There is a lot of rather sad irony surrounding the criticism being heaped on the Cell C Sharks and their coach following their narrow defeat to the Bulls in the Loftus Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarterfinal, for in many ways it was their best game of the season.
More than that, it was a game that proved what would be possible for Sean Everitt’s team when a) their Springboks decide to play with some energy and b) when they have a flyhalf who is prepared to attack the gainline.
With reference to the first point, money can buy you a top team on paper, it doesn’t automatically buy you culture and style. What the Bulls and to an extent the Stormers might be getting right with their recruitment is that they aren’t targeting players who might see themselves as Springboks first and franchise men second.
On Saturday the Sharks’ Boks heeded the call for them to step up and deliver their best rugby, and their was no questioning the commitment and character of a team that fought back at one stage from a 14 point deficit on the highveld to nearly win the game.
With reference to that latter point, it might be related to the first. In the sense that the flyhalf played a game that helped those around him. And it did not require a change in flyhalf. It was the same man, Curwin Bosch, wearing the No 10 that has been doing so since late February. It was just in this game Bosch did for the entire game what he’s only done in patches before. He attacked well throughout the 80 minutes, and apart from a forward pass, it is hard to recall him making a mistake.
SYNCHRONISED ON ATTACK
The net result of Bosch being in better attacking mode and hitting the gainline with the frequency you’d expect from a modern flyhalf was that for the first time in a long time the Sharks looked properly synchronised on attack. It’s not complicated really - when inside centre Marius Louw and the other backs have a flyhalf playing nearer the gainline, they have ball to run onto. It brings them into the game and turns them into threats.
Perhaps it was Bosch’s play that suddenly saw Makazole Mapimpi return to the kind of form that made him a World Cup winning Springbok. And Lukhanyo Am, after understandably requiring a bit of time to readjust to URC rugby after his sojourn in Japan in his first game back against Ulster, was back to his sublime best too.
There were stages of the Loftus game where the Sharks played the kind of rugby that their fans have been hoping to see them play all season. The try that Sikhumbuzo Notshe rounded off to bring the scores level with a few minutes to go would surely figure in the count-out for URC try of the season. It was that good. The offloading was that brilliant.
EVERITT’S KIND OF RUGBY
It was the kind of rugby that those who know the Sharks coach Everitt know he loves to coach. We all know that Bosch is up and down, and all those hoary old cliches about one swallow not making a summer etc do come into play, but the much maligned No 10 did show in this game what can be gained for the Sharks by having a flyhalf buy into what is needed.
So if everything was so good for the Sharks, and it was them that provided the off-loading genius and X-factor in this game, why did they lose? Well, there were a few refereeing errors, such as forgetting that he was on a two penalty advantage to the Sharks when the intercept that led to the first Bulls try came about, and the one a little later where he unfairly penalised Mapimpi, that cost the Sharks 10 points.
The Sharks were always underdogs going into the game and let’s not forget it was a knock-out game played at Loftus, in other words at altitude where the Bulls cook. The Sharks did magnificently to come back from 27-13 down to level the scores, but when you fight back like that it does require extra energy. On the highveld, that can be costly, and it told on the Sharks in those final minutes as the Bulls built up to set the Chris Smith drop-goal opportunity that won it for them.
FOCUS ON RECRUITMENT
It was a game of fine margins, and the Sharks lost by three points in a game they would have won had a bit of luck gone their way. If there was a time to be aiming brickbats at the Sharks and their coach, it was earlier in the season, when it was clear the forwards and backs weren’t synchronising effectively on attack, when there appeared to be too little ball in hand ambition given the X-factor talent they have out wide.
And if there was criticism due it ought not to have been directed at Everitt, who unlike some of the other South African URC coaches does not appear to have much control over recruitment, but at those who have been running the recruitment at the Durban franchise.
The direction the Sharks were heading in when Everitt was first in charge during the truncated 2020 Super Rugby season, when he told us he would never go into any game without a specialist openside ball scavenger like James Venter or Dylan Richardson, was very different from the direction they took during league play in the URC.
There is a science to recruiting and while the Sharks have made some good acquisitions just recently, there has been a long history for them of buys that don’t necessarily fit their playing style and what they should be looking for in various positions. An example being Tito Bonilla as a back-up flyhalf. He has the same weaknesses that Bosch had before his latest run of confidence and form.
LOTS OF IRONY IN LOFTUS DEFEAT
Although they have outstanding and decorated backs, the Sharks were forced to become a more forward orientated team during the course of the season due to the playing style of the flyhalf and also because they’d recruited some big name forwards.
Ironically, if there was one thing the Sharks may have got wrong at Loftus was their under-use of a driving maul that was clearly dominant. Just a bit more of the forward based approach in the first half might have seen them lead at halftime and win the match.
But an even greater irony is that, although they lost the game, the Sharks showed in Pretoria what they are capable of. The heated reaction to their exit is misplaced because it comes at the wrong time. It comes at the very time that the Sharks have shown their potential. They do need a flyhalf who will consistently do what Bosch did on Saturday, but that is up to the recruitment people to get right.