at Super Rugby level should be of concern.
Springbok Waylon Murray has made good progress after a lengthy injury lay-off and reports from Australia suggest he could be considered for the final match of the tour. If he comes into the starting 15 it is likely that he will be restored to his preferred position of outside centre, with Jacobs on his inside.
Pienaar’s loss comes just as he was starting to find his groove at flyhalf and as his partnership with Steyn was beginning to flourish. However, to lament this now is a futile exercise.
Steyn needs to prove why he feels flyhalf is his strongest position and the team and coaching staff have to give him the support he needs to succeed.
Steyn’s success or failure at flyhalf will not be the sole determinant of success or failure for the Sharks. But he will be crucial either way. Plumtree and co will hope it’s the former because the next three weeks will shape their title charge.
By Ryan Vrede
534 Comments
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16 Mar 2009, 17:27 pm
#498 Pietman: Eish. It’s really a difficult point. Don’t know if you read the column, Pietman, but there’s a lot of frustration in there that’s starting to boil over. I’m scared when I read the stuff – what is happening and why can’t we all just get along?
Your anecdote just illustrates the difficulty we are facing in this country. 11 different languages, and I reckon many of us are fluent in two or three.
16 Mar 2009, 17:29 pm
Cheers guys!
(lib, read my comments again carefully – you need help)
16 Mar 2009, 17:30 pm
#499 lukeisbaas:
With supporters like you the Watsons are in more serious kuk than ever before, that’s for sure.
You boys are dragging them them down even further…keep going gam…
16 Mar 2009, 17:30 pm
#502 Sheriff: Tatta Office Jokkey !
Geniet die verkeer !
16 Mar 2009, 17:32 pm
#502 Sheriff:cheers coconut.hopefully you will see the light one day.
16 Mar 2009, 17:32 pm
#502 Sheriff:
Tatta wetsman.
#500 grootblousmile:
Pukke moenie nou verslap nie, waar speel hulle?
16 Mar 2009, 17:37 pm
#501 hjk:
I also read the column, thought he went a bit over the top though with some of his outbursts… a ‘rugby call in Afrikaans’ is just a tactic, for instance, against non-Afrikaans speaking teams, nothing racist about it.
Stuff like that.
Nonsense.
16 Mar 2009, 17:37 pm
#503 Pietman: at least we don’t have to worry about your people because you are already a defeated people.keep hanging on that branch pietman becuase one of these days we gonna knock you off it.
16 Mar 2009, 17:42 pm
#506 Pietman: Hulle speel by die Puk…
Tryyyyyyy Pukke
Ignoreer die gedroggie !
16 Mar 2009, 17:43 pm
Pukke 17 / 10
(Netnou speel Maties en Tukkies…. dink Tukkies gaan goed kuk)
16 Mar 2009, 17:44 pm
#508 lukeisbaas:
Yeah, right.
That’s what your hero Mugabe also said not so long ago…and now he is looking for hand-outs from his former rulers again….what goes round, comes round, as they say.
Just wait your turn, hehehehe!
16 Mar 2009, 17:45 pm
#510 grootblousmile:
Dankie bru…laat weet verder asb, ek gaan nog so rukkie rondhang hier…
16 Mar 2009, 17:45 pm
pietman,ek sal graag nog wil bly om jou verder onder jou gat te skop maar anders as jy,pietie boy, het ek ander belangstellings in die lewe waaraan ek nou moet aandag skenk.kyk na daai gesondheid van jou.
16 Mar 2009, 17:46 pm
#510 grootblousmile:
Hou daai Matie skrummie dop, Donald.
Sommige reken hy is ons volgende Springbok.
16 Mar 2009, 17:46 pm
#507 Pietman: true, but I reckon if you’re a journo or a politico (or both) Afrikaans is just too easy a target. I’m wondering what’ll happen if the Bulls did some lineout calls in Sepedi – it’s not that difficult. Tee, pedi, tharo, dine, phlano, tshela,supa, seswai, senyane, lesome. (If I can still remember my primary school Sepedi). The column in the Sunday Times was quite inaccurate, though – the journo had an issue with someone calling Bob a bobbejaan – it’s not reserved for specific people, anyone can qualify to be called that. Mind you, after the issues in Spain with fans making ****** noises to some black players, one would think people would know better than to use other primates’ species to insult players…
I wouldn’t just dismiss it as nonsense, I see it as a barometer for what may be the thinking out there, and that’s an issue to me.
16 Mar 2009, 17:47 pm
#515 hjk: Sorry, Bob should read “Bobo”.
16 Mar 2009, 17:52 pm
Cheers, ek is op pad. Geniet die Varsity games vanaand.
16 Mar 2009, 17:53 pm
#513 lukeisbaas:
Ja, rush hour, hol vir die pompe, voor die lanies jou vloek, hehehehehe!
16 Mar 2009, 17:55 pm
#517 hjk:
Later, dis n lang storie daai wat jy aangeroer het…#510 grootblousmile:
Mooi loop ou grote, ek waai eers…lyk my dai een is darem nou uiteindelik verjaag, hehehehe!
