Cell C Sharks Victorious, Again – Featured Durban Blog

The Cell C Sharks will return from their two match tour of France with heads held high and encouraging confidence following back-to-back victories over Toulon and Toulouse over the past week.

In their second of two overseas pre-season warm-up matches on Thursday evening, they defeated a game Toulouse side 31-17 (half-time 18-10) with tries from S’bura Sithole, Garth April and Johan Deysel to secure a well-deserved victory. With both sides missing a number of players – for different reasons – it is clear that the entire squad taken to France by Director of Rugby Gary Gold has proven to be up to the task.

The team that played in the second match differed greatly from the first, all in the name of giving every player in the squad the opportunity to gain valuable game time against quality opposition.

“I’m proud of the fight the guys showed in this match,” said Gold following the game.  “That’s what we wanted to achieve on this tour and to put in such a performance, against a star-studded team like Toulouse, just shows that when we do apply ourselves, we have the ability to play as well as we did tonight.”

Although Gold could have given as much game time to his front line players, a competition as long and demanding as Vodacom Super Rugby requires not just a large squad, but every player to be in there because of their ability to slot in at any time, given injuries or rotational changes.

Clearly, that won’t be an issue following these two matches.

“What we planned at the end of a disappointing Currie Cup was to give confidence to the young guys we believe have potential. We feel we did that, and certainly the players did from their side. There were some amazing performances from the young guys who we could see desperately want to wear the Cell C Sharks jersey. We’re very, very proud of them and happy that the tour has been a success.”

Gold confirmed that there were no major injuries to come out of the match.

Marcell Coetzee led the side in the absence of Patrick Lambie who was injured in the Toulon game, and did a sterling job, being the kind of player who always leads from the front anyway.

“He stepped up,” said Gold, and with neither Patrick or Beast Mtawarira (captain and vice captain  against Toulon) available for the match, it’s good that we have strength and depth from a leadership point of view.

“I also thought Willie le Roux’s leadership was very good in his first game for the Cell C Sharks, Michael Claassens was also very good.”

Overall, Gold admitted to being very pleased with the two match tour.

“I’m very happy with the way the tour has gone. It was a bittersweet feeling after the Toulon game; it was a good result, but to lose Patrick was a really devastating blow for us. We’re really happy to come away with the performance we did against Toulouse, and luckily with no major injuries.”

With two weeks to Super Rugby, Gold tempered his enthusiasm with the statement that they are not yet the finished product, as no team can be expected to achieve before the tournament has even started.

“I’m confident and excited for the season ahead, but in saying that, there are things we need to be really hard on ourselves about in terms of improving. We haven’t won anything yet, so it’s important that we keep our feet on the ground and stay humble. When we get back to Durban we’ll continue to put in the hard yards.”

Gold’s words to the supporters was to take what they have seen of the Cell C Sharks performances in France as assurance that this is a team that has determination and desire.

“We went away after a difficult 2015 season, we worked hard and we want our fans to know we’re really committed to them,” he explained, emphasising just how much the support of the fans means to the team.

“We want to make our fans really proud, so get your season tickets. We have the All Black test later this year as well, so please come down and support us. The fight the fans saw in our games here in France was a 100% effort, to restore pride in the Cell C Sharks jersey; we want people to come back to Growthpoint KINGS PARK in their numbers.

“We are very grateful to have such fantastic supporters and we want to do them justice every time we take to the field.”

The Cell C Sharks have emerged from their short tour of France with back-to-back victories, having seen off Toulouse 31-17 in a hard-fought encounter at the Stade Ernest-Wallon.

The local media predicted a win for the home side, since the Cell C Sharks were fielding pretty much what amounted to their “second-string” side. The South Africans, however, clearly hadn’t received the media brief, as they drew first blood barely a couple of minutes into the contest.

It was S’bura Sithole who struck on the far-side wing, following a lethal counter attack that involved some neat linking between backs and forwards, with blindside flanker Etienne Oosthuizen and Springbok fullback Willie le Roux particularly prominent. Rookie flyhalf Garth April made it 8-0 after a quarter of an hour with a penalty goal, his first successful shot in three attempts.

Toulouse grafted their way back into the game, though, and managed to manoeuvre fullback Palisson over in the far corner for their first try midway through the opening half. The Cell C Sharks struck back almost instantly, however, through April dotting down for their second score with 15 minutes left in the stanza.

April and Toulouse scrumhalf Mélé exchanged a penalty goal apiece for the Cell C Sharks to be eight points up at the half.

The Durban-based outfit benefitted from a topsy-turvy start to the second half, to escape from jail deep inside their own territory and score a rather soft, breakaway at the other end of the field, through new midfielder Johan Deysel. Toulose kept up the pressure, though, affording former Crusaders hooker Corey Flynn to power through for their second try 10 minutes later. The conversion saw the Cell C Sharks’ lead shrink to 25-17.

The boys in white showed tremendous defensive character in the second spell, with skipper Marcell Coetzee leading by example, to withstand a fierce Toulouse offensive. And, a couple of April penalty goals in the last 10 minutes secured them this fine, morale-boosting win ahead of the 2016 edition of Vodacom Super Rugby.