Springboks greats: The worrying issue as ‘stacked’ Sharks have another ‘extremely disappointing’ season and only have themselves to ‘blame’
Connacht players form a guard of honour for the Sharks and an inset of Springboks great Schalk Burger.
Schalk Burger believes that the Sharks only have themselves to blame after ‘another disappointing season’.
It’s been a turbulent campaign for the Durbanites with a mid-season change of the head coach as John Plumtree stepped down from his role, with JP Pietersen initially taking over on an interim basis before assuming the position permanently.
The Sharks enjoyed a new manager bump with the former Springboks winger overseeing an upswing in results, including back-to-back wins over the Stormers, but that came after the club was knocked out of the Investec Champions Cup at the pool stages. A defeat to Connacht spelled the end of their EPCR season entirely and meant that their focus turned entirely on the URC and making the play-offs.
After wins over Munster and Cardiff at home, Pietersen’s charges had an outside chance of qualifying for the URC knockout stages, but back-to-back defeats on the road to Ospreys and Edinburgh ended those chances and mean they return home with nothing but pride to play for in their final two games against Benetton and Zebre, respectively.
Sharks only have themselves to blame
The defeat to Ospreys was riddled with controversy, with Ethan Hooker sustaining an injury after scoring a try with Luke Morgan diving on the Springbok, but his actions weren’t punished. Later in the match, referee Mike Adamson ordered uncontested scrums after injuries to the Ospreys’ front row, with Sharks owner Marco Massotti accusing the Welsh outfit of feigning those injuries.
Springboks great Burger has now reflected on the Sharks’ failure to secure a place in the URC play-offs.
“They only have themselves to blame. You go on a tour, and if they got four points out of that tour with Zebra and Benetton at home, there’s a good chance that they can still qualify in the top eight,” he said on the Boks Unpacked podcast.
“Maybe you get away with five points on the to a win and a losing bonus point, and you’ve got a chance. But it’s unfortunate, the Sharks, it seems to be the theme of every URC as soon as we get to the back end of the season, we’re talking Sharks, and, unfortunately for them, with that squad, it’s another disappointing season. Things will have to change. It can’t carry on this way.”
Discipline issue
Fellow former Bok Jean de Villiers rued the Durban-based club’s ill-discipline throughout the season and the fact that such a strong squad failed to finish in the top eight.
“It’s just frustrating to watch the Sharks when it comes to game discipline, management, and discipline in terms of conceding penalties and yellow cards,” he said.
“It seems as if they play their best rugby in between the 22s, and as soon as they get into the opposition 22, nothing happens. It’s extremely frustrating to watch, and especially the last two weeks, when they played games that they could have won and just couldn’t pull it through for the victory.
“It’s extremely disappointing to see a stacked side like that not progress to the top eight.”
Schalk Burger: Worrying trend continues
Burger agreed but also pointed to the side’s misfiring attack, while he admits that the conditions in Durban are a valid excuse, he added that the attack doesn’t improve when they hit the road.
“The worrying issue is that, like every year, it’s the same trend,” he said.
“Okay, it’s hard to play running rugby in Durban – we understand it can get slippery there, especially this time of the year, the weather often is quite tricky. We played there back in the day in Super Rugby when February, March, and even sometimes April, it was brutal to play there just because of the humidity and how slippery the ball gets. But then they go on the road, and they play somewhere else, like the Bulls at Loftus, you can’t get better attacking weather, and their attack is still their Achilles heel.
“So, it’s a set-piece to set-piece battle that they want to create, but as soon as it comes to a side that matches you in the set-piece battle, we don’t get reward, and then you’ve got to go play rugby through shape and structure, that’s where they fall down. For me, that’s where their massive shortcoming is.
“Something will have to change because, like they’ve got big bodies, they’ve got athletes all around the park, but they don’t have the ability or structure to let these players play rugby. And within that structure, a great player flourishes; he sees different pictures, and he creates one-on-ones. We should be talking of the Sharks as a top-four side, to be honest.”
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Hanyani Shimange’s verdict
Injuries plagued the Sharks late in the season, but former Bok hooker Hanyani Shimange still believes that they underperformed.
“Yeah, that’s true,” he said.
“They’ve got 22 players out injured, but they have got youngsters like Siyaya and Gilomee in terms of the structures. They’ve got good young props and stars like Ox Nche, Andre Esterhuizen, and now they are looking for a 10, an experienced fly-half. But in terms of talent and what they’ve got, they’ve underachieved this season.”
