The Lions secured their first-ever Vodacom Super Rugby victory over the Vodacom Bulls on Saturday, just before the DHL Stormers won their first away game of the season when they beat the Cell C Sharks in Durban.
On a weekend where the Vodacom Bulls had a superb opportunity to move into the top six, following defeats by the Highlanders, Hurricanes and Chiefs, the men from Pretoria lost for the first time to the spirited Lions at Ellis Park.
The home team deserve a lot of credit for the way in which they never gave up despite being on the back foot from time to time. The visitors let themselves down with bad execution, but that does not take anything away from the Lions’ 32-21 victory.
Shortly after the Lions’ stunning victory, the Cell C Sharks lost their second home game of the season but clung onto the top spot on the log when Jaco Taute slotted an injury-time drop-goal to see the DHL Stormers through by 21-19.
It was the first and only time during the match that the team from Cape Town took the lead for probably their best win of the season.
Vodacom Super Rugby resumes for the five South African franchises in the first weekend of July. All of them have completed 14 matches and have two left before the playoffs start. The Toyota Cheetahs had a bye this week.
Lions (9) 32 / 21 (6) Vodacom Bulls:
The Vodacom Bulls all but threw away their chances of reaching the Vodacom Super Rugby playoffs when they were beaten for the first time ever by a spirited Lions side, by 32-21, at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday afternoon.
The home team, back from a tough tour Down Under, didn’t look like they had just returned from a month on the road. On the contrary, the visitors from Pretoria looked flat for most of the match and if it wasn’t for two late tries by William Small-Smith and Jacques du Plessis, the scoreline would’ve been much worse.
Sharp-shooter Marnitz Boshoff contributed 22 of the Lions’ points, while their tries were scored by Alwyn Hollenbach and Warwick Tecklenburg.
The game was played at pace and it was a typically hard local derby, with not a lot of flashy stuff around at Ellis Park. Not that it mattered for the Lions, as they added the Vodacom Bulls’ scalp to their selection, like they did with the DHL Stormers earlier this season.
The Vodacom Bulls’ handling was nothing but shocking, especially when they got close or were strong on the attack. Their discipline also let them down big time.
And where the visitors’ pack was not at their best, the Lions forwards didn’t shy away, despite struggling at line-out time. They worked harder and kept Vodacom Bulls under pressure from the word go.
Scorers:
Lions:
- Tries: Alwyn Hollenbach (1), Warwick Tecklenburg (1)
- Conversions: Marnitz Boshoff (2)
- Penalty goals: Marnitz Boshoff (4)
- Drop-goals: Marnitz Boshoff (2)
Vodacom Bulls:
- Tries: William Small-Smith (1), Jacques du Plessis (1)
- Conversion: Jacques-Louis Potgieter (1)
- Penalty goals: Jacques-Louis Potgieter (3)
Cell C Sharks (16) 19 / 21 (9) DHL Stormers:
The DHL Stormers’ refusal to go down ultimately saw them record a superb win – their first away from home this season – when they beat the table-topping Cell C Sharks by 21-19 at Growthpoint Kings Park in Durban on Saturday evening.
After a promising first half, which saw the home team take a 16-9 lead into the break thanks to a late try by Cobus Reinach – the only of the match – the Cell C Sharks struggled to keep the intensity up in the second period.
Let down by bad discipline within kicking range, the Cell C Sharks gifted the DHL Stormers six opportunities to kick at goal, all of which were converted into points by Kurt Coleman and later Demetri Catrakilis.
But the big difference came in injury time when, with the DHL Stormers behind by 19-18, Jaco Taute slotted a drop-goal that gave the Capetonians their first win in Durban since 2011.
Where the Cell C Sharks struggled to find their groove, especially in the second half, the DHL Stormers kept things simple and when there was an opportunity to card some points, they took it.
The Capetonians got properly stuck in, played hard without being overly fancy, and ultimately never gave up.
Scorers:
Cell C Sharks:
- Try: Cobus Reinach (1)
- Conversion: Frans Steyn (1)
- Penalty goals: Frans Steyn (4)
DHL Stormers:
- Penalty goals: Kurt Coleman (4), Demetri Catrakilis (2)
- Drop goal: Jaco Taute (1)
Two interesting articles on SuperSport.
Here is the first.
BOKS, NOT SHARKS COME FIRST
————————-
by Brenden Nel 02/06/2014, 12:37
Here we all thought that, for the good of South African rugby,
Springbok rugby needs to come first?
