Wanting to be the underdog is a loser mentality. Negative thinking bring negative results.

Unfortunately Sharks to win a close game.

Too many youngsters – too little experience.

What star studded WP backline?

Lions subs were dirt poor. Cost them the match.

I hope the Sharks win but have a funny feeling history is on on WP’s side. Jean de Villiers is out injured, good championship omen….

Im a Sharks man through and through, so I hope that its nothing like 2001.

Now that is a loser mentality.

I wonder if a team like NZ always want to be the underdogs?

Grow some balls Coetzee!!

Whilst the Sharks are probably favourites playing at home and the relatively small injury list,(Bismark and Frans being the only 2 to mention really), final games do funny things to the players nerves.

One strange ref call or bounce of the ball could be massively influential.
Also, Province pose a much larger threat to the Sharks than the Bulls did. I doubt Catrekilis will be as inefectual as Steyn was.

I watched that Semi again last night and for the first 30 mins the Sharks were actuall pretty average. Getting turned over and just playing pretty amatuer rugby.(might have had something to do with the conditions.)
Mellet tripped Lambie in the 30th minute and that seemed to change the complexion of the game and the Bulls were never in it from then on.

This is going to be another cracker and I think you may have overstated your prediction there.

Another day, another round.

* ding ding ding

Du Plessis left the field in the first half of their semi-final against the Blue Bulls last week after he knocked heads with team-mate Anton Bresler.The Springbok will now be evaluated according to the South African Rugby Union’s Boksmart-protocol to determine his readiness for the game.But Sharks team doctor, Ewoudt van der Linde, is confident that Du Plessis will be able to take the field on Saturday.”Jannie won’t be involved in any contact sessions before Thursday when we’ll be able to make a final decision on his availability. We are currently busy with a clinical evaluation of his condition on the computer and everything looks positive. He’s not experiencing headaches anymore and his balance is also good. I believe he’ll be ready to play,” he told the Beeld website.A further boost for the Durbanites will be the return to training of Odwa Ndungane (ankle) en Jacques Botes (back spasm) on Tuesday.

in order for him to reach his potential though, he needs to leave the bulls and either join the sharks or cheetahs
the gameplan employed by the bulls plays directly to his weaknesses
if he were given the freedom and license to thrill in a team like the sharks, we’ll see the best out of him

in the wet
sharks by 10

Hougaard’s dip in form is a combo of second season slump and over-coaching and not whether he’s starting or coming off the wood.

This constant fascination with promoting players to the starting 15 once they make a massive impact from the bench is strange to me. Players coming on are expected to make an impact, that is why they are called “impact players” no? Anyway, since the time of Skinstadt there is this tendency to take guys who make their greatest impact in a second half when opposition players are tyring and wanting to promote them to start the game where their impact is somewhat nullified.

Look at Francois Hougaard as a case in point. At the World Cup last year he was massive when coming on a as a sub, this year as a starting player not so much. These types of players can do a lot more damage in the final 20 or 30 minutes when they are fresh and they have had a change to assess the opposition from the sidelines.