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URC WRAP: Sharks are tearing up the script

rugby17 February 2025 06:30
By:Gavin Rich
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Sharks @ Gallo Images

This was supposed to be the weekend where the Vodacom Bulls, playing an understrength Hollywood Sharks team at their Loftus fortress, moved into the pound seats in their quest for a top two position on the Vodacom United Rugby Championship log. It didn’t turn out that way.

Instead of the Bulls building on their narrow away win over the DHL Stormers the week before, something they hadn’t done before in the URC and which it was therefore assumed would represent a psychological barrier they had travelled through, it is now the Sharks who are writing a departure to what had become the anticipated script.

Up until now it has been widely assumed that the Bulls were shaping up as the top South African team and the local flag-bearers, the team best equipped to challenge Glasgow Warriors for what will ultimately be a runner up position to the runaway log leaders, Leinster.

But while the Bulls do still have a one point lead on the Sharks, and are third to the Durban team’s fourth, it is hard now to argue against any contention that the Sharks are now moving into the position they have been expected to be in ever since the American consortium, MVM, became their equity partners and made them the richest South African franchise. In other words, they have become the top local team and this country’s best hope.

HEAD TO HEAD REFLECTS DURBANITES ARE TOP LOCAL TEAM

Look at the facts. Perhaps the URC Shield log, which now only includes derby matches, would be irrelevant if the Bulls had opened up their anticipated big lead on the overall log. But given that there is only one point between them, the fact that the Sharks are leading the Shield is significant when it comes to determining which local side is most likely to go all the way.

There are other facts that back up the perception that the Sharks are now the leading local team, such as that the loss they conceded to a late try in the Stormers game in Cape Town just before New Year was their only defeat to another SA team in the URC season.

They’ve beaten the Bulls twice, and while it is true that the Bulls are currently also missing key players, it is the Sharks who have been far the most under-strength in both games.

They scraped home in Durban before Christmas but in the latest game they won more comfortably. They were at Loftus, and there was no Eben Etzebeth, no Andre Esterhuizen, no Ox Nche, no Vincent Koch, no Siya Kolisi, no Jaden Hendrikse, no Makazole Mapimpi, no Aphelele Fassi…and not even James Venter, who is also injured. You can add in a whole lot of others like Dylan Richardson, Emile van Heerden etc.

COMING OF AGE

That the Sharks could go to Loftus and win while missing more than half a team of frontline players reflects a coming of age for the Durban side. Up until now one thing holding back any optimism about the Sharks’ ability to go all the way in the URC was the perceived wide chasm in capabilities between the first and second choice teams.

You’d hesitate to suggest that the side that went to Loftus was completely second string, but it wasn’t far off it. The identity of the man of the match was also significant.

The Sharks were without their regular openside flank, the aforementioned Venter, and Richardson also wasn’t there. So up stepped Tino Masevere. And the Zimbabwean wasn’t the only non frontline player to shine.

For the Sharks to compete they need more than just their first choice team of Galactico World Cup winners, they also need to have what Leinster have by being able to draw on a competitive second string team.

Thanks to better recruiting and also the cleverer selection that has built up the experience of the backup players, they are now heading towards that. And it is why they are now the local team with arguably the best hope of following the Stormers lead from a few years ago by winning the URC.

Leinster are unlikely to throw it away this year as they have in the past and have improved their depth with the acquisition of overseas players like Jordie Barrett and RG Snyman. The chances are the final will be in Dublin this year. We saw what their second string team did to the Stormers there a few weeks ago, and at full strength they are two thirds of the Ireland team currently riding high in the Guinness Six Nations.

Leinster won’t be coming to SA to be ambushed this time around so it does look like a full strength, Bok laden Sharks side might be the best or even only SA hope.

The irony of the Loftus win was that many of us assumed that Sharks coach John Plumtree, who was taking a break in New Zealand for most of the three weeks since his team had last played, and it coincided with a month break for most of his Boks, had written February off.

Well, if he did, then Loftus would have been a pleasant surprise for him. A coming of age for his less than full strength team and a further indicator that the other key needed ingredient when he arrived, team culture, has been built too.

