The disappointment that Cell C Sharks coach Sean Everitt spoke about after his team’s loss to Ulster in their last Vodacom United Rugby Championship league match in Belfast should have dissipated considerably the following day.
Had Munster managed to get a bonus point in their loss to Leinster at Aviva Stadium, the Sharks would have been heading back to Belfast for their quarterfinal. Instead, they are going to Loftus to play the Vodacom Bulls. Looking at it purely from the travel perspective, a trip to Gauteng, an hour by air from Durban, is far preferable to another trip to Ireland, where the Sharks were well beaten despite the flattering close scoreline.
But while Everitt saw some encouraging signs, particularly from his team’s second half performance, he would be kidding himself if he didn’t acknowledge that a mighty improvement is going to be necessary if the Sharks are going to win in Pretoria.
Not only do the Bulls have momentum with them and are in good form at present, the chink they found in the Bulls’ fortress last time the Sharks visited is going to be difficult for them to storm through if they don’t iron out problems that were perhaps hidden behind the dominant scrumming performances that set up their home run of victories but re-emerged at the Kingspan Stadium.
Problems such as Curwin Bosch’s weaknesses on defence and tentativeness on attack, the lack of shape to the Sharks’ attacking game that they are constantly being criticised for. And perhaps also the form, or lack of it, of Springbok captain Siya Kolisi and a horribly laboured and inaccurate performance at the breakdowns.
QUESTION ABOUT BACK ROW BALANCE
It wasn’t difficult to agree with the Irish television commentators who expressed disappointment in Kolisi’s relative anonymity in the match. Neither is it easy to shake off the persistent feeling that by moving away from their old back-row balance, which featured a genuine openside ball scavenger in James Venter or Dylan Richardson, the Sharks haven’t helped themselves.
That mould of flanker, such as the Stormers are discovering now that they have gone for that mix with Deon Fourie and Nama Xaba, doesn’t just mean you turn over a few breakdowns or slow down the opposition ball. The player in that role is also tasked with speeding up their team’s own possession.
While Everitt said afterwards that some of the rugby his team played in the second half was the best ball in hand he had seen from them this season, for most of the way they were just getting the ball moving too slowly and everything looked too laboured.
Yes, the Sharks did score two late tries through the individual brilliance of Grant Williams in particular, but by then it was really too late and in fairness all it really did was put a false gloss on a performance that was well below par if the Sharks want to progress further in the competition.
“We were very disappointed with the loss and we had prepared really well for the game and I felt we showed a lot of energy,” said Everitt.
“But it was not a good start for us and defensively we were not sharp enough. We allowed Ulster to get over for two tries that they didn’t really have to work for. In saying that, we played some good rugby and got into good positions but unfortunately lost the breakdown battle there. In the second half I thought we were much better, we produced some of the best rugby we’ve played with ball in hand and credit must go to the bench players who made a huge impact.”
It was only a cameo, but one of those bench players was Boeta Chamberlain, who this time came on as a replacement flyhalf and not at fullback. Is it just a coincidence that the good rugby that Everitt alluded to came during that part of the game? Chamberlain kicked his goals, which was the reason he was dropped in the first place, so maybe it is time he was reconsidered for the starting position he filled in the first part of the competition.
BIG MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB REGARDLESS OF SELECTION
Regardless of what Everitt does with his selection, however, the Sharks might find that while they don’t have as far to travel, the Bulls at their home ground will be as big a mountain to climb as Ulster in Ravenhill would have been. Before the Sharks won there in February in a game where they were helped by an early red card to Bulls flyhalf Morne Steyn, the Durbanites hadn’t experienced success at Loftus in a franchise game for nearly a decade.
Even in the 29-22 win they scored on their last visit, there were long periods when the Bulls looked the better team and they probably would have won were it not for the 15 against 14 numerical disadvantage they suffered until Sharks scrumhalf was also red carded on the hour mark.
If the Sharks do win in Pretoria they should have Leinster next, and that Irish frontier is one that no South African has crossed. The bottom line then is that there is much work for the Sharks to do.