The tries they have scored in the dying minutes of their most recent games are an encouraging sign for the Cell C Sharks but they are not going to challenge for Vodacom United Rugby Championship silverware if they don’t sort out their flyhalf problem.
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Late tries when the bonus point is on the line and your determination carries you over are like wins that are achieved when you play badly, or victories scored off the last move of the game.
They show you have character and temperament. The Sharks have done it in two games in a row now - against Benetton they scored the bonus point try off the last move but one, and against the Scarlets they did it seven minutes after the hooter had sounded.
As Sharks coach Sean Everitt pointed out after the 37-20 win over the Welsh team at Hollywoodbets Kings Park, his team scored two tries in the last eight minutes and it took both hunger and character to get those scores. Those are recognised champion qualities.
But if you asked whether the Sharks would have needed to go to the wire in getting their fourth try in either game if they had a more direct flyhalf playing for them, you’d be asking a relevant question.
Curwin Bosch has started in both and it is hard to imagine the players playing alongside him can be happy with the way his playing style impacts on their own ability to be an attacking threat.
IT'S NOT JUST BOSCH
Although the Sharks won against the Scarlets, there was still the dysfunction between forwards and backs that we’ve seen all through this year's portion of the URC from the Durbanites.
Which introduces another point - it clearly isn’t just Bosch then that is the problem. The Sharks weren’t much better when Tito Bonilla started in the No 10 jersey against the Stormers in Cape Town.
And Bonilla wasn’t good as a replacement against the Scarlets either. We maybe haven’t seen enough of him for he tends to play mostly off the bench, but from what we have seen he does have the same weaknesses that Bosch does. He’s also 32, so he’s not going to develop either.
Boeta Chamberlain wore the No 10 for the Sharks during the overseas tour that started their URC campaign and was the hero of their first ever win in the competition against the Ospreys when he booted three drop-goals.
But he wasn’t accurate off the tee either then or when the Sharks returned to play their sequence of derby matches. Before this last week’s games boasted just a 64 per cent success rate.
It didn’t require then rugby’s equivalent of rocket science to figure out why he was jettisoned. It shouldn’t require a penchant for being a soothsayer either to suggest that after his eight successful kicks in eight attempts playing for the Sharks’ Carling Currie Cup team against the Pumas last week, Chamberlain could well be back in the match day squad against the Zebre on Saturday.
Quite possibly as the starting No 10 too, as it is surely getting harder for the coach to justify the retention of Bosch, who he himself described afterwards as "inconsistent" and who produced his more assured rugby after Aphelele Fassi went off against the Scarlets and he ended up filling in at fullback.
Of course, there may be a thought that as next up are Zebre, who with all due respect to their passion tend to provide an opportunity for opposing players to boost their confidence, they should give Bosch another go. Maybe he will dominate and then suddenly everything will fall into place for him.
But a question asked by former Springbok prop Robbi Kempson, in his role as one of the SuperSport studio experts during the Scarlets game, is worth repeating: When are the Sharks going to realise they’ve given Bosch enough opportunities and that maybe that glory run they are hoping he will one day have just isn’t going to come?
Those weren’t exactly Kempson’s words, but they were words to that effect, and could easily be paraphrased as “When are the Sharks going to see the wood from the trees?”
PRESSURE SHOULD BE ON WHOEVER IS DOING THE RECRUITING
Another question asked by the SuperSport studio presenters on Friday revolved around whether it was a coaching issue or a personnel issue.
The answer was that it is probably both, which it is if a) the same player keeps getting selected and b) that player makes no signs of improving, or c) a structure isn’t created that makes the flyhalf an effective fit.
Friday wasn’t the first time flyhalf came under the microscope from the in-studio panel, it was very much a focus after the Treviso game a fortnight earlier too.
But maybe it goes beyond that and way beyond the coach, for what is starting to become clearer than mud is that there is a recruitment issue.
If you look at the leading Sharks flyhalves, but particularly Bosch and Bonilla, you do wonder if there was much attention paid in the recruitment process to the style of play the Sharks should be playing given how star studded their outside back division is.
Bosch maybe doesn’t count as he was recruited straight from school and it goes without saying he would be considered young enough then to be developed, but certainly with Bonilla you wonder how much due diligence went into that decision.
Against Zebre it probably won’t matter so much who is at flyhalf, but later in the URC it will. The Sharks need to get it right soon.