It is quite amazing how the Cell C Sharks’ 2014 Vodacom Super Rugby campaign is starting to resemble that of the DHL Stormers two years ago.

In 2012, the Stormers topped the overall Super Rugby log, as the Sharks are now, but they gave the impression at times that they were clueless on attack and had to rely almost completely on their strong defensive system. The Stormers back then scored fewer tries than the Sharks have this season, and the Sharks did pick up a four try bonus point in their opening fixture. The table topping Stormers went the entire 2012 league phase without picking up a single four try bonus point.

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The point though is that the Sharks, as the season progresses, are looking less and less likely to score a clutch of tries. Some would suggest that it is Jake White’s game-plan that is at fault, and to be sure, rule No 1 with Jake is that you should attack only when in opposition territory. But it goes deeper than that. It isn’t a coincidence that when the Sharks did have a better balance to their game, it was when Patrick Lambie was at flyhalf.

White, when he took up his position as Sharks director of rugby, made no secret of the important role that he intended Lambie, with Frans Steyn standing alongside him at inside centre, to play in his team’s quest for the Super Rugby trophy. He made it clear he had given Lambie licence to make his own decisions and was working with him on getting him to find the right balance to this approach.

That did not mean kicking ever ball, but running or distributing when it was on to do so, kicking long when the game situation and field position demanded it, and putting in contestable kicks when that was what Lambie felt gave the Sharks the best chance of threatening the opposition tryline.

He would never admit it publicly as White is one of those coaches who doesn’t like to use injuries as an excuse, but when Lambie left the field early in the match against the Bulls at Loftus in March, White must have realised that his chances of winning Super Rugby had sustained a significant blow.

He doesn’t appear to rate Fred Zeilinga as highly as some people in Sharks country do, and while he was prepared to back young Tim Swiel in a couple of games, that never quite worked out. This past weekend Frans Steyn confirmed what White’s predecessors could have told him – you never quite know what to expect from him as a flyhalf, and it is not his best position.

Zeilinga has apparently flown home with the hamstring injury that kept him out of two games before the tour. So White faces a massive quandary as he considers his flyhalf options for the match against the formidable and inform Crusaders in Christchurch. Does he persist with Steyn and just hope it becomes one of those games that the big man can dominate with his boot, or does he back Swiel for another run?

Either way it will be a gamble, far more so than it would be were Lambie present, which is why White must be praying that the Michaelhouse old boy is able to report for duty when the three match sequence after the break for the June international window begins in July.

White is probably thinking along those lines, for he told reporters after the 16-9 defeat at Canberra at the weekend: “I understand it’s not always about how you play right now, but sometimes how you go in your last three games.”

The Sharks’ away fixtures after the June break are against the Cheetahs, who have been a bogey in Bloemfontein for the Sharks in the past, and the Stormers, who are always better on their home field, so he will want to have his first choice pivot back in the mix.

In the meantime though the Sharks have the Crusaders to deal with, and while they were in the air when the Crusaders were dealing to the Reds in Brisbane, they won’t be encouraged by what they see when they watch that game on video. The Crusaders do tend to be a bit looser on defence at times than they used to be, but their All Black dominated pack is back in the groove, with Richie McCaw now back to full fitness and back to his influential best.

He is one massive threat for the Sharks, who clearly miss Marcell Coetzee in the battle for ball on the grounds. And there is apparently a chance that last year’s IRB Player of the Year, Kieran Read, might be ready to play in the game. Even if he doesn’t though, the Crusaders have plenty of option and potential variations at loose-forward.

At the back the Crusaders pose several threats to a Sharks team that is going to have to defend much better than they did the last time they played a New Zealand side, which was the Highlanders at Kings Park before they left for tour. Nemani Nadolo, the big wing, and Johnny McNicoll complete a dangerous back three and are in try-grabbing form, while Ryan Crotty has been excellent since assuming the captaincy in the absence of Read.

Perhaps the most significant area that the Crusaders have come right though is at halfback, where Andy Ellis and Colin Slade have formed a steady and match-winning combination. It is the very area where the Sharks seem most uncertain at present.