I got this from SuperSport, a bit of a satirical look at the Sharks… but also the hope expressed that they start to perform!
SuperSport
They are black, they are white. But unlike in that song of theirs, they’ve given up the fight.
In fact, if the 2013 Sharks outfit reminds anyone of dynamite, it is only in that they hold the greatest threat for their own handlers.
Here at the SuperWrap desk we’re certainly not used to writing things like that about the Durbanites. They are, after all, a team that has made it into the Super Rugby playoffs four out of the last six seasons. For much of that time they played the most balanced game out of all of South Africa’s participants, and provided the bulk of our Springbok squad.
But not this year.
Already we’ve twice been treated to the rare sight of seeing them properly rattled. It happened against the Brumbies when they conceded four tries long before the halftime whistle, and we saw it again this past weekend as the Chiefs raced to a 24-0 lead as early as the 17th minute.
We’ve seen their scrum – normally one of the most solid in the competition – find a reverse-gear it never thought it had. We’ve seen them lose their cool when on-field calls don’t go their way. Most importantly, we’ve seen their attack – almost unstoppable towards the end of last year’s edition – not score a single try in more than half the matches they played this year.
Where have things gone so horribly wrong for them, then?
The short answer is we don’t know. There are enough rumours doing the rounds about their senior players being unhappy about the way mercenaries are brought in from outside the squad and then leapfrogging over established players straight into the starting team. But here in the Wrap we normally just ignore rumours.
What did get the alarm bells ringing here was the handling of Springbok stars Frans Steyn (who was allowed to pick up as much 15kg before season’s start) and Ryan Kankowski (who was played out of position and then summarily dropped from the touring squad). But even there we can’t state with any authority what the players themselves thought about it.
All we know is that the team does not look a happy one whenever we get to judge them between those four lines.
There is good news, though, and it’s not that they can expect to have the physicality of a Willem Alberts and a Bismarck du Plessis back on the field one of these days – however much that will help the rest of the team to focus on things that they’re actually good at.
No, it’s simply that they’ve been here before.
Back in 2010 they lost their first five Super Rugby fixtures. Back then we also ignored rumours about a self-imploding squad, struggling to fit both John Smit and Bismarck du Plessis into the same 22. How glad we are that we did.
They found themselves halfway through a five-week tour from hell, and had the daunting House of Pain as their next stop. No one gave them a chance, but somewhere between all those long-haul flights, those lonely hotel rooms and those icy training fields the squad learned to find their comfort in each other’s company. Everything clicked, and not only did they beat the Highlanders that weekend, they won seven out of their remaining eight matches that year.
Is the class of 2013 cut from the same cloth? They are at the same cross-roads, and if they are to change their season around it will have to happen in the same city.
Fortunately for them the Highlanders themselves are on an epic losing streak. They haven’t won a single Super Rugby match since round about this time last year.
Then again, didn’t the self-same Sharks show us against the Rebels earlier this year what happens when you mix a enough star players with just the right amount of desperation?
The point is this: a win is non-negotiable this weekend. If the Sharks fail to secure at least four points in Dunedin they will in all probability have to win in both Brisbane and Pretoria just to scrape into the playoffs. That is a prospect no one will savour, no matter how much talent you have at your disposal.
With so many personnel changes before the Chiefs match last week, they made little secret of the fact that they pretty much wrote off that fixture in Hamilton. They have their money on giving their season the old 180-degrees at the Forsyth-Barr this weekend.
We sincerely hope they get it right, that they discover this week their dynamite. It’s not only their fans that need them to; it is all of Springbok rugby.
hahahahaha
Nice!
I read this on Super Sport right now. One thing he misses is that we have 13 injuries. If we had those players I am sure we would not be struggling right now.
Also saw that the Sharks/Chiefs game was the game of the weekend there. Only saw the last 5min of that game as we were in Mauritius on the beach at the time, just went back to my room to catch the last bit. So looks like I missed a really good game. Since have watched the highlights.
Here is Sharks team for this week and I personally think it is a mistake not starting with Minnie and Deysel again. Also Bresler should have started I feel.
Sharks Team:
The Sharks
1. Wiehahn Herbst
2. Kyle Cooper
3. Jannie du Plessis
4. Pieter-Steph du Toit
5. Franco van der Merwe
6. Keegan Daniel (Capt)
7. Marcell Coetzee
8. Lubabalo Mtembu
9. Charl McLeod
10. Patrick Lambie
11. Lwazi Mvovo
12. Meyer Bosman
13. Francois Steyn
14. JP Pietersen
15. Riaan Viljoen
Replacements
16. Craig Burden
17. JC Janse van Rensburg
18. Anton Bresler
19. Jean Deysel
20. Tian Meyer
21. Piet Lindeque
22. Odwa Ndungane / Derick Minnie
Massive pity we lost Andre Coetzee to a injury he would have been a lot better than Viljoen at the back as well.
