Sharks out-boot Bulls
28 Sep 2012
JON CARDINELLI reports on the Sharks’ 13-12 victory against the Bulls at Kings Park on Friday.
The scorecard will confirm that the Bulls were the better side in terms of successful shots on goal, but in the context of a rain-afflicted clash, the Sharks’ line-kicking game proved decisive to the outcome.
The Sharks played in the right areas, and it was a superior kicking game that pressured the Bulls into costly errors.
The Bulls took an early lead via a drop goal by Louis Fouche, but it was a garryowen that led to the game’s first try for Sharks wing Paul Jordaan.
Fouche would kick two more penalties to steer the Bulls to a 9-5 lead, but it was clear they were struggling to live with the Sharks’ kicking game. Coach John Plumtree made a tactical switch before kickoff, moving Riaan Viljoen to flyhalf and Meyer Bosman to centre. It was a savvy move in that Viljoen’s strong kicking game was well-suited to conditions.
However, Plumtree would have expected more of Bosman in terms of goal-kicking. The weather couldn’t have been worse and it is never easy to kick at Kings Park, but Bosman missed two conversion opportunities in the first half, and a crucial penalty in the second.
The Sharks did score a great try in the second stanza that handed them a 13-9 lead, a sizeable advantage considering the conditions. Cobus Reinach broke from the lineout and found captain Keegan Daniel in support. Daniel fended the cover defence and corkscrewed his way over the tryline.
Unfortunately, the Sharks’ effort began to flag in the final half hour. Following Bosman’s missed conversion and wayward penalty attempt, the Sharks were pinned in their own half.
The Bulls applied the pressure and looked to have finally crossed the line when referee Mark Lawrence stopped play. A brief consultation with the TMO resulted in Sharks hooker Pieter Dixon being red-carded for kicking an opposition player. It meant the Sharks would play the final 11 minutes with 14 men.
This is where the Sharks showed their mettle. They absorbed the pressure, and eventually won a scrum penalty on their own 22. They cleared to touch and lost the ensuing lineout, but the Bulls failed to punish that mistake. In fact, after a bout of kicking, it was the Bulls who eventually conceded possession and with that a last opportunity to win the game.
74 Comments
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29 Sep 2012, 00:28 am
@fitz1ella-48:
> cowardly approach at playing Pienaar at 9.. when Hougaard should always be his go to bust a gut option at the cutting edge behind the breakdown ruck or scrum.. even Goosen with all his burgeoning talent can’t make up for a stuttering Pienaar
We need the experience of Pienaar to settle Goosen in his first test
Hougie hasn’t impressed at scrumhalf, not for the Bulls and not for the Boks
Maybe playing with an attacking FH would help his game as well?
29 Sep 2012, 00:37 am
@victoriabok-50: De Jongh is only a stop gap measure in some brandewyn induced mindsets… De Jongh has been stuffed around from pillar to post while every little overfed boertjie tries and fails at the position he De Jongh can do most damage in.. if it wasn’t that fckup nonentity Olivier for how many unrewarding attempts.. its been either JdV or Frans Steyn at midfield with Morne Steyn and FdP fcking almost every promising ball to hell and back.. and now Pienaar takes up the sidesaddle stop go gap… go and COUNT all the WINS we have enjoyed while watching FdP, Steyn, Olivier, JdV, Frans Steyn and even Jacque Fourie gooi weg and p!ss against the wall since 2009.. go and count them one more time again..
Aussie done us in 6 times on the trot so far under this delusion of a game plan and with only one game in between in 2010 otherwise its been a crescendo of Aussie inflicted back slammers since the 49-0 fiasco.. and all along we been relying on so called superior kicking games from either FdP or M. Steyn to carry the can and suffice..
29 Sep 2012, 00:44 am
@fitz1ella-52:
> De Jongh is only a stop gap measure in some brandewyn induced mindsets… De Jongh has been stuffed around from pillar to post while every little overfed boertjie tries and fails at the position he De Jongh can do most damage in
He didn’t get that much game time at the Stormers either, AC didn’t pick him last year?
