After going down 16-12 to the Sharks in the first Absa Currie Cup rugby semifinal in Durban on Saturday, Vodacom Blue Bulls’ coach Frans Ludeke admitted that his men were not accurate enough at the breakdowns against a side that took special care of retaining possession.

“They were accurate at the breakdown points and held onto the ball for long phases and that is how they really won the game,” he said.

“We did everything we could and we had a solid plan on the table, but at the end of the day it is the way they kept the ball and attacked from deep.

“It wasn’t a surprise for us, but their execution was very good.” The Bulls coach could not hide his disappointment, but gave credit to the Sharks for playing better rugby on the day.

He remained satisfied with his men’s achievements this year. “There are a lot of boxes we ticked during the season and there were three vital games that we needed to win in order to give ourselves a chance of playing in the playoffs and we won those. “The guys fought until the end and there are no regrets.”

Blue Bulls captain Victor Matfield said his men had enough opportunities to win the match. “We still had our chances and with 10 minutes to go we were camped in their 22, but their defence kept us out and well done to them.

“They really played well and played with a lot of intensity,” he said.

Considering that the Sharks had only a four points lead after dominating territory and possession in the first half, it comes as no surprise that Matfield is proud of the way his men defended.

“I think we defended extremely well in that first half with the little possession we got,” he said. “They really kept onto the ball. They looked after it and it was tough to get it from them. They didn’t make mistakes, so well done to them.”

a Dan Retief article on his own website said this

If it is possible to win a major match in the first seconds of a game the Sharks did it on Saturday with the manner in which they started against the Bulls.

And the man who made the crucial sting (okay that will be the last crack about the bizarre and uniquely African start, or lack of it) was Alistair Hargreaves, a young player about whom I’ve not been entirely convinced but who came of age in this big test against Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, Danie Rossouw and Flip van der Merwe.

Hargreaves chased hard after Patrick Lambie’s opening kick and leapt high to snatch the ball from the outstretched fingers of the formidable Bulls. Hargreaves won the ball for the Sharks and they went about setting the tone for an eventual victory that most pundits (myself included) predicted was unlikely.

From the moment of Hargreaves’ steal until Keegan Daniel scored the game’s opening try after 110 seconds of play the Sharks kept the ball, used the ball, before dotting it down.

As statements go it was powerful stuff and to the great credit of Stefan Terblanche and his men they never let up. The Sharks sent an immediate and strong message of intent to their opponents and for once a team kept it up and held on for long enough to withstand the hard and direct pounding the Bulls always hand out.

I thought the Sharks played superbly; providing an object lesson in textbook rugby and showing others how to deal with the Bulls.

Most impressive was the variation in the Sharks’ play. They were resolved to stand up to whatever physicality the Bulls brought to the set-pieces and the collisions but for me the real difference lay in the nuances.

The Sharks, for instance, made excellent work of avoiding lineouts, thus denying the Bulls one of their strengths, and I revelled in the way they carried the ball wide, the way they changed the angles, the constant presence of decoy runners, the way they ran at spaces rather than straight at the man, the way they dominated possession.

They kept the ball secure with precision handling, the ran onto the ball rather than having to stop to take it, they zealously and unremittingly supported the ball-carrier and their tackling was deadly – particularly the way they went in hard at the ankles of the oversized Bulls to knock them down rather than allow them to hold it up and set in motion the grinding mauls they love so well.

The players executed the game plan to perfection but in the end it was a victory for expert coaching. After the bumbling, apathetic performance in their last league match against Western Province the Sharks were a team transformed, in personnel and performance, so take a bow John Plumtree.

Yep, it’s possible to set a winning attitude in the opening sequences but that might all come to nought if you can’t deal with the pressure of the closing moments.

Hargreaves stepped up at the start and Lambie provided the curtain call with his great mark, ignoring the pelting rain and the thundering Bulls, as he rose to claim the ball in front of his own posts. Winning and securing that ball put the Sharks in the final and, to my mind at least, Lambie straight into the Springbok touring side… thus ending one of the oldest quips when the boys of the great rugby schools rag each other for finally Michaelhouse will be able to “name their Springbok.”