Sharks (12) 18 / 34 (24) Highlanders (Final Score)
The Cell C Sharks and Highlanders did battle in Super Rugby at
Growthpoint Kings Park, Durban at 19:10 SA Time (17:10 GMT, 05:10 Saturday NZ Time).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
*******************
Scorers:
Sharks:
- Penalties – Tim Swiel (6)
- Drop Goals – 0
- Tries – 0
- Conversions – 0
Highlanders:
- Penalties – Lima Sapoaga (2)
- Drop Goals – 0
- Tries – Richard Buckman (1), Aaron Smith (1), Shane Christie (1), Malakai Fekitoa (1)
- Conversions – Lima Sapoaga (4)
Teams:
Cell C Sharks |
Highlanders |
| 25 April at 19:10 | |
|
|
Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Assistant Referees: Stuart Berry, Quinton Immelman (South Africa)
TMO: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)
Percy lost his 100th too, didn’t he? But I think maybe Matfield won his?
My rating of the performance of Lion players who went to the Stormers/WP:
Taute- poor ( but he has been unlucky with injuries so it’s too early to know for certain)
Jac Fourie- brilliant
Elton Jantjes- poor to average
Ricky January- good
Schalk Britz- good
Pat Cilliers- Solid
Michael Rhodes- solid to good.
Anton van Zyl- good
Ruan Botha- only started, too early to tell.
Joe van Niekerk- very erratic.
All in all it is not too bad imo. Jantjes and perhaps Joe v N were the only real failures
@ kaksioek:
Yip, Boks won for Matfield. Lost 19-0 for Percy. Eish.
kaksioek wrote:
Yep, Percy was at Newlands also against the AB’s
At least Vic’s was at Loftus and against the Aussies
@Robzim
So many just from the Lions?
Maybe I must stop referring to the Sharks as poachers
@ robzim:
(When he isn’t too busy avoiding taxis) the man in the street remembers only the failures 😎
nortierd wrote:
At least we can say January, Brits and Anton van Zyl came back home. It does not look very good though, hope Skoppie don’t read it.
robzim wrote:
Skoppie will only read as far as Elton Jantjies and go into a frenzy
Wow, not long seen this score. Quite a surprise! Highlanders must have been quite impressive getting the try bonus point against what has been the best defence so far. And was this their first game of the tour? Maybe puts Bulls result against them in perspective.
@ Bullscot:
Not on tour yet – in Durban.
I watched the recording, here are my few observations:
Peyper: I better say nothing, a real disgrace for all decent S Africans, a reason for feeling shame
Game plans: the Sharks had None,the Laders followed the same tactics as the rest of the Kiwis with emphasis on the Sharks’ back three
Future: expect the Sharks to go 1:3 from their tour!
Any hope? none whatsoever:(
It well might bring an end to JW’s flirting with the quota lords, he first and foremost always cares about JW, he can’t afford another 4-5 losses so what options if any are still available?
Great Scott, the Sharks took a hiding!!! 🙄
oh no, didnt see this game, but looks like SA’s elite side took an absolute beating.
BOOM!
NZ teams proving yet again that the travel disadvantage excuse is such a fallacy.
SA holds no concerns for NZ teams anymore, where once it was such a hard place to win, they now do so with regular monotony that it is no longer an issue.
NZ conference is still the toughest, the only saving grace for SA fans is that Super rugby is not indicative of test match rugby.
Still, I dont think Herr Meyer will be pleased with the current situation.
I saw this result coming last week already. Poor rugby from all SA sides this season.
Regarding the Springboks, not sure what to expect this year.
Congrats Highlanders and Nortie on the win last night 😆
Snoek wrote:
Thank you Snoek, but I wasn’t so clever to pick the Highlanders, so your loss is my loss. Possibility of a GSP sunk by your Guppies, aai.
Didn’t see this one coming at all
@Nga 405
That is very true, but the Highlanders?
I can imagine the Crusaders and Chiefs, but not the Landers.
