Sharks coach faces tricky dilemma ahead of Bulls clash

With tries needed in addition to a big win, the Cell C Sharks are going to know the meaning of the word “go for broke” in the build-up to Saturday’s final Rainbow Cup SA clash with the Vodacom Bulls in Durban.

By scoring four tries in their impressive 33-21 win over the Emirates Lions in Johannesburg at the weekend, the Sharks gave themselves an outside chance of still qualifying for their stated aim of the Rainbow Cup grand final in Treviso, Italy on 19 June. But it is a significant challenge - the Bulls picked up a bonus point in their narrow win over the DHL Stormers the night before so they remain four points ahead of the Sharks.

Their superior points differential means if the teams finish level on log points, it will be the Bulls who go to the final. So the equation is as uncomplicated as it is challenging - they need to score four tries or more against the Bulls and deny them a bonus point. In other words score four tries, win by more than seven points, while ensuring that the Bulls don’t also cross for four tries.

To do that the Sharks are going to have to produce their best attacking game, which they arguably did in this competition last week in Johannesburg, where significantly they had a much changed team from the one that is considered their full-strength combination.

And that is where there is a tricky dilemma for coach Sean Everitt as he considers his selection options - there were areas in the Emirates Airline Park game where the Sharks looked better off than they have when at full-strength. Like for instance flyhalf, where Manie Libbok and Boeta Chamberlain both appeared to give the Sharks more attacking potency by taking the ball to the line.

National director of rugby Rassie Erasmus mentioned the Sharks first choice Curwin Bosch as one of the unlucky players who missed out on the squad selected to play the series against the British and Irish Lions. But was he really so unlucky and is he really the next best flyhalf in the country?

STRANSKY WAS PROVED CORRECT

There’d be many who’d agree with the view expressed by the 1995 World Cup-winning Springbok flyhalf Joel Stransky in his role as SuperSport commentator before this past weekend’s game - Bosch has not been playing well for a while now. Stransky said he thought the Sharks would get the four-try bonus point against the Lions and he based it on the presence of Libbok at the starting flyhalf.

He was proved correct. Whereas Bosch has worked on it and is doing it less than he was in last year’s Super Rugby Unlocked and Currie Cup competitions, he still has his habit of stepping back before launching his kicks, thus taking any attacking option out of the game in those plays. Libbok and Chamberlain both attack the gainline far more and that brings the players around them into the game as attacking threats.

Indeed, it may not be a coincidence that perhaps the best attacking rugby the Sharks have played since they did well in the initial stages of last year’s Super Rugby, meaning the initial competition before the arrival of the pandemic, was during the preparation series held a month or so before the start of the Rainbow Cup.

Everitt kept Bosch sidelined for most of that series of games and in his absence the other players, including Libbok, Chamberlain and Jordan Chait, all took turns in showing what could be achieved with a different dynamic introduced at No 10.

BULLS DEFENCE HARD TO BREAK DOWN

The Sharks will need to be at their attacking best, and beyond that, if they are to achieve their objective against the Bulls. Although the Pretoria team conceded four tries to the Stormers in the penultimate round, that is a rarity for Jake White’s men. Generally their defence is hellishly difficult to break down, and one of the ironies of the Loftus north-south showdown was the reversal in what we saw at Cape Town Stadium in the first round game between those teams.

In last month’s game the Stormers dominated possession and were denied only by brilliant defence from the Bulls. In the game a few nights ago, it was the Bulls who dominated possession to an almost ridiculous extent but, until they became more direct and used their forwards more, there was no way through for them against a very determined Stormers defensive system.

Ironically, the Bulls may partly have the same potential problem the Sharks have with Bosch. Although the experienced Morne Steyn is playing excellent rugby at the moment and deserves his place in the Bok squad, he too is not exactly an ever-present threat to opposing teams at the gainline.

Something else Everitt needs to think about ahead of Saturday’s game is the fact that if his team do win and achieve their objectives against the Bulls, they will have to take a similar understrength team to the one that beat the Lions to Treviso for the final. If they are to have a chance of winning the decider, the combinations that will front that challenge should play together again this week.

Everitt is a great believer in continuity in selection so he will know that.

The Sharks team will be announced on Thursday.