The Hollywoodbets Sharks should not have been happy to see that their Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarterfinal against Munster is to kick-off at 6.30 in the evening as the last game of a 31 May triple header.
It’s definitely not the only reason for their high error rate and apparent failure to get into proper gear with their attacking game, but the dew which caused a wet ball that surprised them in their last two home games against the two Welsh teams, the Ospreys and the Scarlets, did not help them.
The game against the Scarlets this past weekend was particularly hard on the eye for spectators, and it is to the credit of the stadium DJ, who Supersport commentator Joel Stransky at one point described as a challenger for the man of the match award, managed to keep the vibe in the stadium going.
Perhaps there is a new breed of spectator going to games at Hollywoodbets Kings Park that is less purist in approach for while the game was horrible on television and there must have been many neutrals who switched off, there did seem to be a good atmosphere in the stadium. Marco Massotti, who heads up the American company that owns the Sharks, told me last year that he wanted to make a day out at rugby an experience rather than everything just revolve around winning, and maybe he’s succeeding in that.
THEY ARE WINNING BUT JUST DOING IT THE UGLY WAY
Actually, the Sharks are winning. They’ve won four tough games in a row now, two overseas at Edinburgh and Ulster and the two in Durban. They’ve just been doing it the ugly way and if there are any in the Kings Park crowd who still think of the Izak van Heerden inspired Natal reputation as the running province they’ve been living on another planet for quite a while now. The legendary former Natal coach from the halcyon running rugby years of the 1960s died in 1973 so it’s been 52 years but if there’s anything left of his body it would have been spinning in the grave last weekend, as
well as the weekend before that and when the Sharks were in Edinburgh last month and somehow scraped an arm-wrestle.
The Sharks have an excellent and well travelled attack coach in David Williams and head coach John Plumtree spoke of rejuvenating the Sharks’ attacking game when he took over at the start of last season. But while the Durban team’s defence under Joey Mongalo has progressed to the point that, along with their set phase play, it is their match winner, the attacking game seems to be in sharp decline.
Plumtree lamented the high error rate and said his team would have to be much better if they hope to progress past Munster, who won the competition in 2023 by beating the DHL Stormers in a Cape Town final so have experience of winning away playoff games. Indeed, on their way to the trophy two years ago they played every playoff game away from Limerick.