Not too many Sharks supporters will take kindly to this article… but just remember, I did not write it!
The Sharks performance is understandable though, having lost so many key players due to injury… but that fact does not explain the fact that The Sharks have been so bloody One-Dimentional this year…. I feel quite frustrated on their behalf about it.
The Sharks will be getting stalwarts back, with JP Pietersen and Lwazi Mvovo already ready for this weekend and after the tour Willem Alberts and Bismarck du Plessis will bolster their ranks further…
I am still worried for the Bulls, they still have to play The Sharks twice….
2 & 3 @ Puma:
Helloooooooooo Oompie,
Good to have you back!
Must say Jean Deysel and Derick Minnie did NOT IMPRESS me last weekend… OK Minnie scored 2 tries… but they lacked something.
Tera Mthembu played a cracker!
Also think it is time that Fransie is moved back to inside centre. Bosman just not doing much there at all. Would have had Piet at outside centre with Fransie at inside.
My team would have been:
Herbst
Cooper
Jannie
Bresler
PSDT
Tera
Deysel
Minnie
Charl
Pat
Mvovo
Fransie
Piet
JPP
Viljoen (pity no Coetzee)
5 @ grootblousmile:
Howzit gbs,
Yip just got back yesterday from my holiday to Mauritius.
Never saw the game only watched the last 5 min. Totally forgot the time over there so missed it. Saw the last 5min. Felt so damn annoyed at Keegan for giving away that penalty on the 80th min.
4 @ grootblousmile:
We would have played a lot better had we had our 1st choice players from the start. We have not got going at all as each week there is a new injury. So combinations have been wrecked. Must be the worst injury woes Sharks have ever had.
Don’t worry we will be back to full team when we play your Bully Boys…….
6 @ Puma:
Frans Steyn has been diabollically bad this season… last weekend the Chiefs breezed through him, Meyer Bosman and Pat Lambie’s channel.
Hell, the Chiefs were up 24 / 0 after 17 minutes.
Even when Paul Jordaan was playing at No 13 and Fransie was at No 12, The Sharks had no fluency whatsoever in the backline and scored almost no tries (apart from the Rebels game which was an absolute rout in favour of the Sharks).
9 @ grootblousmile:
I know Frans has been struggling but did watch the highlights of that game and thought he was much better this past week. Bosman just not doing it at 12 either. I would rather play Fransie back into form in the position he is best at and that is 12.
See we lost Reinach as well now. So many injuries to key players this year.
Sharks have had injuries to be sure, but so have other teams and apart from Bismark have not really missed any key player that they haven’t had good cover for. Even on that front Cooper has come through nicely.
It’s a fact of rugby that all teams have had to deal with. Stormers have had the following players injured at some stage this year:
Etsebeth
Rhodes
Elstadt
Kolisi
Grant
Jantjies
Habanna
Burger
Liebenberg
Taute
Duvenhage
Bulls have had major injuries too but they have managed to keep it together better than the rest of us. They will be very hard to beat come knock out time.
Very disruptive but that’s the nature of the game. We had similar issues last year and it most definitely made a difference at the business end but regardless of the detail the history books will record a semi final loss against the Sharks, that’s all.
On the plus side for the Sharks it has allowed players like PSDT and Mtembu, Coope and Herbst to get some good game time. They will stand the “Saaahks” in good stead in the years to come.
I don’t see them losing against the Highlanders this weekend though. They are better than that.
11 @ Stormersboy:
I know other teams have had injuries bud, but lets be honest here, none have had the injuries the Sharks have had if anyone says their team have they are lying.
Your biggest loss was Eben and Liebenberg. Forget about Burger he was not even there last year. Jantjies was not great for your team think Gary was better when I saw him play against the Sharks.
You certainly do not miss Taute either. How long was Kolisi out for and Elstadt? We have been without Bissie, Alberts, Whitehead the WHOLE season. Deysel was out from the 3rd game until this last game on Saturday. We lost JPP for a few games and Mvovo. It is the players that have not even started this season that is hurting us bad. Your team have not been without some players from the start at all except Eben. Bissie, Alberts and Whitehead have not even started this year. Those are big big players for us. Have to say Cooper is looking mighty good from all the game time he has had. Was so damn foolish of Plum not to start him last week.
Anyhow no other team can compare to the injuries that the Sharks have faced. Be honest about that.
We been without our best fullback (Ludik) from the Rebels game. At one stage we lost all our first choice back three. Viljoen is okay but he is no Ludik. So wish that youngster from the Lions never picked up a injury. Rate Coetzee highly.
