In the Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash between the Vodacom Bulls and Cell C Sharks in Pretoria on Sunday, both sides enjoyed periods of dominance at various times of an intense derby game.
With momentum shifting between the two sides and the Cell C Sharks taking a 17-16 lead in the second half, the game was wide open with half an hour’s play remaining.
“Rugby is a game of momentum and confidence,” explained Cell C Sharks Director of Rugby Neil Powell after the match.
“If you can’t hold on to that momentum or confidence when you have it, good teams – like the Bulls – will punish you, which they did in the second half.
“Game management and how we can keep our momentum is definitely something we will address. When they scored that one try, the guys seemed to drop their heads a bit. Then we conceded a second try and that felt like they’d taken our energy away. It’s something we need to address and be better at – to keep fighting for the full 80 minutes.”
From a physicality point of view, and that’s something most teams will assess against the Bulls, he felt that his team did not stand back.
“I think we did do well, we know coming to Loftus and playing the Bulls, it will be physical, and we prevented them from scoring maul tries, so much so that the last penalty they kicked for poles rather than to the corner.
“So the guys really stepped up, but it was just individual errors and not managing the game well enough that probably let us down.”
In summation, Powell explained that, “It was a game of missed opportunities and quite a few individual errors. We would have loved to be a lot more clinical with what we wanted to execute, I felt we could have put more pressure on the Bulls when we had opportunities in the first half. Unfortunately we weren’t clinical enough in the execution of our individual roles, and that showed.
“Also, not playing Ulster the previous week did stop our momentum and flow a bit. We couldn’t really find our momentum in the first half, but when we scored that try it looked like it had returned. Unfortunately we couldn’t hang on to that momentum.”
The URC now breaks for the autumn internationals, with the Cell C Sharks next back in action on Sunday 27 November, when they host Cardiff Rugby at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.
During the next month, Powell explained that, “Most of the guys will be back for that game, but we’ll have a look at this Bulls game closely and see which are the areas we can improve on, both as a team but also individual skill sets, if we want to be better and beat teams away from home.”
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Vodacom Bulls vs Cell C Sharks – Match Review:
The Cell C Sharks went down 40-27 to the Vodacom Bulls in a frustrating Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby at Loftus in Pretoria on Sunday afternoon.
The lead and momentum see-sawed through-out, with the Bulls holding the early advantage, followed by a period of Cell C Sharks dominance, before three second half tries took the home team into an unassailable lead and the catalyst for the win.
The opening 10 minutes of the game were intensely contested, with the Cell C Sharks having the best opportunity to score, only for a lineout steal to deny them after a penalty was sent to the corner rather than through posts in the quest for the ultimate reward.
That period ended on a sad note when Ben Tapuai left the field after taking a knee to the head in the process of trying to make a tackle which wasn’t a disruption the Cell C Sharks would have liked that early on in the game.
The home side raised the flags first, a penalty following a strong attack on the quarter hour and five minutes later nearly scored the opening try of the game, playing the pressure game effectively but denied with a forward pass, and then foul play to release the pressure they had built up.
However the Bulls did add a second penalty after 25 minutes with both sides battling with discipline, before the Bulls conceded a scrum penalty on the halfway line and Boeta Chamberlain showed that he can kick from anywhere, converting from 50m out.
Bulls flyhalf Chris Smith added a third penalty five minutes before half-time following a scrum penalty, an area of the game that was hotly contested from both sides.
Another area of interest was the breakdown and two steals from the Bulls got them into a strong attacking position and Marcel Coetzee rounded off the home side effort to score the first try of the game just before half-time, the conversion taking the Bulls into a 16-3 lead.
The response was as swift as it was devastating, the Bulls conceding two incidents of penalty advantage which wasn’t needed in a ruthless attack, Marnus Potgieter showing why he is so highly rated as he brushed off the initial defence and then rounded the final line to score under the posts, handing Chamberlain the easiest of conversions to reduce the lead back to six points for the sides to go to the change rooms with the Bulls leading 16-10.
There was a sense of renewed confidence from the Cell C Sharks who dominated the early stages of the second half, the Bulls making a number of kicking and disciplinary errors that cost them dearly as the best try of the game came with half an hour remaining and put the Cell C Sharks into the lead following a beautiful pass to Aphelele Fassi in the midfield and there was no-one near him as he cantered over after the forwards had done the business at an attacking lineout.
As the game went into the final quarter, the Bulls retook the lead with a penalty for a breakdown infringement, 19-17 in front, only to see the Cell C Sharks restore their lead, earning a breakdown penalty from the kick-off.
The lead continued to see-saw, but a double-strike from the home side took the game away as they scored their second try in fortuitous circumstances, and then a third moments later, referred to the TMO for a forward pass as the Bulls went into a 13 point lead with 10 minutes remaining.
Five minutes later the bonus point try came, the fired up Bulls forwards relentless in their driving maul.
There was a late fightback, with Phepsi Buthelezi marking a massive game with a wonderful try, but it came too late, as Chamberlain’s conversion saw his team trailing by 13 points with moments left to play.
The post Vodacom Bulls vs Cell C Sharks – Match Review appeared first on The Sharks.
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Quick Durban KwaZulu-Natal Fact: Durban has a fascination with sharks; the local rugby team is even named for these magnificent creatures of the deep. The infamous Black December, which actually lasted from December 1957 to April 1958, marked five deadly shark attacks off Durban beaches in just 107 days. These weren’t the first deadly attacks – between 1943 and 1951, the city experienced 21 shark attacks, seven of which were deadly. The resulting hysteria amongst beach-goers after Black December prompted the authorities to take action, and a navy frigate was called in to bomb sharks with depth charges. In 1962, the Natal Sharks Board was created to explore the installation of shark nets at Durban’s swimming beaches, an exercise which had been attempted, with little success, as early as 1907. Nowadays, while most Durban beaches are protected by shark nets, sharks are a tourist attraction, with people coming from all over the world to have close encounters via shark cage diving.
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