There was one thing I could not understand about the team selection for the Sharks today and that is why they did not have Du Tout in the starting line up = he made a huge difference when he came off the bench for them aand I still believe he should be the Sharks number 1 lock,
Yes he did Mike. But that was when a very overwhelmed Cheetahs pack was under the cosh. The game was wide open and a fast, young lock was bound to look good. Let's see how he goes against tougher opposition before we reach conclusions.
I did say elsewhere that he seems to have muscled up in the off season, which is encouraging.
Mozart you're a hypocrite.
Mike, what was clear to me was that, after the initial flurry by the Cheetahs, the Sharks took control of the game and a hiding was on the cards. Then a couple of things happened. The Cheetahs started playing very loose and started throwing the ball around and they sucked the Shark into this style of play. The Sharks players then started to show their lack of match fitness, bearing in mind they only played two very low key warm-ups as compared to the Cheetahs who played three, all against quality opposition. Also, the willy-nilly use of the subs broke a lot of structure and Plum must take the blame for this.
I'm very happy with this result as its a better start than we usually have. If the Sharks can produce the same type of game as they did from 20m to about 60min, I see no reason why they cant beat the Stormers at home, especially taking into account the dismal performance the Stormers produced on Friday.
One thing is for sure, the Stormers need to do something about their scrumming as the Sharks scrum was totally dominant, even more after the over-rated Coenie came onto the park.
