Ex Supersport
Veteran scrumhalf Michael Claassens has urged his teammates to ensure that above all else they keep their cool in the face of the fiery Latin temperament when they face off against the Jaguares in a crucial Vodacom Super Rugby Africa Conference 2 clash at Kings Park on Saturday.
The Sharks have been more disciplined this season than they have been in recent years. It was around this time two years ago that it all fell apart for them when they had two players, Bismarck du Plessis and Frans Steyn, red carded in a tempestuous clash with the Chiefs (a game they ironically won) and then a few weeks later it was Jean Deysel’s turn to be red carded against the Crusaders. It led to costly suspensions.
This year there has only been one Sharks player who has been in hot water. Lock Etienne Oosthuizen was suspended following a citing for an incident in the opening match against the Chiefs, and then he was at the centre of the controversy around the TMO rulings in last week’s big clash with the Emirates Lions in Johannesburg. First a try was disallowed because of an innocuous hold near the head of a Lions player during a loose scrum that led to the score, and then he was yellow carded for an incident that coach Robert du Preez rightly said happens a lot in a game.
Rugby is a contact sport after all, and one of the reasons the Sharks did so well last week – they were most unlucky to lose – was the aggression put into the forward effort in particular. So it is easy to feel sorry for Oosthuizen. The look of incredulity and confusion that creased his face each time a call went against him was probably genuine.
But while Oosthuizen was unlucky in Johannesburg, the message that should have been drummed out in the late evening gloom and then under the Emirates Airlines Park lights should have been an unambiguous one – forget the complicity of over-officious TMOs or referees in it, indiscipline does hamper your game and the only way to be immune from the vagaries of officialdom is to stay on the right side of the line.
And if the Sharks want to know how much it can hamper a team, they just need to ask their opponents on Saturday. They were stymied regularly by cards in their first season in Super Rugby, and it is because they have sorted out that aspect of their game that they are doing so well now.
“In their first season of Super Rugby the Jaguares probably overdid it but they appear to have sorted that out now,” said 34-year-old Claassens, who knows the Argentine temperament well after playing with so many Argentineans in his many years playing club rugby in Europe.
“They can be temperamental and emotional, and always very competitive. It is why they are so physical. I played with and against many of them overseas and I know what makes them tick. But they have learned from last year (the red and yellow cards). They are also playing shrewder rugby and are not running the ball from everywhere like they did before.”
Claassens said that faced with the passion and physicality of such determined and temperamental opponents, the Sharks would have to place a higher premium than usual on discipline.
“They have not lost their aggression, they are just more controlled,” said Claassens.
“Discipline has to be a major focus for us this week. It is everything in fact. Our discipline has actually been very good this season. Although last week we let ourselves down by giving away more penalties than usual. We cannot afford that this Saturday. We must not get involved in scraps off the ball. It is an important game for us and if we want the log points we need to keep our cool.”
Claassens reiterated what the Sharks coaches have already said this week by pointing out that there’d be no lack of motivation for the Durbanites.
“We want this one. The guys were very positive in the change room after the Lions game. Yes there was initial disappointment at having lost a game after playing so well. We knew it had just not gone our way. But the talk soon switched to fixing it and getting the crucial points that are up for grabs against the Jaguares.”
The Sharks team will be announced later on Thursday.
