The Cell C Sharks face a similar challenge to what Jean de Villiers’ Springboks faced in the final game of their 2013 Rugby Championship campaign when they take on the Vodacom Bulls on Saturday, and they’d be wise to heed what happened in that match at Emirates Airlines Park.
The Sharks need to win with a bonus point, while denying the Bulls a bonus point, at Jonsson King’s Park if they are to qualify for the Rainbow Cup final against one of Benetton or Munster (Glasgow Warriors have just an outside chance) in Treviso the following week. And that’s precisely what the Boks needed to do in the Championship deciding game against New Zealand in Johannesburg nearly eight years ago.
It was a thrilling game as both teams threw the kitchen sink at running the ball at their opponents, and De Villiers later described it as one of the best games he ever played in. It was a relatively high scoring game which the visitors won. De Villiers confessed a few years later, however, in a book interview that he strongly suspected the Boks might have been better off had they just chased the win, which would have been an important morale booster for South African rugby even if it wouldn’t have been enough to clinch the Championship trophy.
The Boks might well have won that day had they been a tad more conservative, played to their strengths and given less attention to the need to score tries. There wasn’t that much separating the Boks back then from the All Blacks - they were a bit unlucky in the game played on New Zealand soil as that was the game where Bismarck du Plessis was red carded - and the game was being played at Ellis Park after all.
The Boks had to wait another year to finally win against New Zealand under the coaching of Heyneke Meyer. Their progress towards the 2015 World Cup might have been made easier for them had they just got the win in Johannesburg a year earlier.
BULLS WILL PUNISH HELTER-SKELTER APPROACH
The Sharks aren’t building towards a World Cup, and they’ve prioritised the importance of winning a trophy. Anything less than four tries will not be good enough to secure them a passage to Italy. At the same time though, a too helter-skelter approach to the Bulls game at the weekend might work against the Sharks in the same way as it worked against the Boks in 2013, and their skipper Lukhanyo Am appears to know it.
“This is a big game and there is a lot at stake and we are preparing as well as we can to get the win but there has to be a balance to what we are doing,” said Am during a break in training at the start of the build-up to the Rainbow Cup SA decider.
“There will be times for the flash, running rugby but we also need to be smart and play in right areas of the field. The Bulls are very disciplined in their play, and they punish you if you are reckless so we have to be smart as well.”
Exactly. The way the Bulls are set up now, you do have to be smart against them or you are lost. They will punish recklessness as surely as the humidity arrives in Durban in summer.
SKIPPER BACKS TEAM'S DEPTH
As it turns out, Am isn’t himself playing for a place in the final. Due to the Springbok camp that is being held in Bloemfontein to prepare for the important series against the British and Irish Lions, no national players will be eligible for the final. It means the Sharks, if they do beat the Bulls and get their bonus point, will go to the decider with as many as nine changes to the team that is likely to start the final league game.
Am though, having watched a close to second string team win against the Emirates Lions in Johannesburg last time out, is confident the Durban franchise has the depth to achieve both objectives - win against the Bulls with a first choice side and then do the same the following week without he and his fellow Boks.
“That win against the Lions proved the depth we have in our squad, the energy the guys bring when they are backed by the coach,” said Am.
“They did an amazing job to win away from home to give us a chance of making the finals. Those of us coming back into the team will certainly do our best to continue the good work of the win against the Lions, and if we do make the final, we back the other guys to take us all the way.”
The Sharks team for the Bulls match will be announced on Thursday and is expected to include all the Boks who sat out the Johannesburg game. What they probably won’t have is their first choice tighthead prop Thomas du Toit, who played against the Lions and is due to rest according to the Bok protocols.