Scintillating Sharks blow away Bulls
6 Jul 2012
RYAN VREDE reports on an excellent all-round performance from the Sharks that saw them get the bonus point in beating the Bulls 32-10 to keep their Super Rugby campaign alive.
If the Sharks can replicate the characteristics that earned them this most critical of victories – energy, purpose, physicality, accuracy of execution and killer instinct – they will be formidable opponents going forward. Their inconsistency has undermined their cause in recent matches, but tonight they were largely flawless in their approach and execution when they most needed to be.
The Bulls, laden with Springboks, are no soft touch, even away from home. But they were comprehensively outmuscled at the collisions and seldom allowed to get any momentum into their attacks. The Sharks would score four tries, but this win was built on their industry, accuracy and brutality on defence. With their key strike runners nullified, the Bulls’ potency was significantly diluted. Furthermore, the Sharks played above themselves at lineout time and their scrum fronted to further stifle the Bulls.
The Sharks starved them of possession and pinned them in their territory for the first 30 minutes of the contest, scoring two converted tries and two penalties to establish a 20-3 lead at the break, then struck the telling blow of the match three minutes into the second half. The Sharks’ first five pointer came after erosive phase play, Marcell Coetzee setting up Bismarck du Plessis for a try with a deft offload. Their second came after they punched up left then snapped right, JP Pietersen rounding off in the corner.
The Bulls were stunned and their response reflected this, loose, unstructured attacks marking the second quarter. Lwazi Mvovo scrambled well to deny Akona Ndungane a try in the 34th minute and the Bulls couldn’t convert subsequent pressure into the points they needed to stir belief going into the change rooms.
The Sharks then fractured the Bulls’ psyche further when Keegan Daniel alluded the cover defence after another wave of pressure had depleted the numbers in their defensive line.
But the Bulls’ resolve is well known and they rallied in search of what would have been one of the great comebacks. Zane Kirchner finished close to the corner with Morne Steyn converting. And while they enjoyed plenty of time on the ball in the period that followed, their play became increasingly desperate in the face of the Sharks’ immense tackle fight and rabid breakdown contest, the latter yielding numerous turnovers.
Having negotiated the best the Bulls could offer the Sharks set about capturing the five-point win they so needed to improve their chances of making the play-offs. The composure and intelligence they showed in achieving that goal was inspiring and their wild celebrations upon Louis Ludik touching down said everything about how much they had invested in achieving this crucial result.
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711 Comments
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7 Jul 2012, 08:25 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.(The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food)-498:
Snap…
7 Jul 2012, 08:29 am
@NZINCHINA(NZINCHINA)-481:
You can, but you do battle a bit when it comes to mauls, just ask the Baby Blacks
But look, on a dry day the neutral fan will prefer the NZL’s style. That’s why so many people who know nothing about rugby support the All Blacks because they ‘like how they play’.
It’s like how so many people support Brazil come world cup time.
7 Jul 2012, 08:29 am
The Sharks are very quickly become the ‘France’ of the Super 15.
7 Jul 2012, 08:32 am
@Hondo(Hondo)-486:
JJ is very good player. Probs the best of the Bulls backs. Big, strong and bloody fast!!!
Tim Whitehead has some pretty average top end pace. I know Spies is quick, but he really laboured down the touchline.
7 Jul 2012, 08:34 am
@Gumboots(Gumboots)-500: Every team has the potential to be the best
But BEING CALLED the best, is not based on potential….but on results. Hopefully some of the Sharks fans will understand this, one day.
Until you end up top – you are an also ran, just like everyone else
7 Jul 2012, 08:36 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.(The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food)-505:
Of course the log never lies or maybe it does…
7 Jul 2012, 08:36 am
Can someone give me the following stats for the 2 invisible men last night (Spies and J Potgieter) tackles,linebreaks, running meters, steals, offloads. Quite a few zeros I’d guess…
7 Jul 2012, 08:37 am
@CenturionShark (aka LondonShark)(londonshark)-504: JJ’s defence has always been suspect, and he did nothing last night to make me change my mind. If Heyneke has visions of JJ wearing the Bok 13 jersey one day – JJ better start focusing on his D.
A 13 with weak D is never going to make the cut.