@ Puma:
It’s a moot argument really. There’s a reason we have a squad system. You guys have had more injured but not by much. You have been able to call on Lions players to compensate, so your team continuity has been affected for sure, but not to the extent that you have had to play your 3rd choice flyhalf for example. 😉 Besides Minnie is a much better player than many first choice Sharks loosies, if not many first choice loosies anywhere. We would have been happy to have him. Some of our injuries have been of a shorter duration, it’s true, but still, my point is that every team has that challenge.
2 years ago we were down to our 6th choice flyhalf. That’s the way it goes.
Seems like the Cheetahs, Southern Kings and Bulls have managed their conditioning and injured players quite a bit better than both The Sharks and Stormers this season.
I’m particularly impressed with how the Cheetahs have done it!
14 @ Stormersboy:
Well if you think our injuries are nothing then I think you only think that. How can not having Bissie, Alberts and Whitehead for the whole season not count? Big players those to lose and it had shown for a long time.
Then we lose Deysel, JPP, Ludik, Mvovo. We were also without Keegan for a long time. So much so that he is not truly playing well just yet. Then our coach went and dropped Kanko have no damn idea why either. Though Tera played well last week of the bit I saw. Have always rated Tera though, so hope he can have another big game this weekend. Though I feel we should have had Bresler start and Franco on the bench again. Deysel should have started as well as Minnie. That is my feeling for this game, think we might have got the plot wrong here. Sharks could face losing to the Landers. HOPE NOT.
We have also lost our first choice scrummie I see. Just too many injuries each weeek makes for too much disruption to a team. The team that will win this tourney will be the team with the least injuries. Brumbies or Reds will win it or Bulls. Told everyone Bulls will be topping our conference even if they lost a few on the road. Their home games are all easy from here expect against my Sharks as we should have most of our 1st choice players back by then. Hoping.
The Bulls have roughly had the following injuries already this year:
Props: Marcel van der Merwe (very long term), Frik Kirsten, Dean Greyling (long term)
Locks: Flip van der Merwe, Grant Hattingh (long term), Wilhelm Steenkamp, Fudge Mabeta (very long term), Paul Willemse (long term)
Loosies: Dewald Potgieter, Deon Stegmann, Jacques Potgieter
Scrumhalves: Francois Hougaard (quite a number of weeks)
Centres: Wynand Olivier (quite some time), Francois Venter (long term), Jan Serfontein
Wings: Bjorn Basson (quite some time), Akona Ndungane
Fullbacks: Zane Kirchner (long term), Jurgen Visser
That’s 19 players… 10 of which are / were Longer term injuries…
Yet somehow they have managed it better, to appear as if there was always a 1st choice starter, starting the game…. picking combinations better…
That’s how the cookie crumbles.. and every Super Rugby side has to deal with it in their squad. I don’t think the Sharks can use injuries as an excuse, at the beginning of the season they clearly looked like the Super Rugby side of all 15 sides with the most depth. They really can’t use the fact that certain players were clearly out of form (Frans Steyn, Paul Jordaan, Jannie du Plessis, Keegan Daniel… to name a few) as an excuse for their inability to score tries and for playing so one-dimentional.
Why are / were these players so badly off form and why are they so badly conditioned in the 1st place?
@ Puma:
It’s not that you haven’t had injuries or that they haven’t been disruptive. The point that I am making is that each team has had and will continue to have to cope with injuries. GBS in post 17 has given a list of Bulls players who have been injured. It’s an even longer list than anyone else and they have managed their performance better within that context.
There will always be a debate about how seriously one injury has effected a team vs another, Bissie vs Eben or Alberts vs Burger (and yes we definitely missed him especially at the beginning of the year when we got going so slowly) or Goosen vs Jantjies vs Hougaard. It’s just a matter of opinion at the end of the day. We have had to play our 3rd choice flyhalf, one of the most influential positions in the game, if not the most, but we have to cope.
For me the team hit hardest but injuries is actually the Cheetahs. They have only had one critical injury in Johan Goosen but imagine if he was fit. They could be challenging for the overall lead. They may still do so.
18 @ Stormersboy:
Quickly off the cuff, the Stormers have had the following injuries:
Props: Pat Cilliers, Brok Harris
Hookers: Tiaan Liebenberg (long term), Scarra Ntubeni, Deon Fourie
Locks: Eben Etzebeth (long term), Andries Bekker
Loosies, Schalk Burger (extreme long term), Siya Kolisi, Rynhardt Elstadt, Michael Rhodes, Nizaam Carr
Scrumhalves: Dewaldt Duvenage, Louis Schreuder
Flyhalves: Peter Grant (long term), Elton Jantjies
Centres: Juan de Jongh, Marcel Brache
Wings: Gio Aplon, Bryan Habana, Gerhard van den Heever (long term)
Fullbacks: Jaco Taute (long term)
I quickly count 21 players….
