When the Sharks arrived home from the antipodes with three wins from four starts and a remaining fixture list that included just one game away from Durban, it seemed inevitable that they would make the last four. But the Super 14 is a marathon and not a sprint. One month and three matches on, their season is beginning to unravel.
Successive defeats to the Cheetahs and the Crusaders robbed the team of the confidence built up so assiduously on tour. They got back to winning ways last week against the Highlanders, but scarcely in convincing fashion. Moreover, the events of the last five minutes may have serious ramifications for the play-offs. With five minutes to go, Francois Steyn limped off with a knee injury. He had been hurt in a tackle two minutes previously, but stayed on, no doubt aware that the end of the game was nigh. But then he got hit again and this time it was serious. He will miss the rest of the competition.
Then, with four minutes to go, Rory Kockott decided to re-enact the story of David and Goliath. Adam Thomson is 16cm taller and 20kg heavier than Kockott. But Kockott’s stinging ‘flattie†sent Thomson crashing to earth like the famous Philistine champion.
At Kockott’s hearing on Monday the defence argued that the red card administered by referee Philip Bosch was sufficient punishment. Thankfully the defence’s view did not carry the day, although there will be many, Bakkies Botha among them, who will question why Kockott got off so lightly.
The Sharks management may feel hard done by, but pointless acts of premeditated thuggery deserve their own reward. Kockott’s union now has to plan the defeat of the title-chasing Waratahs without their first-choice scrumhalf and goal kicker.
It would be a rather delicious irony if Ruan Pienaar ended up playing in the number nine jersey this week. Two years ago Pienaar said, ‘I enjoy scrumhalf more than flyhalf, so as long as it goes well there, that’s where I’d like to play.â€
Last year Springbok coach Peter de Villiers took Pienaar on tour as a flyhalf and that’s where he started for the Sharks before getting injured against the Chiefs in Hamilton in week three.
Last week he came on for the last half hour against the Highlanders and immediately the Sharks looked to have more shape. That despite the fact that Pienaar was understandably reluctant to take contact.
With the British and Irish Lions Test series around the corner the candidates for the number 10 jersey are not exactly queuing up. Andre Pretorius and Earl Rose have failed to stand out in a poor Lions team. Those who would argue that no one would should take a look at how Jacque Fourie plays every week.
Willem de Waal and Peter Grant have similar issues at the Stormers, although they are chalk and cheese as players. No one in the Cheetahs squad has stepped forward and there is understandable reluctance to return to the overseas-based Butch James, especially now that it seems he, too, has knee trouble.
If the first Test were to be played next week it would be a straight choice between the available, but fragile, Pienaar, and the Bulls’ incumbent, Morne Steyn. The latter is uncapped and, according to some, uncappable. But needs must when the devil drives and De Villiers would be derelict in his duties if he failed to consider the merits of Steyn.
Apart from anything else, Steyn is part of a Bulls unit that is peaking at the same time as the Sharks are troughing. The Sharks have one week left to prepare for their final fixture against the Bulls in Durban and right now the odds would be on an away win.
A few weeks ago the game loomed as a
possible dry run for the final, a simple squabble over who would gain home advantage. Now it looks more likely to be an eliminator, with the loser dropping out of the top four once and for all.
It’s hard to believe that the Bulls will slip up against the Cheetahs at Loftus this week. The Cheetahs may have surprised the Sharks, but that was in Bloemfontein against complacent opposition. They may also point to the fact that they have enjoyed conspicuous success in Pretoria over the past few years, particularly in the Currie Cup.
But Sharks coach John Plumtree rather put the merits of this country’s premier domestic competition into perspective after last week’s game when he said, ‘These guys must realise that this is the Super 14, not the Currie Cup. You can get away with poor decision making in the Currie Cup, but you can’t in the Super 14.â€
Probably for that reason alone, Pienaar will play flyhalf this weekend. After six weeks with Frans Steyn in the pivot role, we have become accustomed to Sharks teams scoring from turnover ball. Steyn’s reluctance to play a pattern meant that forward domination was rarely rewarded. Pienaar will use the ball presented by a magnificent pack with more care.