The rebels vs sharks preview

by MIKE GREENAWAY .www.iol.co.za

An anomaly for the Sharks in Super Rugby history is their abject failure to win matches in Australia. Last week’s victory over the Force was only their fifth in 25 attempts, an appalling effort given their proud record of beating generally better Kiwi teams in New Zealand.

There is something in the blood of South African teams, and the Sharks in particular, which stirs when they disembark at Auckland International but which cools into indifference in Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Perth.

In 2009 the Sharks also beat the Force in Perth; in 2007 they annihilated the Reds in Brisbane, but then we have to go way back to 2000, when the Sharks beat the Waratahs in Sydney in the only match that Hugh Reece-Edwards’ Sharks won in their entire campaign, prompting this sports quiz question: “Which SA coach has won more matches overseas than at home?”

Prior to that startling win, the last time the Sharks won in Oz was in 1998, when Ian Mac’s team beat the Brumbies at the Bruce Stadium in Canberra, which is irritatingly contrary to what the Super Sport team tell us every time the Sharks visit the Aussie capital. “The Sharks have never won in Canberra,” we are told.

Anyway, you get the point. Australia is a black hole for the Sharks. But not this season, we can confidently predict. The Force have already been smashed and today in Melbourne the Sharks really ought to be beat a Rebels team that can best be described as workmanlike.

A correctly focussed Sharks side will not lose to the Rebels. And they will be switched on because the Rebels, in just their second match in Super rugby, did what the Sharks have not done in Australia for 13 years – beat the Brumbies.

In the Rebels’ first match, they were hammered by the Waratahs; they won the second at home and last week were well beaten by the Chiefs in rainy Hamilton.

They will be pleased to back at home where they have already built up a barmy army of local fans.

On paper, the Rebels have a reasonable line-up but the reality is that they have no base to work from. A squad of players drawn from all over the show is starting from scratch. At flyhalf they have Danny Cipriani (or Celebriani as he was dubbed in his native England on account of the A Grade chicks he pulled in London’s most fashionable night clubs).

He is talented indeed, and is also pretty handy at rugby.

Outside him is a slew of former Brumbies stalwarts – the wonderfully named Stirling Mortlock, plus Mark Gerrard and Julian Huxley – and on his inside is Nick Phipps, who might be new to Super Rugby but was so good for the Aussie Sevens team last year that national coach Robbie Deans picked him from nowhere for the Wallabies’ end-of-year tour .

In the pack there is pair of former All Blacks in prop Greg Somerville and lock Kevin O’Neill, and a Wales No 8 in Gareth Delve, but in comparison to the Sharks’ pack it is a bits-and-pieces combination.

And that is where the Sharks will win it. Their pack of forwards is too settled and too good. End of story.

Referee: Chris Pollock (NZ)

Rebels: 15 Mark Gerrard, 14 Lachlan Mitchell, 13 Stirling Mortlock (capt), 12 Julian Huxley, 11 Cooper Vuna, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Gareth Delve, 7 Michael Lipman, 6 Jarrod Saffy, 5 Kevin O’Neill, 4 Alister Campbell, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Ged Robinson, 1 Nic Henderson.

Substitutes: Heath Tessman, Laurie Weeks, Hugh Pyle, Tim Davidson, Richard Kingi, Afusipa Taumoepeau, Luke Rooney.

Sharks: 15 Louis Ludik, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Stefan Terblanche, 12 Meyer Bosman, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Patrick Lambie, 9 Charl McLeod, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Keegan Daniel, 5 Alistair Hargreaves, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 John Smit (capt), 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.

Substitutes: Craig Burden, Jannie du Plessis, Anton Bresler, Jacques Botes, Conrad Hoffmann, Jacques-Louis Potgieter, Adrian Jacobs.