MAKING HABIT OF WITHSTANDING BULLS PRESSURE

That the Sharks now do have a good culture was confirmed when they dug deep to beat Clermont in last year’s EPCR Challenge Cup final, but it has been further cemented since then. And their clashes with the Bulls in recent times are a good example.

In addition to the two URC wins over the Bulls, the two sides also met at close to full strength at the end of the Carling Currie Cup season and the Sharks edged out their opponents in two close games there too.

Having the Sharks down to 13 or 12 men at some point has been something of a recurring theme in those games and yet the Sharks have weathered the storm on every occasion. It says they have the desire, the drive, the commitment and the ambition that may have previously lacking, and they also have the composure.

What of the Bulls? Their director of rugby Jake White said after the defeat in Durban that it wasn’t the end of the world, his team was still well placed on the overall log and still top of the SA conference.

Only the second part of that has changed since then. The Bulls are still third, and while the Warriors drew away this weekend to a seven point lead in the race for second spot, the Bulls do have a game in hand on them.

But it means the Bulls are going to have to stop their habit of conspiring against themselves in derby matches, something which to be honest they were pretty adept at in their previous match against the Stormers too were it not for the Stormers being even more charitable than they were by missing what should have been an easy match winning conversion.

The Bulls get a chance to close the gap on Glasgow when they play their game in hand fixture against the Emirates Lions on Saturday. They comfortably beat the Lions in Johannesburg but the Lions, as they showed with their excellent performance against the Stormers at the weekend, are unpredictable.

LIONS WIN SIGNIFICANTLY BOOSTS TOP EIGHT QUEST

They also now have the bit between their teeth when it comes to a top eight finish, and maybe even a top four finish. They only moved up one spot, from 13th to 12th, with their drought-breaking win over the Stormers, but had they nailed a four-try bonus point, which looked likely when they scored three in the first half, they would now be where the Stormers are (10th).

It is important to note they have two games in hand on all the other teams in the logjam that currently exists from fifth place to 14th.

The fifth placed team are the 2022/23 champions, Munster, but their lead of eight points on the Lions is less significant than it appears if you consider that the Lions have two games in hand. It won’t be easy for the Lions to close that gap though as they have games home and away against the Sharks to come after they play the Bulls.

And the Sharks should be nearing full strength by then as the Sharks’ rest month will be over. Some rest month it has been for their franchise!

With the Stormers hoping to also be back towards full strength later in March, it is reasonable to assume that all four local teams can still make the top eight, meaning URC playoff and Investec Champions Cup qualification. And the Bulls and Sharks both look almost certain top four finishers, meaning home ground advantage in the first playoff game.

While the Stormers and Bulls will be kicking themselves for losing, the other results from the weekend did help them, such as Edinburgh losing to Zebre and Cardiff to Connacht. For a while it looked like the Dragons might help out too, but even understrength Glasgow ended up having too much for them and will be a significant obstacle to a South African top two finish.

WEEKEND VODACOM URC RESULTS (ROUND 11)

Ospreys 19 Leinster 22

Edinburgh 17 Zebre 22

Emirates Lions 30 DHL Stormers 23

Vodacom Bulls 19 Hollywoodbets Sharks 29

Munster 29 Scarlets 8

Benetton 34 Ulster 19

Connacht 24 Cardiff Rugby 19

Dragons 20 Glasgow Warriors 45

Log Position

1. Leinster 52 points after 11 games, 2. Glasgow Warriors 42 points after 11 games, 3. Vodacom Bulls 35 points after 10 games, 4. Hollywoodbets Sharks 34 points after 10 games, 5. Munster 31 points after 11 games, 6. Cardiff Rugby 30 points after 11 games, 7. Benetton 28 points after 11 games, 8. Scarlets 27 points after 11 games, 9. Edinburgh 25 points after 11 games, 10. DHL Stormers 24 points after 11 games, 11. Connacht 24 points after 11 games, 12. Emirates Lions 23 points after 9 games, 13. Ospreys 23 points after 11 games, 14. Ulster 23 points after 11 games, 15. Zebre 20 points after 11 games, 16. Dragons 8 points after 11 games.

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