Sharks must embrace tactical sphere

Sharks must embrace tactical sphere

6 Apr 2011

JON CARDINELLI writes that a meeting with the Lions demands a less adventurous approach from the overly-ambitious Sharks.

The Sharks can’t afford to lose to the Lions. They’ve lost three on the trot, two of which they would have expected to win against the Chiefs and Stormers. They’re no longer setting the standard in the South African conference. They’re scrapping for second place.

A win against the Lions will provide some respite as they head into a bye week. While they’re unlikely to make up ground against the Stormers, they do have an opportunity to surpass the Bulls. The Sharks should expect at least eight points (one for a win and one for a bye) in the next two weeks, while the Bulls will be lucky to win one of their next two encounters against the Crusaders and Reds.

The Sharks should expect to win this weekend, but there are no guarantees. They lost to the Lions in the pre-season, and will know that John Mitchell’s charges are more dangerous than their record suggests.

The Lions went down to the Reds last Saturday, but produced a first half-showing that highlighted some potential in the forwards. Andre Pretorius controlled the game cleverly during that opening half-hour, and if he had kicked for goal more accurately, the Lions may have indeed sneaked an upset.

The Lions’ struggle for composure and their inability to finish is costing them. Defence is another ongoing problem, and the better teams have exposed them in this area.

Where they have got it right, in patches, is on attack. The first 30 minutes against the Reds was characterised by good ball control and impressive physicality at the collisions. They took the Reds forwards on in this department, and successfully limited the space available to the free-running backs.

The Sharks are similar to the Reds in that they depend on the momentum of their forwards. It’s the reason they’ve lost three in a row, as when their forwards haven’t dominated, they have failed to control possession and win territory via other means.

They will need to lift their physicality when they host the Lions, but they will also need to vary their attack. This involves unleashing their monstrous ball-carriers from within opposition territory rather than building the attacking pressure from within their own half.

The Lions’ loose approach will provide them with counter-attacking opportunities, and the Sharks are a side that can take advantage of those chances. But when they have possession, they have to appreciate that controlling possession sometimes means kicking for the touchline and then pressuring the opposition at the subsequent lineout and ruck.

They were handed a lesson by the Stormers last week, and it’s one they need to take to heart. The Sharks’ early results overshadowed some deficiencies in their game, as poor ball control and the unwillingness to vary their attack often led to greater periods on defence, and thus a higher count of missed tackles.

The Lions match represents an opportunity to end on a high before enjoying a bye, but it also represents a chance to embrace a more accurate and complete game. They have the personnel to implement this approach, and with the return of Pat Lambie in Round 10, that approach will become more potent. For now, it’s about striking a better balance.

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345 Comments

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  • 301.Pick the team in August not March: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:18 am

    :D :D :D

    Always wanted to do that properly!

  • 302.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:20 am

    @justrugby(justrugby)-295: There would be no fun and work stress relief otherwise :wink:

  • 303.The X-factor is staying at home.: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:26 am

    @Pick the team in August not March(stormersboy)-301:

    well you sure came in off your long run.

  • 304.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:31 am

    @Pick the team in August not March(stormersboy)-296: Stubborn old bugg’ers, bless them. They can teach younger generations a thing or two about toughness (Especially if they’re German :wink: )

    As You say we can only pray and pick them up when they fall down…. We owe them that at the very least… after all we are products of their glint in the eye a long, long time ago :wink:

    My Mum, bless her, is coming back to SA. She has been over here for a good few years but she has yearned to return. Not being in SA has actually made her emotionally, and ultimately physically sick.

    She views herself as African even though she has the poshest home county accent…. She recently got very outraged that there was no tickable option to classify herself as White African.

    Aah well, many lessons to be learnt from the older generation.

  • 305.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:35 am

    @Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-304: That is – no Tickable option on the recent UK Census

  • 306.Pick the team in August not March: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:36 am

    @Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-304: ja I must imagine that it must be hard, if it’s in your blood. My pop has to do his annual pilgrimage to Namibia to keep his sanity, this year he was determined to go on his BMW GS. That’s how he fell, on a dry run with a group for a camping weekend.

    He’s still going for sure, but we’re gently trying to steer him into driving the support vehicle instead of riding his bike 3000 km’s over gravel roads.

    As they say, the brain stays young.

  • 307.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:38 am

    @Pick the team in August not March(stormersboy)-301: Mirror, mirror on the wall… Who’s the fairest metrosexual ex-hooker of them all :lol:

  • 308.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:40 am

    @Pick the team in August not March(stormersboy)-306: LOL… Tough as nails. Bet he doesn’t need to look in a mirror :wink:

  • 309.Great White Shark: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:41 am

    My grandfather was actually killed in a German POW camp. Fell out of his guard tower.