After all, that is what counts in most Sanzar countries – the
national team, a year before a World Cup, should always take priority.
Not in South Africa.
Any self-respecting rugby fan has to stop and shake his head when
hearing Jake White now blames the Springbok training camp for his
team’s loss to the Stormers this past weekend?
Last week the Bok management were asked to put certain players on ice
– including Frans Steyn – because they were medically unfit to
play.
The Boks complied and what did White do? He continued to play these
players into the ground.
It is true that the Sharks players are “exhausted” with eight
games on the trot and an overseas tour to boot.
In most sides there is a squad system, where players are rotated so
that the coach gets the best out of them.
The Bok camp had been planned for months, to coincide with all five
franchises being in South Africa. It wasn’t something that was
sprung on teams by surprise
The Bulls also had a number of players out this past week and also
suffered a shock loss to the Lions, but you never heard them
complaining about the Bok camp.
They simply got on with the job, accepted they were not good enough
and then moved on.
It is one thing to want the Sharks to do well, and it is increasingly
certain that they will be South Africa’s only representatives in the
final weeks of Vodacom Super Rugby.
It cannot be at the expense of Springbok rugby.
The irony that White misses is that he used to bemoan Super Rugby
coaches overplaying players, and not keeping them fresh for Springbok
rugby.
He was the same coach who sent Victor Matfield home from a Tri-Nations
tour because he was unfit, only to see Matfield play the next Saturday
for the Bulls.
He was also the same coach who chose Chiliboy Ralepelle against
overwhelming advice that he was not ready for test rugby, but played
him anyway.
In both cases the coach he was at loggerheads with was Heyneke Meyer.
Now Meyer is Springbok coach and, whether you are a Sharks fan or not,
the bottom line is that the Springboks remain this country’s first
rugby priority.
While I hate to say it, this would never happen in New Zealand.
There the franchises channel up to the All Blacks, and the black
jersey is the No 1 priority, even if it harms Super Rugby aspirations.
With their centralised contracting system players are placed on
sabbaticals to increase their longevity, their conditioning is done so
that they are at their peak when the international season rolls
around.
If a player has too much game time, you’d be sure Steve Hansen would
be on the line asking for said player to be rested.
In South Africa the tail wags the dog. Jake tells the Bok coach not to
train Steyn, then plays him himself.
It is a situation that is alarming in itself, one that will never
contribute to the Springbok success, and one which highlights the
problems that Saru CEO Jurie Roux is desperately trying to fix.
The bottom line is that Bok rugby matters little to White, except when
it is a stepping stone to getting back into the international game.
His history speaks for itself.
In this case the Boks deserve as many fresh players as they can get,
and Super Rugby coaches who work with, and not against them ahead of a
tough international season.
Second one
Rotation is a gamble but necessary
by Gavin Rich 02/06/2014, 11:54
It took a while to try and figure out when last I had heard Kings Park so deathly hushed at a final whistle as it was when Stormers full-back Jaco Taute sank the Sharks with that last-second drop-goal at the weekend.
You would have struggled to hear a pin drop in the stadium and watching the Stormers players hugging each other in celebration was like watching a scene on a television set with the mute button firmly pressed down.
The moments immediately after the 2007 Super Rugby final, when Bryan Habana buried the Sharks with a late try, were similar, but there were more Bulls supporters at Kings Park that day than there were Stormers fans in Durban this past weekend. Western Province had a contingent of fans at the 2012 Currie Cup final. So perhaps it was the most deathly hushed Kings Park has been in my experience.
The disappointment was understandable. The Sharks were on the cusp of going into the June break in the grand position of being able to dictate terms and being masters of their own destiny. Instead they are now effectively off the pace of the fast-finishing Waratahs and all square with the Crusaders if you consider those teams have a game in hand. It feels a bit like the Liverpool/Manchester City scenario in the recent English football season enacting itself out in a different sport.
To me, the Sharks’ season is looking way too reminiscent of the one that the Stormers went through two years ago. Those who read my columns regularly will know this is not the first time I have drawn a comparison between this Sharks team and the 2012 Stormers team that topped the log.
Stormers coach Allister Coetzee was criticised for two things when his team fell short by losing in the semifinal. Firstly, it opened the door to those who were unhappy that the side had gone through the league phase of the season without picking up even one solitary four-try bonus point.
“Has he grown the Stormers’ game?” was the question asked by the critics after the Cape team’s demise.