Didn’t they even lose against the Kings in SA last year?
For shame Sharks, for shame
@ nortierd:
Hello Nortier, ek sien julle was nog laat aan die gang gisteraand met Kakkers, Gummie en daai lot.
Nee o hel, ons rugby is droewig nou, sal interessant wees om te sien hoe HM die spul bymekaarmaak in Junie. Nie veel nuwe ouens wat hand opsteek nie…
nga puhi wrote:
Spot on, afraid us Saffas must agree with you there, our rugby not on a par with the Kiwis at the moment, or even worse, not with the Oz mob either.
@Pietman
Ja, lekker tjol gepraat met Kaki.
Ek dink HM sal die regte ouens bymekaar maak, en gemeng met die oorsee se spelers hopelik weer kompeterend wees.
Ek het genoem verlede week dat van die Shark staatmakers moeg lyk en dat hulle probleme gaan he as Jake hulle nie rus nie, maar ek het gedink dit sal eers begin na die Junie toetse, nie verwag dat hulle so sou lyk tuis nie
al wat ons nou kan hoop is dat ons maar ons verlieste afsny en hoop 4/5 spanne kom nie in die top 6 nie, dit sal seker die beste wees vir die bokke wat n langer tyd gaan he om voor te berei.
self die sharks (wat nog net 1 tuis game oor het) het net 1 punt meer as the brumbies (wat nog 3 home games oor het) se seisoen staar op n afdraende pad.
Does not look good.
ai afdraende pad :/… hulle staan bo n kloof
Seems Rob has been reading our comments….especially about the senior players’ poor showing last night.
Seniors let Sharks down badly
2014-04-26 08:04
Sharks stunned by Highlanders
Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – If the Sharks were a car awaiting a verdict from a panel beater after a crash, the report coming back might read: “badly damaged”.
That is certainly the status right now of their quest to win the elusive Super Rugby title for the first time in 2014.
It has taken a painful knock, that’s for sure.
Their much-needed cushion at the top of the overall table has all but evaporated following the shock, heavy reverse to a pumped-up and delightfully resourceful Highlanders outfit at Kings Park on Friday.
It was unexpected – the 0-4 outcome in the try column a particularly damning statement against the supposed title hunters – and the last result they needed given that the always formidable four-match obligation abroad is about to begin, against the Rebels in Melbourne next weekend.
Before this horrible turn-up for the books, the suggestion by several experts was that two wins in Australasia might be a realistic target for the Sharks, especially bearing in mind that South African teams had not yet registered a miserly one between them at the time of writing.
Now, if the Sharks are to still harbour realistic aspirations of hosting the final, might they have to revise that possible target to a much more demanding three?
Just as pertinently, the second tour fixture against the Brumbies in Canberra now looks a particularly red-letter occasion, as it might play a massive role in determining which of the sides – though there are several others still fancying it too – could stage the showpiece this year.
Following their zero-log-points blowout to the Highlanders, the Sharks hold a fragile one-point lead over the Brumbies, who experienced an altogether more “Fab Friday” by thrashing defending champions the Chiefs.
But a handful of teams, very mindful of how tough it is for South African sides to prosper in their extended visit to Antipodean climes, will be licking their lips about the possibility that the Sharks go into some of mini-freefall overseas.
Sadly that is not out of the question, considering the glaring clumsiness and staleness of successive matches against the Cheetahs (though the Sharks at least won that snore-fest) and more recently the enterprising pillagers from Dunedin.
It does need to be acknowledged that Jake White’s charges were disrupted on match-day by the withdrawals of two gnarly forwards in captain Bismarck du Plessis and Jean Deysel: just the sort of characters who might have provided the sustained, hallmark physicality that instead went rather AWOL against the Highlanders.
In their absence, however, it was going to be critical that remaining senior troopers and established Springbok favourites like JP Pietersen, Willem Alberts and Frans Steyn lift their personal games by way of compensation.
