if you bait the Sharks they bite!!!!!
The Sharks’ 63-40 win over the Blues in Auckland on Saturday must rank right up there with the best away victories in Super Rugby’s 22-year history.
It definitely is the most remarkable of any that required a team to cross the Atlantic Ocean to notch up such a result.
Up until Saturday it was impossible to imagine a New Zealand side conceding so many points at home against overseas opposition, but the Sharks - with their six converted tries and their seven penalties - managed to make all the so-called experts choke on their coffee by doing just that.
What made the outcome even more impressive is the fact that the Blues are not a bad side by any stretch of the imagination. It is the same crew that upset the B&I Lions a couple of months ago, SA's Lions just the other day in Johannesburg, and haven’t lost to a fellow New Zealand side by more than seven points this year.
And it wasn’t a Blues side that merely had a bad day at the office either, as them matching the Sharks’ try-count on the day will attest. No, they were a good side playing decent rugby, it just wasn’t enough against the particular Sharks side that pitched that day at their hallowed Eden Park.
It is, quite rightly, a day that all Sharks fans will remember for as long as they live.
And it is no different for us here at the SuperWrap desk, except for the fact that not all our memories of this momentous occasion will be as fond.
The reason for that is because we won’t be fooled into only remembering how they won, but also when (and therefore why) they did it.
The Sharks coaches were quick to explain the shock result by talking about their side having lost the fear of losing in the build-up and how they prepared for the fixture with an eye on playing an accurate and adventurous brand of rugby.
Take all of that with a big pinch of salt. If what they were saying was true, it would imply that – as team management - they coached the exact opposite the rest of the season.
No, the Sharks win came because the entire outfit was shamed into action after that embarrassing 46-14 loss against the Rebels in Melbourne the week before. It wasn’t “having nothing to lose” that made them click, it was the realisation that if they didn’t change drastically, their humiliation would only become bigger. (Beeno roasted the Sharks for their gutless display)
For all the talk of improved accuracy on attack, the win was based entirely on a new-found intensity, especially upfront. The Sharks set-piece and physicality in contact is what allowed everything else to fall in place. (Agree)
And herein lies the problem: intensity levels are almost always a matter of choice.
If the players chose to up the intensity in Auckland, why didn’t they also choose to do so in Melbourne (or Canberra or Johannesburg)?
Why are this year’s Sharks just another entry on a long list of South African teams that can only perform when they have their backs against the wall? Why do they have to “feel” the need to perform before they actually do?
If anyone out there can actually answer this, then we’ll also be able to explain why the Springboks can lose to Japan and then come within a penalty of beating the All Blacks in the semifinal of the same World Cup.
In no other profession are people allowed to get away with this kind of thinking. A fireman doesn’t save lives because he just happened to feel like it on the day. No, it was his job. A surgeon doesn’t succeed in theatre only in response to being ridiculed for botching his last couple of attempts.
South African players, all of them, need to realise that they too are professionals and should act accordingly.
I understand fully that no player ever runs out onto a field trying to purposefully underperform. No one wants to lose for lack of trying if they can help it. The problem is just that we far too often lack necessary drive, and we haven’t realised yet that we can control it.
If South African rugby teams ever want to perform as consistently as those that we are trying to chase down, then we have to realise that things like effort and accuracy are choices, no longer just an emotional response.
We must train and play to our highest standard at every possible opportunity, and we should do so because we choose to. Not just when something outside of our control made us feel like doing so.
The problem with emotion as a source of motivation is that it inevitably runs out. No one can forever stay ashamed or angry or threatened, and no coach should ever try simulate such an environment. The sooner we can rid our rugby of this need, the sooner we’ll be able to catch those teams that don’t. All it takes is a choice.
The Sharks – fresh off one of South African rugby’s most glorious moments in New Zealand – will take on the Hurricanes this coming weekend. All we can do is hope that they choose to repeat their “we’ll show ‘em” heroics by showing themselves this time what they are really capable of. HOOR HOOR!!!!!
