Sharks blow it in Bloemfontein

We have been told that the Cheetahs’ are no longer the Sharks’ bogey side given that the Durbanites had not lost in Bloemfontein since 2009 but yesterday the Ghosts of Matches the Cheetahs had no expectation to win came flooding back to haunt the Sharks.

The shock loss to a Cheetahs team that looking anything but the bottom-ranked team they were going into this round has massive ramifications for the Sharks who now face the prospect of losing out on a home-semi-final, nevermind a home final.

The reason is because that home semi-finals go only to the two Conference winners that finish highest on the overall log – there can only be two home semi-finals! And it does not look like there will be one in Durban unless the Sharks can beat the resurgent Stormers in Cape Town this week while hoping that the teams above them on the log, the Waratahs and the Crusaders, stumble in the last mad rush to the line next weekend.

The Sharks might yet nudge themselves back into second place but it is hard to see the Waratahs being dislodged from their No 1 spot, and that means no final for Durban when it seemed on the cards for so much of this season. So much beer at One Stop that will go untapped. Oh well, one less hangover.

The Sharks have topped the overall log for most of the competition but they conspire to lose matches they are favoured to win. Precise examples are the defeat at home to the Highlanders on the eve of departure for overseas tour and then, having undone the harm of that inexplicable defeat with heroic victories in Christchurch and Auckland, the Sharks returned to lose at Kings Park to a makeshift Stormers team that could not believe its luck in playing a team of Dead Men Walking. THAT was the game when Jake should have pointed the battle-weary to their sofas and cooler boxes..

Instead, yesterday’s match was the one in which White chose to rest weary players wherever possible, and while there was a benefit to most of the pack being removed from the pressure of starting the match, they all then had to come on for the last quarter and fight for their team’s life in the competition – in terms of the all-important play-off finishes on the table.

There was also the bewildering choice of young Tim Swiel at flyhalf. The 20-year-old does have classy touches but he was proved to be out of his depth overseas, forcing White to play ailing Francois Steyn at 10, but yesterday Swiel was back at flyhalf, yanked out of the wilderness, for a crucially-important game. With Patrick Lambie still a game away and no clarity on the position of Fred Zeilinga, who played club rugby for Collegians last week, Steyn should have continued at flyhalf because this game simply had to be won.

Don’t buy the line from the Sharks last week that this result was not as important as giving the squad a revamp because the team is “equally happy playing away,” according to White. One wonders if he and the players will feel the same way when they have to pack for a semi-final in Sydney or Christchurch because they blew a match in Bloemfontein.

And it is funny how the psyche of the game changes so quickly. The Stormers are putting together a string of victories since their return from tour and the appointment of Gert Smal as Director of Rugby, and they will now feel they are favourites at Newlands this week against the inconsistent Sharks.

The Cheetahs yesterday were the more clinical side, shaking off their 15th place position to nail tries when they presented themselves, either off the back of powerful rolling mauls or through the strong driving presence of the immensely impressive lock Lood de Jager.

In contrast, the Sharks tended to end a promising series of phases with a spilt pass, or a pass inside to nobody.

The problem in the first half for the visitors was that the Cheetahs pack was equal to the Sharks second-stringers and the visitors gained little momentum.

And while the senior Sharks came rushing back in the final quarter to try and salvage the game, they mostly fell over their own feet in their endeavours or found themselves at odds with the referee’s interpretation of how long the advantage law should be played.

Sharks (17) 20
Cheetahs (13) 27

by Mike Greenaway