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.
Follow Ryan on Twitter
Follow SA Rugby magazine on Twitter
711 Comments
Pages: « 1 … 2 3 4 5 6 [7] 8 9 10 11 12 … 15 » Show All
6 Jul 2012, 22:05 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-294:
Dom’t rooooooooooooooot too hard tomorrow- you will have to save some energy to root even harder next weak for the Rebels as the Stormers will have to lose both games in order not to win the SA conference.
6 Jul 2012, 22:06 pm
@SDT(SDT)-293: Good post and definitely something Meyer should be looking at. Though think he will still stick with those players. Pity as there are so much better.
Kanko totally outplayed Spies.
6 Jul 2012, 22:07 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-300:
6 Jul 2012, 22:07 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-299: Bwaaaahaaaaa. Never watched it this week or last. So hope they choke on that……………….hahahahaha.
6 Jul 2012, 22:07 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-294: Wow if all Sharks supporters are like you maybe i should call all Sharks supporters arrogant. The only person I see being arrogant is you.
6 Jul 2012, 22:10 pm
Some might bite Tacitus ,but trustr me the bloke was big enough to admit before the match that he felt the Sharks were superior and would win!!!!
SO Khudo’s to him
6 Jul 2012, 22:10 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-303: Also Fransie was good tonight. Very pleased he is back for Sharks. Just a pity he can’t play in the play offs. If we make it we will be needing Jordaan.
6 Jul 2012, 22:10 pm
Meyer isn’t a huge Spies fan. Hopefully he will drop him now and give Kankowski a chance in the championship. He wants to win Tests more than he likes Spies.
6 Jul 2012, 22:11 pm
@heboric(heboric)-305: wait 24 hours for a Stormers thread and then comment. ‘Returning serve’ as our dear friend Poophead would say. And a lot of returning serve is needed to wipe the slate clean.
6 Jul 2012, 22:11 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-306: Tac did too.
6 Jul 2012, 22:11 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-294: You do not want the Cheetahs to win because then the Chiefs can afford to throw the last game against the Hurricanes and if the Sharks don’t get 5 against the Cheetahs the Canes end up 6th. We want the Chiefs to have to play for a win.
6 Jul 2012, 22:11 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.(The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food)-6: haha, swallow your tongue?
6 Jul 2012, 22:11 pm
@kaksioek(kaksioek)-308: Hope so. Kanko had his best game ever. Well for me he did.
6 Jul 2012, 22:12 pm
@heboric(heboric)-305: not his fault he was born with a wooden spoon in his mouth and had to steal in order to survive…
6 Jul 2012, 22:12 pm
@Puma(Puma)-307: yeah i said so earlier, Fransie needs to sought out his kicking out of hand a bit, maybe not to always look for so much power
6 Jul 2012, 22:12 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-306: Tacitus is a quality poster on this site. Very level headed and knowledgeable, even if he can be a bit parochial at times. But, he never goes overboard, like our Stormer friends have a habit of doing.
6 Jul 2012, 22:14 pm
@Pee Wee(Pee Wee)-250: Nah – 25 – 20 isn’t blown away. 30 – 10 in a final….now that is blown away….:-)
Relax – dont pop a vein.
6 Jul 2012, 22:14 pm
Sharks were good tonight but still think that the midfield was not sharp. Fransie is not quick off the mark and carrying a bit too much weight and Whitehead still not fit coming back from injury. I would have considered Bosman in place of Whitfield to start given that Meyer has been improving for Sharks.
6 Jul 2012, 22:14 pm
@Puma(Puma)-313: What a shame he is going to Japan.
6 Jul 2012, 22:15 pm
Interesting end to the tournament coming up
6 Jul 2012, 22:15 pm
Stormers will not lose against the Cheetahs and we will roll the Rebels.
We don’t blow hot and cold like CERTAIN other teams … we stick with luke warm all season long -> but come Semi’s we’ll turn up the heat up to a simmer and we’ll come to a boil in the FINAL !!!
6 Jul 2012, 22:17 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-315: Given the relative lineout performances, he should have been kicking the ball out – not up the middle of the field. He could have kicked it as hard as he liked if he got his angles right.
6 Jul 2012, 22:17 pm
Apparently Sykes is going to be out for a while, hopefully Pieter S du Toit’s injury is not to serious.
6 Jul 2012, 22:17 pm
there’s one little piece of sharkshit that should go drown himself down the drain…he knows who he is… the same garbage piece of sharkshit trash that was rooting for Plumtree to get fired only the other day….
Bulls are a f’ck’d up team they got absolutely nothing going under this delusion they are living under with this hopeless nonentity of a captain leading them to nowhere and the half back axis in disarray with a painful fullback and a pathetic midfield and a front row who are only bulk and no power.
I don’t know how they going to fix this dilemma ruining springbok rugby but the Boks coach who is bulls bevok better wake up smartly and realize who the best players in SA are.
6 Jul 2012, 22:17 pm
@bananaboy(bananaboy)-311: Reds are right behind us. They only have to play the Tahs next week. Think they will beat them easy.
Not sure if Canes can beat the Chiefs though. Doubt very much if Cheetahs will beat the Stormers.