Secondly, he was criticised for his selection policy. The Stormers arrived at the business end of the season clearly running on empty, and injuries robbed them of key players, most notably Duane Vermeulen, just when they were most required.
Unless his team go on to win the competition, in which case, as I wrote a few weeks ago, everything is justified as a means to an end, White could find himself accused of the same things as his former assistant coach at the Boks was two years ago.
There were several Sharks fans encountered in the greater Kings Park precinct after the Stormers game who echoed similar criticisms to the ones directed at Coetzee’s game-plan. One person told me he was sick and tired of the aerial ping-pong and although he was a Sharks fan, he was glad the Stormers won as he hoped it would teach White a lesson.
Another opined that Charl MacLeod’s poor decision off the last move of the game, where he kicked the ball onto the Stormers and gave them one last opportunity to attack, was a result of the “kicking instinct” that the Sharks have taken on board this season. Yes, somewhere around the time the clock ticked Saturday into Sunday, I was asked if White had grown the Sharks’ game.
For me any problems that may be related to game plan are less obvious than the real one that should be staring White in the face. After all, his team has won 10 out of 14, and that suggests there isn’t too much wrong with the approach.
The real problem, and this one has been building for a while, as it did with Coetzee in 2012, is that there has been none of the selection rotation you might have anticipated in a season where the Sharks arguably have more depth than they’ve been able to call on for a long time.
Yes, I know that Jannie du Plessis normally plays just over half a game, but that is different from either being given an entire weekend off or being allowed to play off the bench occasionally. The only match his brother has missed was the one where he was injured, and Beast has been firing away in the No 1 jersey week after week too.
Ditto for Willem Alberts, even at those stages of the season when Jean Deysel was available, and while we can be sympathetic to White for feeling the need to over-play Frans Steyn in the absence of Patrick Lambie, he is a shadow of the player he was a few months ago.
Perhaps the media and public are as much to blame as the coaches for our failure to recognise that in a long competition like Super Rugby has become, there will be blips along the way. The Crusaders are now looking strong but they’ve lost matches along the way, and the same for the Waratahs.
The Crusaders, like most New Zealand sides, and here the central contracting system might be key, have rotated often. That included their loss to the Sharks (Israel Dagg was being rested), so it is a gamble, but perhaps it needs to be recognised that if you are going to avoid reaching the playoff stages with a team made up of over-played zombies, then those gambles are necessary.
The best finish to a season by a South African team in recent years was produced by the Sharks in 2012. That they reached the final that year was because they had injured players come back into their system later in the season and by the time they got to Cape Town for the semifinal they had a much fresher team, even after the travel from their Brisbane quarterfinal, than the Stormers did.
And to top off the 3rd article, Brendan Venter says trophies shouldn’t equate to success, good news for the Sharks.
And to top off the 3rd article, Brendan Venter says trophies shouldn’t equate to success, good news for the Sharks.
And to top off the 3rd article, Brendan Venter says trophies shouldn’t equate to success, good news for the Sharks.
And to top off the 3rd article, Brendan Venter says trophies shouldn’t equate to success, good news for the Sharks.
Does silverware equal success?
by Brendan Venter 28/05/2014, 12:58
As the Super Rugby season heads towards its climax, the topic of winning silverware comes into sharp focus.
With the Sharks in control of the combined log standings, and having enjoyed three impressive wins on their Australasian tour, I believe the only thing that will now satisfy Sharks supporters is winning the competition.
While I’ve been privileged as a coach to be associated with teams that have won trophies – London Irish, Saracens, the Junior Springboks and the Sharks – I’m of the view that a team and mentor’s “success” or “failure’’ should be measured against the yardstick of long-term sustainability rather than attaining silverware alone.
Take football boss Jose Mourinho’s record in the Uefa Champions League competition as a fitting case study. He has reached the semi-final stage of the competition eight times and has only triumphed twice. We tend to remember the two titles he has won and, in turn, cast aside the six occasions he failed to reach the final.
The question I would pose is: if a team consistently has their name in the proverbial hat by the time the knock-out stage is reached, is that not good enough?
The Stormers, for example, won the South African conference in 2011 and 2012, however, failed to win the tournament proper, losing consecutive semi-finals. With ultimate “success” seemingly not forthcoming, over the next few seasons we witnessed a complete system overhaul, which I believe has proved wholly counterproductive. The Cape side unwittingly took a backwards step in their development, and I would argue that they were closer then to sustainable success than they realised.
