rugby sharks v Stormers match report

SHARKS (6) 6
STORMERS (13) 16

by MIKE GREENAWAY AT KINGS PARK

THE super-charged Stormers rendered the Sharks positively leaden-footen in their unfortunate homecoming to the Shark Tank yesterday and the four log points the visitors banked will render inconsequential the debate as to whether the home side were stricken by their recent heavy travel regime or simply beaten by a superior side.
Probably a bit of both would be the answer but, however you look at it, the visitors controlled proceeding from first to last whistle and the handsome phase play that saw the Sharks rattle the Crusaders in London the week before vanished into the evening Durban drizzle.
Instead, the Sharks’ attacks were limited to sporadic breakouts from deep in their half, with almost nothing constructed by the relentless phases play that stressed the opposition defence in the Sharks’ opening four-match winning sequence.
Given that the set-piece battle ended up pretty much fair and square, it was at ruck time that the Stormers won the battles and ultimately the war.
This was their principal failing in the Currie Cup final last year, and indeed the previous five Super Rugby matches that they had lost against the Sharks, and it meant they ran onto the ball last night and built momentum while the Sharks, especially in the first half, were regularly tackled well behind the advantage line.
Well, the Stormers emphatically ended that losing streak to the Durbanites, in so doing consolidating their position at the top of the South African conference and indeed the overall standings while condemning the Sharks to their third loss on the trot.
Two of those were on a four-country road trip that saw the Sharks nevertheless come home with 12 points from a possible 20, but that does not take the sting out of the failure of the Sharks to achieve their much wanted two victories from their fortnight of home matches against the Stormers and the Lions (this week) before their much anticipated bye.
Last week, coach John Plumtree cancelled a training session because five players had the flu (travel-induced) but this competition does not excuse such trivialities and the bottom line is that the Sharks were thoroughly out-played.
The first 20 minutes unfolded almost exclusively in the Sharks’ half, and as early as the third minute Jannie du Plessis was penalised at a set scrum and former Maritzburg College pupil Peter Grant continued his excellent competition goal-kicking form to give the Stormers an ideal start.
The Sharks were looking to keep the ball in hand, as they did so impressively in the second last week against the Crusaders, which ultimately saw the Kiwis making a total of 60 more tackles than the Sharks, but against the Stormers’ defence and forward resolve, the Sharks’ game had no zip.
In the 11th minute prop Stormers prop Brok Harris was penalised for not rolling away and Jacques-Louis Potgieter equalised but this was undone from the restart when Jaque Fourie capitalised on a wayward Charl Mcleod pass and after the Springbok centre had made serious inroads into the Sharks 22, quick ruck ball saw Schalk Burger in for an easy run to the line.
The Sharks fought hard to get into the game and the middle part of the first half saw them get into the Stormers’ half for a meaningful period only for it to come to an unfortunate result when a Stormers breakout resulted in a close-range penalty for the unfailing Grant to convert into a 13-3 lead eight minutes before the break.

Potgieter should have pulled back three points when he pushed a sitter onto the right-hand up-right, to compound an earlier miss, but he did strike a long-range beauty two minutes before half time.
The second half disintegrated into a war of attrition, with the Sharks valiantly but unsuccessfully trying to establish rhythm, but the Stormers’ stranglehold was never going to be beaten, and the only points of the half was Grant’s third penalty.

Scorers

Sharks: Penalties; Jacque-Louis Potgieter (2)

Stormers: Try: Schalk Burger. Conversion: Peter Grant. Penalties: Grant (3).