7 Jul 2012, 08:38 am
@brains_trust(brains_trust)-507:
I can’t! But I can say that they are both pretty average players who should never be let loose near a Bok jersey ever again… My opinion of course…
7 Jul 2012, 08:38 am
@Gumboots(Gumboots)-500: That is the problem – gelling, and I guess that’s where coaching and the right attitude comes in. It is obviously allot more difficult doing it with a team of stars, but it is possible – Barcelona and Bayern Munich is prime examples. Good recruiting is also vital, currently we have too many players that was recently acquired for the first team not getting enough game time – its all fine to have depth, but would Bosman, Joubert (nowhere in the pecking order), Viljoen, Ludick (to a lesser extend), Deysel really be enjoying life in Durban atm, I dont think so, probably why Kanko decided to go to Japan during the CC.
7 Jul 2012, 08:39 am
I think its time for a Stormers thread.. STORMERS – the #1 team in SA !!!
7 Jul 2012, 08:41 am
@coma(coma)-510:
The bench players will always look at greaner pastures somewhere else…
7 Jul 2012, 08:46 am
@brains_trust(brains_trust)-507: I can’t give you the stats, but I am watching a replay at the moment…..and it seems J Potgieter especially, was even kakker than what I originally thought. (And I rated him 2/10 last night…)
7 Jul 2012, 08:48 am
@Gumboots(Gumboots)-512: Bench and Fringe players should be reserved for veterans e.g. Terblanche and up and coming youngsters e.g. Steph-Du Toit, you need to put trust in your structures. Now and then one will shoot up early, like Coetzee and Jordaan, and that will cause problems if you already have a hand full of quality guys in that position with fresh contracts in their pockets – I guess we can offload a few to the Kings come 2013.
7 Jul 2012, 08:54 am
What’s all this rubbish about NZ teams style better suited to dry fields? The NZ climate isn’t that different to the NH, and the ABs are far more successful on their NH tours than we are. The major difference is in skills which give the players far more options to adapt to different playing conditions.
7 Jul 2012, 08:54 am
@Sharksgirl(Sharksgirl)-471: Ahem… I quote you:
232.Sharksgirl:
3 Jul 2012, 19:23 pm : “And HG is the only one that is hoping for a Sharks win this weekend most of us supporters are hoping for an entirely new coaching set up at the Sharks.”
Am I the only Sharks supporter hoping for the Sharks win?
Funny that, maybe you should stick to your original guns.
Why are you happy that the Sharks fcked up the Bulls… You should be angry…unhappy because “Plumtree and his clowns” engineered a mighty win by the dynamite… and the way the Sharks are playing they can beat any team anywhere.
The close losses to Stormers in the first game (where a ref gimme penalty handed the game on a platter after the Sharks dominated the Stormers “A” Team)
and the Tahs game notwithstanding – if those had gone the other way – and nothing other than fortune cookie bad luck prevented this from happening – the Sharks would be top of the SA log…
Thats how this cookie has crumbled… But the Sharks are still in with a shout. And you know what – A game against Brumbies in Canberra wont be half bad to play in the playoffs.
While you and all your rather dimwitted Shark “supporting” getalong gang at Sharksworld use some fuzzy future excellence as an excuse to not support the Sharks in the present – me, myself and the rest of the diehards (according to you, only me) will be supporting the current Sharks in the here and now in their quest to damn well win this comp this year… However I do know that there are a sizeable, but silent majority who do support Plum and actually do support this current Sharks team.
And the way they are peaking, plus the return of Lambie and Alberts, I can bet many a coach and many a team would prefer not to face the Dynamite in any backs to the wall playoff game…
So, while the likes of you “faithful” head to KP in your search for a little piece of schadenfreude at a Sharks loss which can then justify calling for Plum’s head at your Braais in the carpark afterwards and bandy substitutes such as Stonehouse around on your getalong gang clueless Shark “supporting” blogs – the REAL Sharks BARNEYS ARMY will be right behind the PRESENT Sharks and Plum.
7 Jul 2012, 08:55 am
@coma(coma)-514:
Look at Sadie! He wanted a guarenttee that he would start games. Province couldn’t do that, so he moved. Now he can’t even make the bench… Pollard the same I guess… Can you see Morne being dropped? Never…
7 Jul 2012, 08:56 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.(The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food)-505: And the Conference “Title” is Top?