29 Sep 2012, 00:46 am
@victoriabok-51:
Pienaar will stifle and starve Goosen like he has done the past 3 games vs Argy, Aus and AB’s.. Morne got all the flak for missing all his kicks.. BUT the rot started with Pienaar..
if Meyer had played Hougaard at 9 through Mendoza, Brisbane and Dunedin.. notwithstanding Morne’s implosion of kicking BMT.. Boks would still have won at least 2 from those 3 and maybe all 3 instead.. I’m pretty convinced of that..
Hougaard brings 100 times more fire and determination to the Bok back line.. it was always Morne stopping the momentum.. and actually in the Argentina game in Mendoza Hougaard was about the ONLY Bok back firing.. the only one TRYING to push on through.. him and JdV were TRYING while the rest were faltering… until Pienaar came on Boks were producing some action off the back foot.. Pienaar kills the game off at source.. and I fear he may be even too detrimental for Goosen to flourish..
Hougaard – Goosen is 1000 times a better combination than Pienaar – Goosen…. I don’t have a whole lot of confidence in Pienaar at 9.. never have and never will.. Pienaar should have stuck it out at 10 where Eddy Jones wanted to play him and create another Larkham out of him.. that is where Pienaar could have been a great rugby player.. at 9 he’s just a very poor replica of a rather dismal disenchanted FdP trying to be just one more one dimensional SA type box kicking scrum halves.. Hougaard is FAR closer to a raring to go Joost Vd W type 9 and alongside Goosen could actually be a devastating combo.. rather than Pienaar could ever hope to ever become.
29 Sep 2012, 00:47 am
@fitz1ella-52:
> Aussie done us in 6 times on the trot so far under this delusion of a game plan
And JdJ would have won those games for us?
Wasn’t he also injured for a while?
29 Sep 2012, 00:51 am
@victoriabok-53: So that makes him a ‘stop gap’ because all the dumb struck rugby coaches in this country got sh’t for brains..
De Jongh ALWAYS makes forays into and through the opposition.. De Jongh HARDLY misses a tackle even vs guys twice his size.. and De Jongh is twice as nimble and fleet of foot as either F. Steyn or JdV and I venture to add Taute through the oppo gain line.. De Jongh is about as close as we have to a player like Digby Ioane except better suited at inside center where Ioane made his mark at 11 like Habana..De Jongh would have been lapped up at Wallabies where they would have made him into a star.. here he’s a bit part stop gap to fill the quota and bench spot options to keep the politico’s quiet from knocking at HM’s blue eyed door.
29 Sep 2012, 00:55 am
@fitz1ella-54:
> Hougaard is FAR closer to a raring to go Joost Vd W type 9 and alongside Goosen could actually be a devastating combo.. rather than Pienaar could ever hope to ever become.
If Hougie fires at 9, he hasn’t so far, him and Goosen might be the new Joost and Lem
29 Sep 2012, 00:58 am
@fitz1ella-56:
Some players are unlucky or born at the wrong time, like JdJ, he was always going to be behind JdV and Jacque Fourie
Sarel was always going to be behind FdP and Bekker behind Victor, you can only play 15 plus reserves at a time
29 Sep 2012, 01:02 am
@victoriabok-57: It was NOT Hougaard at fault ever.. it was BB management trying to clone him into their f’up box kicking held FdP… Hougaard should ONLY play Hougaard style of scrum half play..which is flat out balls to the wall aggressive fast action run it at the opposition type game .. just like Joost at his prime used to do… Hougaard got 1000 times more rugby ballas than FdP would EVER hope to ever have… and Hougaard – Goosen. could and most likely WOULD be the new Joost – Lem type partnership.. if ONLY Meyer will get RID of his love affair for the dead end delusional FdP fck it up into the heavens style of game plan.
