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Sharks ready for a first Super Rugby title?

Aphelele Fassi ready to counter-attack against the HIghlanders. (Photo by Teaukura Moetaua/Getty Images)

Of all the teams to catch the eye at the beginning of the 2020 Super Rugby season, perhaps none have exceeded expectations as much as the Sharks.

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The Durban-based franchise have never won the competition, although they came close in 1996, 2001, 2007 and 2012, ending up as losing finalists on all four of those occasions. For the most part, they have been a side that has been competitive at the latter stages of the tournament, as well as one of the standard bearers for South African rugby.

Given the exodus of players to Europe and Japan from the country, however, as well as the rise of the Lions in recent seasons, the Sharks’ fortunes have diminished of late. Despite qualifying for the quarter-finals in 2019, the exodus was unrelenting, as the franchise bid farewell to the likes of Tendai Mtawarira, Coenie Oosthuizen, Akker van der Merwe and the three du Preez brothers, among plenty of others.

Heading into it, the 2020 season had a significant element of rejuvenation for the Sharks, not only for the considerable turnover in personnel, but also the volume of talented prospects their pathway had involved in the South African U20 side last year. Between integrating the youngsters, settling in the new arrivals and dealing with the losses of experienced players, optimism around the Sharks’ title hopes this year was cautious at best.

That said, the Sharks, now under new head coach Sean Everitt, have made an excellent start to the campaign. They recorded a 23-15 win over the Bulls in their opener, a crucial match in helping them take dominance in the South African conference, before heading over to Dunedin and making the Highlanders look extremely poor in a 42-20 victory at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

Continue reading below…

Watch: Sean Everitt and Lukhanyo Am face the media before the season

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They now head to Wellington to take on the Hurricanes, before finishing their tour in Australia with games against the Rebels and Reds. On current form, the Sharks may well be disappointed if they do not record at least two wins from those final three tour games.

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Their back three of Aphelele Fassi, Sbu Nkosi and Makazole Mapimpi is flying, the centre combination of Andre Esterhuizen and Lukhanyo Am complements its component parts and Curwin Bosch continues to establish himself as an option for the Springboks at fly-half. Up front, Ox Nche and Thomas du Toit look comfortable as starting props and Ruben van Heerden, Sikhumbuzo Notshe and James Venter are giving Everitt plenty of punch further back in his pack. Of that group, Mapimpi is the oldest at 29, whilst the others are all 26 years of age or younger, with plenty of development still to come.

With those ‘veterans’ – relative to the general level of top level experience now in South African Super Rugby squads – stepping up and creating a winning environment at the franchise, Everitt and the Sharks have the perfect foundation from which to start integrating and blooding their remarkably talented crop of youngsters.

The scrum-half pairing of Sanele Nohamba and Jaden Hendrikse seem to be first up, with Nohamba having already made his mark in the opening two games of the season. With the pack going well and providing a platform, the jobs of these two gifted half-backs are made a whole lot easier. They’ll jockey with one another for position over the course of the season, although as stands Nohamba is the favoured man.

Into the back row and the Sharks can call on Phepsi Buthelezi, the South Africa U20 captain from last year, and Celimpilo Gumede, who has another year of U20 eligibility still available to him. Buthelezi made his Super Rugby debut last year and will likely get first crack at a spot in the 23 this season due to his experience and leadership qualities, though Gumede is not far behind him purely as a rugby player, and both are blessed with work rate, technical skill and dynamism.

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There are other players to keep an eye on, too, such as Dylan Richardson, JJ van der Mescht – assuming he doesn’t soon head to France as has been rumoured – and Emile van Heerden, all of whom starred at the U20 level for the Junior Springboks last year. Former South Africa U20 captain Jeremy Ward waits in the wings for his opportunity, as does Madosh Tambwe, Michael Kumbirai and Fez Mbatha, in what has been an under the radar but excellently orchestrated rebuild of the Sharks senior side.

They are far from the finished article, but if a side is winning games, successfully bringing through young stars, recruiting intelligently without breaking the bank and managing to accomplish all of those whilst dealing with annual exoduses to Europe and Japan, then something is going very right in Durban at the moment.

The story of last season was the Jaguares’ rise to prominence and march to the Super Rugby final. Maybe this season it will be the continuing evolution of a young and exciting Sharks side that seems to be prospering in the adversity faced by South African franchises in the competition.

Watch: Crusaders star Sevu Reece extends his contract with the franchise

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O
Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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