And there I was thinking it was actually about winning the whole damn thing…?
7 Jul 2012, 08:57 am
Bullies are finished, even if they pick up 5 points next week they travel to saderville where they are going to be raped by 50+ points. That will set the rot in with their kak pack of forwards who are more ugly than scary. Bye bye bullies.
Guppies will moer the Rebels next week and will face Jake in the playoff where they will fall.
In the end it will be the Stormers vs the Saders and the Chiefs vs the Brumbies. CapeSaders will crawl out of their holes in their thousands, like excited little roaches and flood Newlands to cheer their team on, brokebacks will be brokenhearted, again.
In the end the real trophy, not some scalled down little trinket, will go to either the Chiefs or the Saders.
7 Jul 2012, 08:58 am
@coma(coma)-495: I agree with you. I like Plum and not calling for his head yet, he needs to sort out our inconsistent performances. But when his time does come, Mallet or Brendan Venter are the type of coaches that could get the Sharks fired up for every game.
7 Jul 2012, 09:00 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-518: Which the Sharks have never done…..just like us you are
7 Jul 2012, 09:02 am
Got to love the general state of cluelessness of the average Rugger “connoisseur” on this Keo site…
Absolutely clueless… Standards truly have dropped in this little getalong gang zone…
And it is fairly obvious that the majority of fools and women here have never ever bled with a brother on a field of dreams in this Game played in Heaven…
Therefore you fools will never understand this great game, no matter how much bullshitt “knowledge” you spew in support of your “expertise” and commentary….
7 Jul 2012, 09:05 am
Am loving the general unhappiness at this Sharks win…
From the local multinics to those self professed Sharks “supporters” who were hoping for a loss….
Luvving it
While the REAL Sharks diehards, the Last Outpost Bananaboys, are there in spirit with OUR Black and White DYNAMITE…
Its a Beautiful Day…
7 Jul 2012, 09:06 am
@RL(RL)-519:
Stormers play the rebels…sharks the cheetahs…
7 Jul 2012, 09:08 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-523:
You would make a great Stormer supporter. We stick with our team through thick and thin, through good times and bad times.
7 Jul 2012, 09:10 am
@IAAS(I am a stormer)-525:
Morning buddy! For sure we do! In sickness and in health …
7 Jul 2012, 09:10 am
If I was a Sharks supporter I wouldn’t be too chuffed with this win, the Bulls were pathetic, it was like an under 16D team playing the under 19 A’s. After the game I sat and wondered what a Stormers A team would have done to this lot of pretenders at Loftus, instead of the Stormers C team.
The Bulls have too many passengers, players with big names but no balls and brains. I’m hoping the Lions put this lot of pretenders out of their misery next weekend.
7 Jul 2012, 09:11 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.(The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food)-521: But that has never been my point… My team being “at the top” while a competition still has to be won or lost…
And that is the crux of your foolishness… You believe the conference “title” is the “Top”…
Wakey, wakey…
Its not.
Winning the trophy is. Only 2 SA sides have done it – the Bulls and the Lions. The Sharks are the team thats come closest, the most – especially in an era when most SA teams just sha.t themselves with the prospect of meeting an ANZAC side…
The Stormers however have been conference “title” holders…. The “Top”…. BWAAAAAAAAAHAAAAHHAAAAAAH
Dillybitch
7 Jul 2012, 09:11 am
@Gumboots(Gumboots)-524: correct gummy, all 3 SA teams need 5 points for my finals prediction to come true.
7 Jul 2012, 09:12 am
Oh put a sock in it herr gwathole.
Suddenly you have a problem with women on the site
And you are the one dropping the standards around here
Down to your gutter level
7 Jul 2012, 09:14 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-522: Got to love the general state of cluelessness of the average Rugger “connoisseur” on this Keo site…
harsh words coming from the leader of the pack.
7 Jul 2012, 09:16 am
@IAAS(I am a stormer)-525: Blasphemy… Me, a good Stormers supporter… WTF?