  • 310.The X-factor is staying at home.: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:42 am

    @Pick the team in August not March(stormersboy)-306:

    maybe you can talk the bugger into a sidecar for his motorbike.

    should help keep the speed down :)

  • 311.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:43 am

    @Great White Shark(Predawn)-309: Lol. Forgot to mention you too Sharkey earlier. Great stuff, man. Best of SA.

  • 312.The X-factor is staying at home.: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:45 am

    @Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-311:

    indeed.

    scrum of the earth we are.

  • 313.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:46 am

    @The X-factor is staying at home.(gunther)-310: I wonder if Stormerboy will accompany him in the sidecar. Should be an adrenaline boost…. Maybe throw in a couple of mirrors to overcome the fight or flight instinct….

  • 314.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:48 am

    @The X-factor is staying at home.(gunther)-312: Scrum of the earth indeed. Classic.

  • 315.The X-factor is staying at home.: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:50 am

    @Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-313:

    stomerboy lacks the required navigating skills.

    he will replaced by garmin satnav and 4 cases of beer.

  • 316.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:50 am

    @The X-factor is staying at home.(gunther)-315: LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

  • 317.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:53 am

    @Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-316: Thats done me in…. Colleagues thinking WTF… again….

  • 318.Pick the team in August not March: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 11:59 am

    @Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-308: Yeah yeah, mirrors and all….Spent most of my time on the dreadmill last night watching the Football and the par 3 comp at the masters.

    And no sidecars. I thought long and hard about going along on my own with him though.

    My pop is so stubbourn I’ve ridden a buch of Argus tours and Knysna Mountain bikes alongside him. His Polar monitor is constantly beeping in the red zone but the bugger won’t slow down.

    My wife and I went with my folks to Nam some years ago and did the dune 7 climb. He got to the top before the rest of us by some margin.

    we got to the bottom first though. Fark you Newton! ;)

  • 319.The X-factor is staying at home.: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:01 pm

    @Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-317:

    :)

    too much coffee.

  • 320.Pick the team in August not March: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:10 pm

    @The X-factor is staying at home.(gunther)-315: With gear like that I may just have the old man committed and do the ride myself!

  • 321.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:13 pm

    @Pick the team in August not March(stormersboy)-318: hahaha. Haven’t been to Nam… The Banshee is quite interested in having a holiday there in the next couple of years. Seems like a good option – something very different.

  • 322.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:17 pm

    @The X-factor is staying at home.(gunther)-319: Yeah, great excuse. Shown a couple of printouts around the office. Chaps don’t get some of the humour but are fascinated with some of the commentary…. Rugby and otherwise.

  • 323.The X-factor is staying at home.: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:20 pm

    @Pick the team in August not March(stormersboy)-320:

    the garmin is essential.

    to counter the beer :)

  • 324.Pick the team in August not March: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:23 pm

    @The X-factor is staying at home.(gunther)-323: Yeah, take a wrong turn and it’ll be hours before you realise you aren’t where you should be…….

    The beer is for medicinal purposes of course…..

  • 325.The X-factor is staying at home.: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:24 pm

    @Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-322:

    sweaty poms.

    most of them probably spend their free time pulling wings off flies.

    you should take the banshee to Nam.

    wide open spaces for not a soul for miles around.

    In Nam nobody can hear you scream.

  • 326.sohojo: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:31 pm

    touching, touching, the old Sherlock Scandinavian kraut suddenly finding some empty room in his sauerkraut heart for a few reminiscing tears along with his and his Scandinavian great white kraut brethren all getting a wee bitty teary eyed at the notion that they all wanna belatedly be classified as Great White Africans from the Serengeti Plains and get their Caucasian blood and flesh mingled and buried in some blackest African soil, just to get their emotionally charged spiritual juices flowing for old times sake while they sit and reminisce whilst schmoozing up Granny Lizzies skirt and sip G & T on the River Thames.

    Oh so touchingly ironical the old sauerkraut heathens calling the indigenous owners of the lands they occupy as heathen, as they clutch fervently to the fading Swastika adorned Iron Crosses of their fallen Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels heroes.

  • 327.The X-factor is staying at home.: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:37 pm

    @Pick the team in August not March(stormersboy)-324:

    the beer is for hydration.

    it also provides trace elements.

    a tri-athlete (eating drinking sleeping) like yourself should know this :)

  • 328.Pick the team in August not March: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:38 pm

    @Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-321: I’d highly recommend. Safe, sparsely populated in way you’ll never get until you go there (I believe it’s one of the least populous countries in the world), and with some scenery you simply cannot get anywhere else in the world. Literally.