Cheers.
16 Mar 2009, 17:57 pm
#510 grootblousmile:
naand – ek was nou net daar op die bult. die studente is kla besig om hand uit te ruk!
16 Mar 2009, 18:02 pm
#443 cheese: when you say isiXhosa is predominantly used in football team talks i don’t what particular team u might be referring to…as far as i know there is no overwhelmingly xhosa team in saffa top flight football…Plus most of the coaches in the psl are either white and foreign to boot, so the assumption that training and team talks are done in vernacular really doesn’t hold weight…
16 Mar 2009, 18:18 pm
#507 Pietman: naant Piet. Gaan dit lekker? I also read that article. Personally I thought it was supurbly written, made good points and brought things into sharp perspective, seen from the other side of the great divide. The piece is written from a black man’s perspective. That’s how he(they) see it. I’ll put it like this; imagine yourself in a Schuster-like transformation suit, sitting in the stands at Loftus, sitting wedged into the crowd, sitting alongside your gardener’s sister, just to complete the disguise. Now imagine what you’ll hear around you and even how you’ll be treated. Mostly with total disrespect. I was appalled to witness a similiar scenario whilst sitting on the Jan Pickard stand at Newlands last year. A black family were seated in front of us. Very uncomfortably. It could have turned nasty. I’ve seen it before but this was simply an extreme case. So I’d have to empathize with the man given where he’s coming from. But I take your point on the lineout calls. It’s exactly why they employ afrikaans. Makes perfect sense.
16 Mar 2009, 18:20 pm
#515 hjk: very well put. It is scary.
16 Mar 2009, 18:21 pm
#514 Pietman: has a good shy at poles too. Noticed him too.
16 Mar 2009, 18:30 pm
#522 TASSIES: At Loftus you only have to support the Lions to get a hard time!
16 Mar 2009, 18:57 pm
#525 Scrumdown: Anybody who supports the Lions deserves a hard time…. hehehehhe
16 Mar 2009, 19:45 pm
#522 TASSIES:
you are far too polite with these people, they could not and WILL not quite understand the other side of the coin, they are so far gone indoctrinated brainwashed the hope of ANY reasonable understanding is far too way over their bridge of reasoning to even begin to comprehend what another could feel.
It is a bridge too far I’m afraid, and I certainly hope it is not a case of a Mugabe type regime that will one day have to try set the record straight over here, let us hope that this indoctrinated foolhardy collective of ideologically driven religious rugby fraternity has the good grace to see their pitiful stance before it gets down to those kind of extremes.
I’d say it depends on them exactly how far the opposite stand will have to be taken, push as far as one likes, but if they going to dig their heels in that far, it will need some kind of revolution to usurp and upstage it.
16 Mar 2009, 19:49 pm
#522 TASSIES:before loftus gets branded unfairly, you get that in most stadia in this country, friends of mine told horrid stories when they went to watch the currie cup final @ king’s park last year…people get that kind of treatment almost everywhere…
I can imagine the hyper-tension from a people that think their language, culture & way of living is under threat…
16 Mar 2009, 21:53 pm
#496 hjk: baie dankie meneer.
thank you for answering. i really felt it was a bit of a cheap shot from a journo i really respect.
though i can never empathise, i do sympathise with the plight of the disenfranchised.
but new age exclusivism will help no one.
16 Mar 2009, 22:11 pm
#529 cheese: can you elaborate on ”new age exclusivism” because i’d like to believe we have 11 official languages to avoid exactly that type of thing…
16 Mar 2009, 22:22 pm
#530 Transformation: sure.
a witch hunt against any one language, purely because it is predominant and an easy target, is the very antithesis of what the goals of our reborn land were supposedly about.
the article was thought provoking i admit.
but just one thing, i never said “isiXhosa is predominantly used in football team talks” but if you truly believe that african languages do not dominate the playing fields (and rightly so) then you need a reality check. again, demographics decide this.
i am english, but not everyone HAS to speak my language.
16 Mar 2009, 23:53 pm
#522 TASSIES:
Lekker dankie man!
No, I only commented on the ‘rugby calls’.
As far as crowd behaviour is concerned I wouldn’t know, I have no experience of that. But the incident you described would never carry my approval, or the folks I sit with the few times that I do have the opportunity to attend live matches in the Cape.
17 Mar 2009, 00:21 am
#532 Pietman:
‘or the consent of the folks I sit with…’
17 Mar 2009, 06:55 am
#443 cheese: cheese this is what you said ”i don’t speak isixhosa, and i’m willing to bet a lot of team talks in soccer practices are in isixhosa, and a lot of press conferences are in isixhosa” if you’re so willing to bet a lot of dosh on it, how do you justify your assumptions, what teams do you know that have their team talks in isixhosa when they probably have 2 zambian players, 4 coloured player, 5 isizulu speaking players, 1 tshivenda player etc & a french or turkish coach to boot? So please inform us…
As for press conferences, i don’t know how much local football do you watch on the telly, but FYI, give urself sometime to watch & tell us how many times you heard robert marawa, thomas mlambo or pumlani msibi speak venacular…
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