But I laaik you IAAS or even IAAB… Respect, cuzzie. A true supporter. Not one of these faux knowledged fools masquerading as experts on this here Stormer propaganda machine…
Probably even have more than a few chiboolies with you after a game too…
7 Jul 2012, 09:17 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-528: Coming closest the most but still no cigar, lol.
7 Jul 2012, 09:17 am
@IAAS(I am a stormer)-525:
Hey buddy! You can choose your friends… be carefuly very careful… someone is trying very hard.
7 Jul 2012, 09:18 am
Observing from 6000 miles away,the reason the Stormers are near the top of the log and the Sharks and Bulls struggling,is that the Stormers perform well away from home,and the others don’t. I recall seeing the Sharks play in New Zealand earlier in the season and they looked pretty inept,dropping the ball etc. The Bulls are often rampant at home,but although they did better in the Antipodes this season,are vulnerable away from Loftus.
It’s as simple as that.
7 Jul 2012, 09:19 am
@Gumboots(Gumboots)-526:
Howzit Bill. Nervous ahead of today’s game knowing what the Cheetahs are capable of. I’ll be happy with a win today but a 4 try bonus would be great. The Cheetahs will be trying to play a high paced game – but the Stormers must just stick to their structures.
7 Jul 2012, 09:22 am
@IAAS(I am a stormer)-536:
The bonus point will be handy but the win first…
7 Jul 2012, 09:24 am
@Dawn(Dawn)-530: “Women” on this site? No I just see through you individuals who profess to be “women”…
Here’s some advice, Proud Mary, how about acting like the woman you want to be treated like… Then maybe you get treated right, yeah?
Cause and Effect… Simple.
Reap the whirlwind.
While I will just be happy with Plums Sharks giving a collective middle finger to those “multitudes” of Sharks “supporters” who were willing “their” team to fail last night…. And of course that peculiar breed of Stormer supporter in the majority here who has never played the game yet posts here as if they have inside knowledge and expertise… Lol
Luvving it.
7 Jul 2012, 09:25 am
@papashanga(papashanga)-535: the brokebacks only play for 4 points – they bore other teams to death but always give away a bonus point to their victim.
So every convict and kiwi team is +1 against the Stormers if they do lose to them.
7 Jul 2012, 09:25 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-523: Unhappiness? You are on crack. I am as chuffed as a Zimbo at Mugabe’s funeral with this win. Fortunately, your team felt the mental strength and positive vibes from Stormer fans, and chose to focus on that, rather than on the fragile weaknesses of their own fans
7 Jul 2012, 09:26 am
@Archiball Bearasole(Archibal Bearasshole)-533: Yes… And what are your other 5 or 6 Nics, Mr or Miss MacMulti?
7 Jul 2012, 09:26 am
@RL(RL)-539:
Whereas the rest of the SA teams give 5 pointers to the Antipodes… Your point… Check the log…
7 Jul 2012, 09:28 am
Which team has never concended a four try bonus point to the opposition? No freebies from that side…
7 Jul 2012, 09:28 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-528: Bhwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa – the fact that you are celebrating how CLOSE the Sharks have come kind if cancels out ANY logic you tried to represent in your previous posts.
That is your pinnacle? I thought winning the whole thing was? Oxy-feck-ing-moron BEST LOSER Sharks,
7 Jul 2012, 09:29 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.(The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food)-540: Yes those “vibes” that take “your” team to the “Top”…. chuckles
While MY team gives the might Bulls a 4 try hiding… When last did the Stormers score 4 tries against the Bulls… Ah, yes, cumulative over 2 years – you might have scored 4 all together
But then again, you reckon “your” team is the “Top”… Lol
Truly dilly
7 Jul 2012, 09:29 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.(The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food)-544:
7 Jul 2012, 09:30 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-541: Close but no cigar.
7 Jul 2012, 09:31 am
Rugby is about winning!!! Some seem to think it is about scoring tries… How foolish
You lose six games in super rugby and then you are the best in SA…
7 Jul 2012, 09:31 am
@Gumboots(Gumboots)-542: only the Lions are +5 to the Antipodes. That’s our gift to them.
7 Jul 2012, 09:33 am
@RL(RL)-539:
The Stormers bore other teams to death. Oh really.
Mate, if the Lions were playing in my back garden, I’d close the curtains.
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