Then I am sitting well down on bru, so I have no clue really……………..hahaha. Only had Sharks to win by 3. They won by 22 never ever did I think we would win by that margin. NOT ever. My feeling if we never gave away that run away try to Stormers and if the Ref picked up on the foward pass. We would have had a big win against them too. It is just against the Lions that I can bash my head against the wall and not come up with the answers why we fell off so badly there. Lions played well though, but still, we just looked somewhere else that night. Also against the Tahs how we fell away in the end just beats me too. Anyhow all done and dusted.
6 Jul 2012, 22:18 pm
@brains_trust(brains_trust)-321: Stormers have lost two home semis before. I wouldn’t be so confident.
6 Jul 2012, 22:19 pm
@Puma(Puma)-325: bad boy
6 Jul 2012, 22:19 pm
@RainbowBanana(RainbowBanana)-323: Hope so. The youngster was playing well until that injury.
6 Jul 2012, 22:19 pm
The calibre and class of poster has suddenly deteriorated.
What’s that smell?
6 Jul 2012, 22:20 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-329: your top lip …
6 Jul 2012, 22:21 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-327:
6 Jul 2012, 22:21 pm
@fitz1ella(fitz1ella)-324: Well, look who’s here. Welcome, the humble pie is delicious.
6 Jul 2012, 22:22 pm
I am
6 Jul 2012, 22:23 pm
@Puma(Puma)-325: Hey Puma , Canes are at 53 and with a 5 point win against the Chiefs would overtake us because of games won. The Chiefs could quite easily field a second 15 if they are guaranteed top spot. At the moment Chiefs are on 63 and Stormers on 58.
6 Jul 2012, 22:23 pm
the great messiah F. Steyn disappeared up all the overblown hype about him.. watch them start booing him again.. give it another six months and he may just want to go back to France again.
6 Jul 2012, 22:23 pm
@kaksioek(kaksioek)-319: It is a shame really. Well I can’t blame him, he has hardly had any game time at all this year. Now we can see once again why we do lose players. I do hope he comes back to Sharks. Most players say they going for 6 months and just about none come back. Only Grant does go back to Stormers, then he does get game time with Stormers.
Watching Kanko tonight we see just how much we needed him this year. We have struggled with our lineouts. He was imense there and everywhere else too, got stuck in everywhere.
6 Jul 2012, 22:24 pm
@Puma(Puma)-325: Puma in 1999 the Sharks beat the Bulls 29-0 at the Tank, in a super rugby game.
6 Jul 2012, 22:25 pm
@brains_trust(brains_trust)-330: nah, that would be the 5ft garden gnome with the potty mouth.
6 Jul 2012, 22:25 pm
@fitz1ella(fitz1ella)-335: He never did, go watch again. Carried the ball up many, many times and also off loading in the tackle. Go watch he was very good tonight make no mistake. Also remember he had to get with the Sharks game plan sharp this week. He has only had this week to work the coaches and players. He was very good.
6 Jul 2012, 22:26 pm
@Puma(Puma)-307: francois wasn’t that good tonight, please keep your obsession in check. his tactical kicking was off, he had on break after being put on by jannie. otherwise he was nowhere against wynand to boot.
easy with the man-crush
6 Jul 2012, 22:26 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-329: its all the garbage trash excrement oozing out your sharkshit arsehole.. no wonder you the first to smell it.
@kaksioek(kaksioek)-332: which humble pie.. where.. what pie is it you wish for me to eat..sharkshit don’t feature on my menu.
6 Jul 2012, 22:26 pm
@Robzim(Robzim)-333:
I am quite happy that Kanko did so well today as i prefer number 8′s to be fast, akillful and athletic players instead of “bashers” like Alberts and even Vermeulen.
Lets hope he can continue like this.
6 Jul 2012, 22:28 pm
Your top lip!
6 Jul 2012, 22:29 pm
Bulls have had a great season considering what they have lost this last year, Bakkies,Victor,Guthro, Danie,FDP to name a few, all senior players so they are having to rebuild and the youngsters have been outstanding in my opinion.
6 Jul 2012, 22:29 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-337: Yes that was like 13 years back. I am talking here in the last 5 years or so. Recently we have not beaten them by that much. So I never expected that win margin. Did you? Bet many never expected it.
We were very good in the 90′s.
6 Jul 2012, 22:30 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-340:
I saw your team smashed the Eagles tonight.
What is the latest on Luke? When will he play again?
6 Jul 2012, 22:30 pm
so where all those great illustrious fairweather sharkshit elaborates baying for Plumtrees head right now… why aren’t they all standing in a row getting their heads blown off for treason and treachery?
6 Jul 2012, 22:31 pm
@bananaboy(bananaboy)-344: Agree.
After losing so many players they have done very, very well.
We also have to think tonight we were without 5 of our players that have played most of the season for us, so this win was big for us.
6 Jul 2012, 22:31 pm
@Robzim(Robzim)-342: When Alberts is back they’re going to have a selection poser. Probably stick Alberts at 7, Kanko at 8 and Daniel at 6, with a very unfortunate Coetzee dropping to the bench.
6 Jul 2012, 22:31 pm
@fitz1ella(fitz1ella)-341: I just thought you might like to revise your oft-repeated lowly opinion of the Sharks. But to each his own. I’m sure you’re
with envy though, now that you’ve seen what tries look like.
Pages: « 1 … 2 3 4 5 6 [7] 8 9 10 11 12 … 15 » Show All
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.