There is such a small percentage in professional sport between “success” and “failure”. However, when top sides oppose one another the margin for error is further magnified. The Heineken Cup final between Saracens and Toulon served as a prime example.
When one analyses a win or a loss systematically, there are certain key performance indicators which have to be met. And the better the opposition, often the less positive the performance indicators are. I believe that that point is more often than not left out of the equation. This past weekend, for instance, we faced a Toulon side which boasted world-class decision-makers.
Moreover, when a side loses a knock-out match, it’s always important to examine the variables outside of one’s control. For example, how the opposition goalkicker kicked on the day, how the ball bounced, the playing surface and refereeing decisions etc. When one examines any big match, critical moments are defined by one or more of the aforementioned variables.
On the flipside, if a side is bossed in the set-piece, is broken down defensively or has a poor exit strategy, all of these factors are controllables which can be improved upon. However, the crux of the matter is that knock-out matches are decided by small variables which neither side can plan ahead for.
Do Saracens become a bad side overnight for losing the final? I think not. They have reached the semi-final stage of the Aviva Premiership five years in a row now.
In the same breath, I would argue that the Stormers class of 2011 and 2012 were on the right track, while I maintain that the Sharks’ 2014 Super Rugby season will still be a successful one even if they reach the playoffs but fail to win the final.
I believe the ultimate objective should be to get one’s team in contention for silverware on a yearly basis in order to cultivate longevity.
Therefore, the lesson for any coach is not to become overly-obsessive about winning trophies. If a team wins 80 per cent of their games in any sport, in my view, they have found the recipe for success.
I believe the desire should be to create an era of sustainable success through consistency of performance rather than being focused solely on winning finals. The ultimate danger is in overhauling systems on account of lacking silverware.
Have we become overly-obsessed with winning silverware and what would you deem to be a successful season for your preferred Super Rugby side? Share your views by posting your comments below….
@ nortierd:
Hey nortie i see our sharks friends are complaining about peyper haha
4 @ nortierd:
I’ve put the 1st article on Rugby-Talk, as an article on it’s own… like you suggested.
reading the gamethread on sharksworld. The sharks still believed they will score four tries.
I swear it felt like I travelled back into time to 2012… sitting at a bar surrounded by stormers.
MacroBok wrote:
Lol, MB, I even saw HG was making comments that Peyper was too happy to keep the Stormers in the game, ha ha, his cheque must have bounced at some stage.
Some unhappy campers running about, that’s for sure
GBS @6
Thanks, quite interesting that, and lots of truth in it
9 @ nortierd:
The Sports Journalists like Brenden Nel & Gavin Rich have their clear favourite sides, which they support, and sitting with them in the various Press Boxes makes it very clear.
For instance, Brenden Nel is a big Bulls supporter.
Gavin Rich is sooooooooo black and white, it is’nt even funny.
This makes Gavin Rich’s article even more pertinent and the critisism he slings at Jake White for not rotating players.
He of course, being a Sharks supporter, neatly steers away from the National Importance of these matters, for the Springbok cause.
10
Yep, and Keo is also a Bull, thank goodness for that, you lot can have him
🙂
11 @ nortierd:
Does his opinion even count anymore OR even maybe more importantly, does anybody take him seriously anymore?
“The moments immediately after the 2007 Super Rugby final, when Bryan Habana buried the Sharks with a late try, were similar, but there were more Bulls supporters at Kings Park that day”
Dit was darem ‘n mooi dag daar in 2007.
Maar ek dink wel die Sharks het nog ‘n baie goeie kans om hierdie jaar die trofee te wen. Daardie wenne oorsee, veral teen Saders in NZ gaan hul nog deurtrek. Saterdag se wedstryd was net een te veel voor boktoetse. Dink hulle gaan die WP ordentlik rol in Julie op Nuweland.
Bulle het nou vir 2 jaar hulself in die gat geskop, nie deur ander spanne nie, maar eie verkeerde besluite. Eers die Dewald sage in 21013, nou die Vic sage.
Eish, bly my span tot in lengte van dae, maar die bestuur, afrigters en hul besluite (spankeuses, wedstrydplanne en bulle kom tweede) maak dit moeilik om opgewonde te raak oor die toekoms.
13: 21013 = 2013
@Ben
Jy vergeet net so paar dinge, dit is op Nuweland en dan is Eben, Schalk, Jean en nog n paar beseerdes terug.
Gaan dalk nie so maklik vir die Sharks wees nie
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