The Cell C Sharks will go into this Saturday’s Currie Cup Final against Western Province at Growthpoint KINGS PARK with a lot of confidence following our semi-final victory over a game and competitive Vodacom Blue Bulls side.
It is a fitting finale to the domestic season, with the top two sides contesting the final, and the top finisher hosting it. If Saturday’s semi-final is anything to go by, the final should be ever more explosive and exciting.
The Cell C Sharks showed a lot of character to win, but it required a monumental second half performance to see off the Bulls who came out the changerooms in resurgent form.
“It was a good effort before the final, I thought it was a fantastic performance from the boys,” said head coach Robert du Preez after the game.
“There are a couple of things we know we need to work on, but this was great, a job well done. We have to sort out our exits, that wasn’t great and we couldn’t really get momentum in the second half, we gave away too many penalties. We’re going to have to be vigilant as far as that goes.
“All credit to the Blue Bulls though, I thought they came here to play, and they did, they played very well.”
As far as finals rugby goes, du Preez suggested that there was more to come from his side, despite winning the most games in the tournament.
“I don’t think we’ve hit our straps completely, yet,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll put that together in the final against Western Province on Saturday.”
Putting the Bulls under early pressure paid dividends, especially after two early tries put us on the front foot, and a further two to end the half with four tries.
“There was a big emphasis for us on starting well, and we did.
“Although we had a bad start to the second half the boys showed a lot of character to pull the result through.”
The positive to take out of a game like this is the nature of the preparation it gives ahead of a final. Were it too easy, the team might not have performed so admirably, particularly under such pressure from the Bulls in the second half. Having weathered everything the Bulls threw at us bodes well for Saturday’s final.
“That was definitely the kind of game we would have liked to play before the final.”
This week will offer nothing hugely different to previous weeks as the team goes about the preparation for Saturday’s big game. There is the slightly different preparation to consider though, and that’s on the mental side, particularly for the youngsters, many of whom will be playing in the biggest game of their lives.
“For us, this week is going to be a case of ‘more of the same’, we aren’t going to change anything although there were a few areas of concern that we will work on. It’s going to be a new experience for a whole lot of guys, but there’s a lot of excitement here and that’s a good thing.”
There was bad news for Sbu Nkosi who may have dislocated his shoulder. He was taken to hospital for scans.
Meanwhile, the team will start their preparations for Saturday’s showdown with Western Province in earnest today, hoping to close out the season on a high.
A lot of hard work has been expended this season, winning ten games on the trot suggests as much. Winning the semi-final and hosting the final argues just that.
“A home final means everything for us,” said the coach. “That’s what you play for, to play in front of your fans, in a final, at home.”
The post A Fitting Finale appeared first on Sharks Rugby.
A high quality Currie Cup semi-final saw the Cell C sharks emerge 37-27 victors over worthy opponents in the Blue Bulls to earn a home final at Growthpoint KINGS PARK next Saturday.
Both sides need to be congratulated for playing adventurous and exciting running rugby, fitting of a semi-final. In fact the paying public would have been more than satisfied had this been a final. It had all the elements: excitement, frustration and best of all, jubilation at the result.
The game started off at an exciting pace and the action continued for the whole half as we dominated the Blue Bulls, although some discipline let us down as we allowed them in for two penalties.
But the first half belonged to us as we scored four tries, the first to Lukhanyo Am within the opening five minutes of the game, with try-scoring machine Kobus van Wyk adding the second.
It has to be said that the Bulls certainly didn’t take this lying down and despite being under enormous pressure, pulled back a try of their own.
But Louis Schreuder, back in the starting scrumhalf jersey, struck another blow to put us eight points in the lead, before captain Ruan Botha got on the scoresheet with the fourth try on the stroke of half-time.
At 28-13 there was really only one team in it as far as the scoreboard suggested, but all credit to the Bulls who had come to Durban for a fight.
Half-time ended as the Cell C Sharks led by 15 points, but there was to be drama aplenty in the second half.
Having dominated the first half rather comprehensively, a huge blow was struck when the ball was ripped away from the kick-off reception and within 15 seconds of the start to the second half, the Bulls scored the first points of the half to cut the lead to just eight points.
With their tails up, they started to string together some dangerous phases, with one play being cut short just before the tryline for what would have been devastating for our chances of winning.
Our discipline was also under the spotlight, giving the visitors some relief. In fact, we barely had a sniff of possession, certainly not in the Bulls half in the opening 10 minutes.
It took until the 15th minute of the second half before we scored, Curwin Bosch slotting a penalty for a high tackle following some quality possession for the first time in the half. At 31-20 up, we had put some breathing space between ourselves and the visitors, only to concede another penalty. The Bulls sent it to touch for the 5m lineout, but in the ensuing drive, conceded a scrum on the use it or lose it rule thanks to some stern and committed defence.
As the game went into the last quarter, wave after wave of Bulls attack was initially repelled before the ball was taken over for the third try and our lead was cut to just four points as the game hit cliff-hanger status.
But then the Bulls got sloppy on their own ball, lost possession which allowed us to spend some time on attack in their half before Curwin Bosch, converter of all four tries, sent a neat drop-kick through the posts to give us a 34-27 lead.
With just over 10 minutes of the game remaining, the pack once again stood up to the plate as they monstered the Bulls off their own scrum ball to ear a penalty, converted by Bosch from 40m out to push the lead up to 10 points and crucially putting the result beyond one score only.
The Bulls, needing to score twice if they held out any hopes of making the finals, then sent a kickable penalty to touch rather than through posts, only to have the lineout poached and cleared upfield as we continued to stymie their efforts upfront.
With time ticking away and the Bulls’ levels of frustration growing, they lost the ball on attack following a nine phase build-up that they couldn’t close out.
They will most likely reflect on a game of what-ifs while the Cell C Sharks will be relieved to have come out victorious, in the knowledge that they found a way to win under quite confrontational circumstances against another exciting team.
What a great advert for the local game.
The post Sharks do the Business appeared first on Sharks Rugby.
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