Dyer captains fired-up Sharks XV against Stormers XXIII

Week two in the Carling Currie Cup proved to be a round of big results for the smaller unions, with the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV, Vodacom Blue Bulls and DHL Stormers XXIII all going down in their fixtures.

It was a case of missed opportunities in a game where the Sharks XV were certainly in the running for victory but for a late rally from the hosts to create a scoreboard margin that didn’t reflect the true nature of how tight the match actually was.

“We created a lot of opportunities but didn’t capitalise on them,” head coach Mike Vowles said afterwards.

“The Toyota Cheetahs, when they did get opportunities, sometimes against the run of play, took their chances.”

Vowles also paid tribute to a returning Springbok who has come back to South Africa after playing abroad and certainly injected life into the Cheetahs’ attack.

“Faf de Klerk was absolutely fantastic and really swung the game in their favour, we weren’t able to contain him. That was probably the point of difference.”

In summing up, the Sharks XV coach admitted that he was “Obviously very disappointed with the result, I don’t think the scoreboard was necessarily a true reflection of our performance. At 29-21 with 10 minutes to go, I thought we still had an opportunity to win the game and for 70 minutes, I felt we were in the game. We just needed to convert. I thought our kicking game gave us some reward and our transition game was really good”.

“There were a lot of opportunities that we missed, particularly in that period from the second half to about 50 or 60 minutes, we had a couple of 22m entries that we didn’t convert into points and when we started to chase the game at the back end, things got a bit loose and the Toyota Cheetahs obviously capitalised on the opportunities they got.”

He explained that this is a team that is still finding their feet and it’s only their second game together, so he expects they will find cohesion and we will find a little bit of synergy as they play more.

“I’m incredibly proud of the team and the effort and fight they showed. I think if we didn’t have opportunities, there would be more concern but the fact that we are creating opportunities and we had times in the game where we could have taken it away from them a bit is a massive positive.

“We’ll learn some tough lessons out of this but when we imposed our DNA on them, there were some good moments, so we’ll continue to build on that

“The work going into next week will be about how we can convert those 22m entries and those opportunities into points but we will be better going into our game against the DHL Stormers XXIII, having had a good gauge of where we are and which areas need to be fixed.”

Saturday’s third round Carling Currie Cup coastal derby pits a traditional rivalry of local rugby between Durban and Cape Town, as the Sharks XV take on the Stormers XXIII at DHL Stadium.

Both sides come off a win-and-loss record in the opening fortnight’s action and each will be determined to rectify that record this weekend.

The Sharks Next Gen, coached by Neil Powell, will also be in action as title-holders in the SA Rugby Under-20 Cup, taking on the Western Province Bolts in the opening round in the 12pm curtain-raiser.

Vowles has bolstered his side for the 3pm game with returning victorious SA Under-20 Baby Bok stars in his quest to inject extra excitement to his Carling Currie Cup side, off the back of a result that could have gone either way last Friday.

“We’re a team that speaks about being process-driven and we want to build on our performances from week-to-week, so our expectation going into this match is that we have to be better than we were in the last two games,” he explained as his side prepare for their third away match in a row.

“There are certain things we did exceptionally well in the previous games that we want to build on and to fix the stuff we didn’t quite execute as well as we should have, so the idea would be to improve and most importantly, put in a good performance for 80 minutes because I think in both games, we’ve fallen away in that back quarter, so we want to make sure we put in an 80-minute performance on Saturday.”

In that regard, Vowles has made some adjustments to the group, including four Under-20s that have come back into the system.

“They come with massive potential, they’re exciting rugby players and we feel that including them will give us some punch in the final quarter of the game and that they have a really positive influence on our performance,” he explained.

Vowles has selected Luan Gilliomee at fullback with Khuthi Rasivhaga, Liam van Wyk and Rambo Kubheka playing off the bench.

“We know the DHL Stormers XXIII have come off a big loss and there will be a response from them, they’ll come out fighting, so we anticipate a really high tempo, very physical match.

“But we’ve had a good week of prep and we’ve made some changes to the team which speaks to how we want to play and how we want to finish the game.”

DHL Stormers XXIII starting XV: 15 Dylan Miller, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Markus Muller, 12 Josh Boulle, 11 Mfundo Ndhlovu; 10 Kyle Smith, 9 Stefan Ungerer (capt); 8 Wandile Mlaba, 7 Louw Nel, 6 Keke Morabe; 5 Gary Porter, 4 Tom Barnard; 3 Herman Lubbe, 2 Vernon Paulo, 1 Hencus van Wyk. Replacements: 16 Altus Rabe, 17 Mhleli Khuzwayo, 18 Danie Kruger, 19 Gerbrandt Grobler, 20 Xola Nyali, 21 Ezekiel Ngobeni, 22 Gino Cupido, 23 Kian Davis.

Hollywoodbets Sharks XV starting XV: 15 Luan Giliomee, 14 Christie Grobbelaar, 13 Marnus Potgieter, 12 Janco Purchase, 11 Lyle Matthews; 10 Tim Swiel, 9 Ross Braude; 8 Thomas Dyer, 7 Danio Botha, 6 Luann Olivier; 5 Deon Slabbert, 4 Johan Momsen; 3 Simphiwe Ngobese, 2 Bryce Calvert, 1 Cameron Dawson. Replacements: 16 Liam van Wyk, 17 Phiwayinkosi Kubheka, 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 19 Hanu Pieterse, 20 Jean-Henri Smit, 21 Juan Loots, 22 Albie Bester, 23 Khuthi Rasivhaga.