29 Sep 2012, 01:05 am
@fitz1ella-59:
> It was NOT Hougaard at fault ever.. it was BB management trying to clone him into their f’up box kicking held FdP
They’ve recognized his talent, decided he had to be on the field and played him on the wing
Instead of letting him play Vodacom and CC for the Blue Bulls at no 9, so now you have a player who has played scrumhalf at U20 level and never since especially at Super or Test level, and his lack of experience at this level shows
29 Sep 2012, 01:08 am
@victoriabok-60:
> was BB management
Don’t get me started on the Bulls management, they’ve brought in that useless Pine Pienaar to f-up our team
Barend van Graan doesn’t care, they’re making money off sponsorships and dooses buying pink jerseys, the brand is strong, they don’t need to win anything
29 Sep 2012, 01:09 am
@victoriabok-60: He should NOT be played at wing .. WRONG position and another COMPROMISE .. like playing Smit at 3 or JdV at 13 (although I still claim with Hougaard at 9, Goosen at 10, De Jongh at 12 JdV would be a success at 13)
Hougaard should ALWAYS play at 9 and definitely ahead of Pienaar who is slower than a grandmother deciding if she wanna scratch her crotch or cross the road while waiting for the jay walk light to change between amber and red at the cross roads…
29 Sep 2012, 01:10 am
@fitz1ella-59:
> Hougaard got 1000 times more rugby ballas
I know, we used him as the model for the Blou Balsak you hang under your bakkie
29 Sep 2012, 01:12 am
@fitz1ella-62:
He should have been released to play CC for this season to get as much gametime as possible
While Pienaar helped to blood Goosen, and then used Hougie on the EOYT
29 Sep 2012, 01:13 am
@victoriabok-61: beginning of the long slip sliding away vortex back to the bottom of the pile if they not careful.. every great civilization went cavorting into extinction for that very same reason.. starting with the Medes, the Greeks, the Romans, the Saxons, the Normans, the Moguls and the British.. the BB’s are not immune to implosion from within..
29 Sep 2012, 01:17 am
@fitz1ella-65:
Oh I know that, but tell it to Barend
He thinks he can manage it like some of the English Football clubs who never win anything but the fans still come to watch the games and buy jerseys, programmes, beer and food
The Bulls fans are notoriously fickle, they demand high standars or they vote with their feet
It’s been two years since we’ve won anything
It’s time for Barend to go
29 Sep 2012, 01:17 am
@victoriabok-64: Nope he should have played 9 and Morne should have been ditched along with FdP after 2009 Eoyt .. and that archaic excuse of a one dimensional garbage game plan that FdP and Smit entrenched under White and HM’s heilige skop jag patroon from 2007 should have been outlawed as non conducive to long suffering Bok legacy rugby and chucked onto the garbage heap where it always belonged…
Hougaard would have been a success at WC 2011 same as Bismark and Alberts.. instead they played FdP, Smit and Spies..and Morne at 10 where it should have been Pienaar … and WHERE did they land up.. ONE more loss to Aussie when they should have WON..
29 Sep 2012, 01:25 am
@fitz1ella-67: actually 10 should have been either of Peter Grant or Pienaar throughout 2008 -2011 under PdV.. and boks would NOT have lost the last 11 from 13 tests against top 5 opposition… M. Steyn is like a Dallas Cowboy Nasty Booter who only needs to come onto the field when its a field goal looming.. otherwise Morne Steyn was ALWAYS a one dimensional dead duck on any rugby field.. Morne Steyn NEVER got his back line away .. anytime EVER.. under ANY circumstances.. least of all when he was cow tailing it to his messiah on his inside FdP…
29 Sep 2012, 01:28 am
nag .. eks uit.. slaap tyd loer in my oogies wat nog te wyd in hul stryd probeer bly.
29 Sep 2012, 01:30 am
@fitz1ella-69:
Mooi loop, en hou duimvas vir die Bokke
29 Sep 2012, 01:55 am
@victoriabok-70:
Hoesit, Vik. We are going to do surgry on the Wallabies tomorrow. Ons gaan die “original” in hulle “ab”domin diep steek. Kurtley won’t know his beale from his piel.
@fitz1ella-69:
Ek gaan met my uncle visvang vanuit Kalkies die Sondag oggend. Ek hoop ek sal babelaas wees. Bokke!!!!!!
Taute lyk ne soos Magnum in die ou tv serries.
29 Sep 2012, 04:44 am
@fitz-whatever; typical SA rugby fan. No stats or analysis, just blind rant and avoid answering questions like why AC didn’t pick JdJ if he is so wonderful and better than any centre ever produced in SA. The new Danie Gerber. You are not getting any cleverer or more sensible on the tik diet. Try Noakes not coke s. Bit like your mentor keow.
By the way; I quite like JdJ and think he hasn’t been helped by any of his recent coaches.
Bring back the Jake and John show!
29 Sep 2012, 05:34 am
The Epic Pitch Battle of the Ndunganes it was!
29 Sep 2012, 09:09 am
@fitz1ella-62: nice imagery there
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