It didn’t happen … I felt, frankly, that all of that decorated trio were uncharacteristically dreadful, and the virus simply spread to the more callow players on show for the Sharks on a night that just got more and more ragged and chaotic for them.
Pietersen shuffled around mostly innocuously, and when the powerful flier got into promising positions for an assault on the try-line, his handling (a widespread affliction in the SA conference of late) let him down at a couple of crucial times.
Steyn was really no better — although in the hefty utility player’s defence you might argue that he was due an off-colour showing after several compelling ones in a row and the suggestion that he is carrying some niggles.
It defies logic that with three or four minutes remaining, and the Sharks 16 points adrift, he was as guilty as anyone of aimlessly, gormlessly hoofing the ball back to the frisky Highlanders back three when the situation absolutely cried out for ball retention and at least some attempt at daring creativity.
Alberts, for his part, may have been a little unsettled by his sudden return to blindside flank in a hastily reshuffled Sharks pack – he has had a few games at No 4 lock – but the former is his preferred position by a distance, so that was no special excuse for an ineffectual, fitful display by the revered Bone Collector who instead got “skinned” on a few occasions by less meaty souls than himself.
It is difficult to believe that White will not have read the riot act to a good extent … perhaps in the immediate post-game dressing room, or maybe he will wait until the squad have touched down on Australian soil after the automatic punishment, anyway, of their arduous flight across the Indian Ocean.
As usual, forthright SuperSport critic and former Bok coach Nick Mallett did not mince his own words, saying that the Sharks had fallen victim to the “general malaise of South African rugby” of not having a clue what to do when behind on the scoreboard and needing to treasure possession rather than squander it.
“(The Sharks) were very, very lethargic and riddled with errors – but we must try to be positive, take the view that we put this behind us, and hope it is the kick in the backside they need for their overseas tour.”
Whether they can muster desperately-needed energy and sparkle in time for their first assignment in a different time zone remains to be seen …
@Snoek
One thing that is for certain is that this website is one of the better ones for all supporters. I read through some comments last night on SA Rugbymag, News24 and even SharksWorld and jeez, if you guys think I’m bad, then it’s not even close.
Seems like the expectation by some was too high after the start they made, but to be honest, if I were a Shark supporter I would also have been confident at home against the Highlanders. I picked the Sharks by 10, and I thought I was being conservative.
Jake has his work cut out now, some tired bodies out there last night and once the forwards were nullified it was over. Your forwards have been winning you games through the season, at least after Lambie got injured. Since his departure the backline has stagnated and the tries scored by them have been more down to individual brilliance than a team effort.
Alberts wasn’t effective, Bissie was missed more than what is healthy, Cullen had a poor game and Kanko should have played, the reserve depth that most of us thought you are well set in, was shown up big time last night.
If these guys play on tour, then straight into the June tests, then straight back to SR, you are going to have problems when faced with teams that can stop your forwards.
Still a long way to go, so one loss doesn’t make it a train smash, but the fact that the loss was at home against a team that is seen as one of the weaker NZ sides does make warning bells ring
Good morning all,
I haven’t read any comments from late in the game onwards but I’m sure Krapsoek won’t be in today, I believe he looked like
after reading the Tjarks’ tour itinerary and has gone for counselling.
Puma, Snoek, Fern, Sharksfornever, HG….
Word wakker, word wakker, Sharks se dag raak al kakker!!!!
@MacroBull
The Sharks do have a game in hand over the Brumbies, but as you say, they must still play each other, and judging by the way they took the Chiefs apart and the way the Sharks have played the last few weeks, it is probably safe to assume that the Brumbies will win that one.
And when they June tests are over and the Shark Bokke are even more tired, who knows, maybe the well rested Stormers might even give them uphill battles in Durban?
Pietman wrote:
At least they can be glad that the Highlanders didn’t have Brad Thorne in their side. Imagine what damage a hard man might have caused?
Chiliboy in the SuperSport studio.
As Ben dit weet blok hy seker die pad uit tot Chili belowe hy sal die Bulls kom uithelp vir die res van die seisoen
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