Jacques Botes

Fortunately for the Cell C Sharks they have a good chance of redeeming themselves when they host struggling GWK Griquas in Durban this coming weekend, but the warning lights are flickering for the Absa Currie Cup champions.

There were excuses aplenty for the Sharks coaches after their 32-22 defeat to the Steval Pumas in Nelspruit in round four, and some of them were legitimate. Injuries did during the course of the game decimate their pack.

And let’s also not take anything away from the Pumas, who have been strong at home this season and also pushed the Sharks in the first round game much more than the final scoreline would suggest.

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However, conceding four tries to one against a team they have not lost to in 10 years has to be a concern, and the reality is that it was a result that appeared to be coming for a Sharks group that is talking about transition but appears to only be getting worse from one game to the next. The Sharks were poor for much of the match, with their only period of ascendancy ironically being the period in the second half where they responded to being down to 14 men because of a yellow card.

In that time, they recovered from a deficit to actually take the lead, but then the Pumas just dug in and came back to score two tries in the last 10 minutes that secured them a bonus point win and condemned them to returning to Durban with nothing.

Sharks director of rugby Jake White has no involvement with the Currie Cup side, as he has elected to let the coaches who perform the role of assistants during the Super Rugby season grow at a level that they are still relatively new too.

More performances like last Friday night’s, however, and we will have to start asking whether what White’s decision has done has actually exposed the coaches, with the inexperience of his middle management being highlighted by some as a possible stumbling block to White’s quest for Super Rugby success with the Durban franchise.

The Sharks are still hanging in in fourth position on the log table as the halfway point nears, but it needs to be noted that the champions have enjoyed a far easier start to the competition than some of the other teams, with the Cheetahs being the only regular top side that they have played so far.

That is very different to DHL Western Province, last year’s beaten finalists, who have beaten the Vodacom Blue Bulls and the Xerox Golden Lions at home and now the Bulls away en route to a perfect start to the season. Juan de Jongh’s men host the EP Kings this coming Friday night, so the smart money should be on them completing the first half of the competition unbeaten and comfortably topping the log.

Just how comfortable that lead will be could depend on their arch-rivals from Pretoria. The Bulls were much better against WP in round four than they had been in previous matches played this year, and were pushing for what could have been a try-scoring win at the end. If they can carry that same commitment into their Loftus clash with the Lions on Saturday, there could well be an upset.

The Lions and WP have been the best teams in the competition this season by some distance, with the Lions recovering from their only defeat at Newlands by scoring an impressive win against a fired up Kings side in Port Elizabeth. They are three points adrift of WP, but will be under pressure to maintain that gap when they travel across the Jukskei River for the Gauteng derby.

WP took a while to get the better of the Bulls, but they could have put them away before halftime had they made full use of the opportunities they created. A Jaco Taute break-out from the Province 22 was wasted when Seabelo Senatla was unable to take the pass and would surely have been able to use his pace to get in for the try had he done so, and Nic Groom spilled the ball in the act of scoring just before the half-time hooter.

That opening 40 minutes did highlight an aspect their coach Allister Coetzee had spoken about during the week – while the WP counter-attacking has been outstanding, their attacking from structured play still requires a lot of work. It changed in the second half, but WP won quite a lot of ball in the first half even though they were under pressure in the scrums, and struggled to make it count.

Senatla was the outstanding player in the second half, scoring himself with a brilliant run down the left flank after Cheslin Kolbe had found him the small bit of space he needed, and his run off a good inside pass from Taute, who made an impressive fist of his opportunity at inside centre, was what set up Kobus van Wyk for his blistering run down the right touchline for the first try.

In the other match at the weekend, Griquas started to make a habit of playing home matches down to 14 men, with a red card in the first half making life difficult for them against the Toyota Free State Cheetahs just as had been the case in their opening home fixture against the Sharks. The Cheetahs were still impressive though with the way they put them away and they look as though they are improving each week.

The performance of the weekend though belonged to the Pumas, who had the Sharks under pressure in most aspects of play at the Mbombela Stadium and who look worthy at this point of the third place they hold down on the log table. Future opponents will be travelling to Nelspruit with some trepidation.