/ 15 May 2009

Trying times

If you were looking for an omen ahead of the Super 14 semifinals next week, then Bryan Habana’s try against the Cheetahs at Loftus last Saturday might qualify.

In a match that the Bulls had struggled to get into, Habana’s interception put the cherry on top of a final quarter comeback against the Cheetahs. It also earned the bonus point that propelled the Bulls to the top of the table.

Habana, of course, was the scorer of the post-hooter try that took the Bulls to victory over the Sharks in the 2007 final. Also on that day, the Bulls trailed for much of the game and it took Derick Hougard’s conversion of Habana’s little gem to nail the lid shut on the Sharks’ coffin.

How fitting, then, that the final week of log play takes the Bulls to Durban to play the Sharks. As the one team among the seven remaining contenders that is assured of a semifinal spot, the Bulls can afford to lose, but that is unlikely.

Moreover, a win will clinch a home semifinal and, in all probability, a home final by dint of finishing at the top of the table.

Even Sharks coach John Plumtree seems to have joined the growing band of Bulls admirers. A crestfallen Plumtree told the media after last week’s 16-12 defeat by the Waratahs that no one would be looking for cheap shots in the build-up to the clash with the Bulls.

He said: ‘We went down to Cape Town a few seasons ago needing to beat the Stormers to reach the semifinals. The Cape media built it up into a grudge match and said that the Stormers would take great delight in knocking the Sharks out of the Super 14. Well I don’t approve of that. We’ll be trying our best to beat the Bulls, but if they win good luck to them.”

At least until kickoff Plumtree’s men have good reason to approach the game as an even contest. If results go their way they may be able to qua­lify for the semis by beating the Bulls. That wasn’t the way Plumtree read the tea leaves after Saturday’s disappointment, however. ‘I think we’re already dead,” he said at the time.

He had good reason for despondency as his team had just given their worst performance for several seasons. In trying conditions the Sharks managed four penalty goals in 80 minutes. They might have won had poor Stefan Terblanche not missed the ball completely with his fly hack in the goal area in the final quarter.

When the most consistent player in the team, and probably the country, has an off day it’s hard not to conclude, as Plumtree seemed to, that this is not to be the Sharks’ season. Against a limited Waratahs outfit the Sharks lacked ambition.

By contrast, the Bulls had the strength of character to win a game against the Cheetahs that they might have lost and to score that all important bonus point in the process. It’s hard not to conclude that Plumtree is right to be pessimistic, while Bulls coach Frans Ludeke is in charge of a squadron of Pollyannas.

If the tournament plays out according to Ludeke’s wishes it will be the second win in three seasons for the Bulls, but this year’s achievement would be more meritorious. The class of 2007 was a juggernaut with players who would go on to win the World Cup. Many are still available, but this year’s squad has rarely played with the brio of two years ago when success seemed natural, if not inevitable.

That’s why Habana’s try last week was important, for it turned the Bulls from pretenders to contenders. A month ago they would have dreaded the trip to Durban this week, knowing that the Sharks were the better side.

Now it is the Sharks who fear the game, knowing that a special season could easily end in ignominy.

There are parallels with 2004 when, under Kevin Putt, the Sharks came home from a successful antipodean tour, won their next two games to reach the top of the log, then lost their last four to miss the play-offs by six points.

No one can put a finger on why the Sharks have hit a brick wall. In the wash up, time may be spent on deconstructing their playing philosophy. Without perhaps realising it, the value of having your hands on the ball seems to have been lost. Under the experimental law variations it seems that possession is no longer nine-tenths of the law.

There have been times when the Bulls have been criticised for being stuck in the past, playing a grinding game with their forwards manufacturing points laboriously from set piece possession.

Meanwhile the Sharks have been kicking high balls on their opponents, waiting for a mistake and then pouncing on turnover ball.

It may be that Saturday’s eliminator in Durban, if that’s what it turns out to be, will show us the way forward for the game in this country. If so it will be intriguing to know if the future has fins or horns.