Hang about chaps. I injuries ard a part of rugby. The Sharks were well aware that Bismark would be out for most of the season and that Birden and Cooper can’t throw in.Beast and Jsnnie have overplayed. Alberts is always injured, Deysel is normally injured.Kankowski has just been buggered around nd dropped. Steyn is lank fat. Lamby is not playing his natural game. Ndungane is piss slow.The team looks unhappy and poorly coached. I think that you might find that sn unhappy team is more to blame than injuries.
18 @ Stormersboy:
Look I know all teams have had injuries. But to 1st choice players when you lose just about all your first choice players then there sure is a problem.
Imagine if you had lost Eben, Bekker and Jean this season and none of them had even started yet. Then you lose Habs, Joe, Aplon and Vermeulen for a large part as well. I doubt very much your team would even be sitting where they are. To lose players for long, long periods does not work. You see those are the players that you CAN never do without. Some can be replaced others not. It is when losing 1st choice players for 8 or 10 games it cripples the team no matter how much depth you have those players will always be better if they started. We have also lost Beast and now playing our TH at LH not always great that, though Herbst was great last week there I read. Still not ideal as you need that cover on the bench.
You can all go on and no about how many players you all lost, but none have lost players as LONG as the Sharks have. Eben has been out for the Stormers for a long time, the only playe to be out for that long. Our injuries have been season ending. Doubt we will see: Ludik, Whitehead, Jordaan back this season. Who knows if Bissie will be back either. He has been out the whole season so has Alberts. For now we have done well without those players. Well considering we are still in with a shout.
If we had those players for every game so far I KNOW don’t just think it, we would not be sitting in the position we in.
I doubt we will even win this game on Saturday. Plum has not chosen well I think. I could be very wrong and hope I am.
Also we have so many injuries and he drops Kanko. Good grief the mind boggles really. Lucky Tera is a top class player, but you don’t drop a good player when you have so many out injured.
22 @ Puma:
In your case, it’s “We’re black, we’re white, our Supporters are putting up a good fight”…. hehehehe
Hopefully it does not become “We’re black, we’re white, we’ve exploded, like dynamite!” for The Sharks
The thing I’m more critical about of The Sharks in their injury ravished year, is the pattern they are playing, their inability to score tries.. and that largely being as a result of OFF FORM PLAYERS, rather than the replacement players who have had to step into the shoes of the injured players.
At Prop, you’ve had good starters and replacement players all season.
Kyle Cooper has been a revelation at hooker (I rate him 2nd best in the whole of SA at present).
At lock you’ve got Pieter-Steph du Toit who will most probably make the Springbok side in 2013 and Bresler is solid, Franco van der Merwe has tried his heart out.
You’ve got great looseforward depth… have had whole season… but the looseforward team selections have been baffling.
At scrumhalf you had Cobus Reinach up and until last weekend and Charl McLeod was your No 1 choice last year – also available the whole time.
Pat Lambie has been there all season af flyhalf.
At centre is where the problem blows out of proportion, The Sharks have a real problem there – Frans Steyn is out of form, Meyer Bosman can’t tackle, Paul Jordaan just did not produce what we all expected him to do this year, Whitehead is injured.
At wing The Sharks have really missed JP Pietersen and The Sharks were forced to bring in this untried and untested Sean Robinson fella, who has not shaped at all.
At fullback The Sharks are missing Louis Ludik big time, but hell Riaan Viljoen is supposed to be good enough cover.
See, what I’m trying to convey is that your STARTING SIDE for all these past weeks should have been within a player or 2 players from a great Super Rugby side… but it’s their selections, playing style and defence which has let them down, as well as the off form players! It’s as if there’s been no penetrating ability in the Sharks backline.
Flip, the Lions aren’t even in the competition and their players are busy getting injured playing for OTHER teams.
Puma, if I expand on your argument, then the Lions shouldn’t have been kicked out, because they had a horrific list of injured players last year which caused them to come last and be replaced by the Kings……And we didn’t have the luxury of loaning a kakhuis full of players to replace injured AND OUT OF FORM (Kankowski?) players.
See, it’s a BS argument.
@ grootblousmile:
Couldn’t agree with you more.
Ironically my Sharks performance of the season was last week when they came rampaging back after being up against the ropes after 17 minutes, 24 – 0 down.
The best performances in that match were from players like Cooper, Mtembu, Frans Steyn and Minnie. Not always first choice players.
Given the form of Alberts before he got injured and the performances of players like Deysel and the guys mentioned above I doubt they’ve missed him at all personally.
The Sharks have still managed to “win ugly” much like the Stormers of past seasons so they are still strong challengers for conference honors imo.
If they want desperately to win the title of team most disadvantaged by injury then it’s a title I will happily concede to them.
Thing is, the season is still far from over.
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