Another weekend of poor games by SA teams

I know we won 3 out of 4 this weekend but every game I watched I just felt the quality was lacking. A lot of errors and it feels like the teams are relying just on individual brilliance or the south African default which is the scrum.

Worst game for me was the sharks. Wow, how poor were they. Who were dishing out punishment, ex shark player. De Kock.

The whole shark game felt disconnected.

For the Bulls, the pack really help them and only Willie was one of the boks who actually made a difference bar it for his dumb play towards the end, but he created so much fluidity in the backline.

As for the Stormers, just felt it was the Sasha show taken the world upon his shoulders. He was able to retrieve one of his bombs through a lucky bounce, broke the line well to score his second and then got Gelant into a gap with a brilliant pass. Willemse on the other hand wasnt so effective for me.

Why am I moaning. The sharks, I was so looking forward to that game. Yet, the couldn't get two passes in the backline. Culprits, the whole bloody backline except for Hooker.

However, the crux of the problem is that all these boks has been with the boks for the past 5 months. They missed pre season training and two of the starting games. Having Sasha and Willemse join wasn't so disruptive as it was only two players being added.

Where as the Sharks had something like 11 boks that joined late.

On top of that, the unions don't have that much time with them. They have to rush them back before the November window and then they have them for two months before they have to take another two month break, and then it is the run to the finals.

April and May is probably the only time the boks are properly integrated with the teams.

It is a liability having them in your team these days.

We saw how poor Pollard was for the bulls.

I blame Rassie for having such a big squad and wanting players in training all the time.

He needs to trim the training group and release those players that won't make the cut.

It is not fair on our unions that are paying top dollar to bring the back only to have a player that looks useless when we all know how good they are.

Unless the Southern Hemisphere season aligns with North, Sharks are going have this problem.

Apparently South Africa, Australia and Argentina are happy to have the Rugby Championship at the same time as the 6 Nations but New Zealand are holding out but I believe they would be willing to make the change if the 6 Nations was pushed forward by two weeks.

Other than not sure what else the Sharks can do, primarily focus on the non Springbok players as the core of the team and when the Springboks are available don't just pick them automatically but bring in few at a time to avoid having too many players on at a time to avoid ending up with a large number of players who haven't played together much.

Other than that maybe the Sharks would be wise to let a few of the Springboks go to the Bull's/Stormers to balance the load.

"Other than not sure what else the Sharks can do"

Get a better coach.

There is no excuse for a lot of the problems the Sharks have. All the way from game management to basic attacking and defensive strategy, what we're seeing borders on farcical.

The amount of basic errors, disjointedness, individuals playing as individuals and causing turnovers and broken attacks...and it was exactly the same last season. Literally the entire season.

EG Look at what Werner did for Ulster yesterday. He could do that because despite them having lesser personnel, they are well coached and were far more cohesive. They looked like they had a strategy, a direction and a way they wanted to play.

I honestly think that having guys like Eben, Bongi, AE, Vince, Siya is a "problem" for Plumtree. It's like he's afraid to impose his will on them because they're all two-time WC winners and big names. It's not that I think they won't listen, more than he's just not man enough to fully take charge of the side. I feel like he perhaps takes too much advice from them. Who knows, it could be a way for him to limit his own liability.

The result is a team that looks like a bloody headless chicken half the time and like a chicken with its head on backwards the rest of the time.

Whatever is going on there is unacceptable and as Pakie wrote on the different thread, I don't know how their coach has kept his job after last season.

Side note: why in the F does zbatho get subbed in with a few minutes left and the game long gone? What is the point? Does he learn anything from that? Does anyone gain absolutely anything from that? If so, I can't see it.

I think Pakie said it on the Stormers game thread, but I have to agree that Sacha tries to much being a Solo act.

He should focus more on creating for his fellow Backline players, he has the goods to do exactly that.

That unfortunately means being unselfish and not always being the Superstar.

I’ve noticed lately that he can be a bit egotistical.

Especially after the Pumas game, his head is to big. He should take a step back and Learn from a unselfish Team player like Andre Esterhuisen.

Andre unselfishly offloads and creates for his teammates.

That means he might not get to score so many tries, but he is absolutely Vital in furthering the cause of the TEAM!

More examples of unselfish team players is Eben and off Course Franco Mostert.

Plum, have to agree the sharks coaching is poor, but they have been for some time now. Everitt got booted, although, just before Covid struck, sharks were to of Super rugby. Then that expat sa yank came in and bought the sharks and he went for big name players like Bongi, Koch, Etzebeth, Kolisi etc. All bringing their own problems along. Either book commitment, off field antics. Remember Kolisi wanting to cash in and went to France, then had to come back.

My biggest problem is them wanting to black wash everything. They are on a mission to get as many black players on the field. How many good white players have left only to pop up somewhere else. The sharks never been a union that produces talent, they always by them in. Look how many lions players they bring and these guys have been a failure. We know how good the Tsesukas are, but have they played.

In their pack they had Orie, Pepsi and both were useless. Kolisi was just going through the notions. Even was pap. The sharks as a union is a problem and their administration has been a problem for some time now

Agree about the coaching of the Sharks- but the rest of the story about underperformance stem from none-thinking backline players at 10 and 12. The coach cannot think fhe plaers on the field who cannot read games properly and fuck up royaly in execution based on developing situations. Ball skills ad BS execition went missing in the case of Esterhuizen and added to it a mediocre flyhalf and that ended up in a loss where the Sharks had two penalty tries being scored by the forwards and the abckline failed miserably starting with the players in the 10 and 12 position.which frustrate Hooker and Van der Merwe totally.

This is not the first match in the present which the Sharks was disgraced by a failed backline - in all four matches it was the same in match after match and was made worse by Esterhuizen frustrating both Hooker and Van der Merwe endlessly. When at breakdowns the 12 standing around near to breakdowns and being totally out of position where attacks is possible one has to read the situation of what happened properly.

Teehee :)

Esterhuizen is for sure the best backline player in world rugby.

So much better than anyone at the Stormers.

If Sacha keeps improving, he may be as good as Esterhuizen one day.

I'm sure we all agree

Hell - Esterhuizen is super shit as a backline player and yesterday proved it again, He is as thick as brick when it comes to playing thinking rugby and is constantly out of positon and takes the wrong decisions. Serfentin for the Buls was poor - for the Sharks Esterhuizen beats him handsdown.

If Sacha keeps improving, he may be as good as Esterhuizen one day.

Brain has been totally taken over by BS

LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO

Rassie's fancy analing software that like makes calcitations no one else in the world can makes has shown that Esterhuizen is 7.03% better than the other rugby player in the world if you puts all their stats together and multiprong by 3 on the square roots but only the special program that Rassie use can do that not the low class softwhores that ESPN makes what only show protest tacklings.

Stormers won...enough for me to salvage the weekend.

It isa all about he shit made out of the Sharks on Saturday with the S aharks foewards rei gn suppreme and the backline sffering 90% from poor play, It was made absoltely clear when Williams skipped the whole backline and made a pass to Mapimi leading to a try being scored,

The Sharks had rugby dead heads at 10 and 12 on Saturday and that ruined totally potential backline attacking play. Solving that problem is the only option available to the Sharks to stop their rapid decline as a competitive team.

I think I should remind you fo my match forcast when I posted the team:-

Still think the Sharks will lose against Ulster on Saturday,

On Superbru I made a forecast the Sharks would lose by 7 points - they lost by 8 points.

On what was my prediction based? It was based on the misfiring I expected from the Sharks backline imvolving the 10 and 12 positions and that in the end was 100% justified,

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