    Petrified lakes that are 100′s of years old, abandoned diamond mines in the desert, Wildlife, Breweries. ;)

  • 329.Pick the team in August not March: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:38 pm

    @Pick the team in August not March(stormersboy)-328: Sorry meant to say 1000′s of years old.

  • 330.Pick the team in August not March: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:44 pm

    @The X-factor is staying at home.(gunther)-327: hahaha like the Tri Athlete bit.

    Sitting with a major case of tennis elbow at the moment. Feeling like a geriatric.

    Hence the alchohol.

  • 331.The X-factor is staying at home.: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:44 pm

    @sohojo(skopskiet)-326:

    are you saying HG is a sour kraut?

  • 332.Pick the team in August not March: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 12:54 pm

    @sohojo(sohojo)-326: and here I thought SharksLover was the only restauranteer in the room……

  • 333.sohojo: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 13:07 pm

    they all sour krauts that dunno if their flesh and blood is from the credence clear waters of their Nordic ancestry or from the swarthy bosom of Africa, wish these smug faced heathen would make up their good for nothing teary minds.

  • 334.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 13:09 pm

    @sohojo(sohojo)-326: Have a beer… and a nice steak…. The red meat (and the beer) will help with that vitamin B deficiency that’s becoming all apparent with your posts….

    You might find that it will help with the smelly breath commonly found with vegetarians….

    Hopefully you do the steak on a nice half drum braai and with plenty to share with those ZImbo labourers of yours…. Tshh, Tshhhh…. Turn and then Tshhh, Tshh. Cut your hopefully rare piece of meat into nice strips with some coarse salt as a side…. Dip it in and then eat…. Chased by a few slugs of beer…

    You may find that you come to peace with your world….along with ingesting some much needed vitamins…

    To your health….:

  • 335.The X-factor is staying at home.: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 13:09 pm

    @Pick the team in August not March(stormersboy)-332:

    the moon is skop’s tactical sphere.

  • 336.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 13:12 pm

    @Pick the team in August not March(stormersboy)-328: Breweries is the clincher. Done! Next year then.

  • 337.Great White Shark: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 13:12 pm

    @Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-334:

    ..or a vitamin Bullet…

  • 338.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 13:15 pm

    @Great White Shark(Predawn)-337: hehe. Red meat bazooka…

  • 339.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 13:19 pm

    @sohojo(sohojo)-333: Here’s some Creedence Clearwaters for you….

    You can ponder perpetual motion,
    fix your mind on a crystal day,
    Always time for a good conversation,
    there’s an ear for what you say

    Come on the risin’ wind, we’re goin’ up around the bend….

    Pretty appropriate, hey…..

  • 340.sohojo: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 13:20 pm

    sour kraut heathens showing exactly what a bunch of teary eyed neanderthal reminiscing barbarian cannibals they actually are, and here they wanna call the gentle folk of Africa heathens when they are the very epitome of heathenish treasonous whitearsed dilly willy nilly trash

  • 341.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 13:24 pm

    Tshh, Tshhh. Steak is good for the soul. Tssshhhh…. And beer…. Nothing better…. Plus rugby… and then life is complete.

  • 342.sohojo: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 13:27 pm

    oh how the neanderthal white African gonna see his holy white gat, and he ain’t even begun to realize it yet. Better get back JoJo get back to where you once belonged.

  • 343.sohojo: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 13:34 pm

    adios Mdoda, gotta go pick up the Zimbo’s off Mr. Stanlys roof.

    Hamba gathle

  • 344.The X-factor is staying at home.: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 13:38 pm

    @sohojo(sohojo)-343:

    make sure the wind hasn’t blown them off.

  • 345.Treehugger: Reply to this comment
    7 Apr 2011, 15:00 pm

    Thanks again guys, my dad is fine, says just his hip is not so hip lol.

    Heavensgame @292 thank you, and you made me cry, must be a bit emo right now.

    Back to rugby, my RWC team
    1.Guthro
    2.Smit/Bismark
    3.Jannie
    4.Bakkies
    5.Matfield/Bekker
    6.Brussow/Schalk
    7.Smith/Deysel
    8.Spies/Alberts
    9.Du Preez
    10.Morne
    11.Habana/Mvovo
    12.Jean
    13.Fourie
    14.JPP
    15.Aplon/Frans Steyn
    16.Bismark
    17.Beast
    18.Rossouw
    19.Schalk/Alberts
    20.Hougaard
    21.Frans Steyn
    22.Lambie/De Jongh

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