Bulls to measure Michalak
Blue Bulls backline coach Pieter Rossouw believes nullifying the influence of Sharks flyhalf Frederic Michalak begins with cutting down his space and time.
Michalak has been an influential figure in the Sharks’ campaign since returning from a knee injury which ended his Super 14. Given a consistent run of matches and the chance to grow in combination with scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar and inside centre Frans Steyn, the Frenchman has thrived.
A good performance from him will be central to the success of the Sharks in the Absa Currie Cup final. The Bulls are acutely aware of this and have developed a strategy aimed at ensuring his influence is blunted.
“Any player is vulnerable under pressure and Michalak is no different,” Rossouw told keo.co.za.
“I’ve been really impressed by him this season and we’ll have to put him under pressure to make sure he doesn’t take control of the final because when he gets momentum he is almost impossible to stop. He loves to run, so our defensive organisation will have to be very good.
“I also don’t buy the criticism that he is mentally vulnerable,” he added when probed on Michalak’s ability to cope in pressure matches.
“Perhaps that was the case earlier in his career, but he has 50 caps for France and lots of experience for Toulouse and the Sharks [in the Super 14]. He won’t struggle mentally. That’s not an issue.”
Rossouw did, however, stress that to focus on an individual in a talent-laden Sharks backline would be an error. He highlighted Michalak’s partnership with Pienaar and Steyn, explaining that their differing strengths complemented each other and was part of their success.
“Both Ruan and Frans have good kicking games, where that’s not a strength of Michalak’s,” he explained.
“So they take the pressure off him in that regard and that allows him to focus on his primary strength, which is running at defences and creating opportunities for those around him.
“That’s not to say that Ruan and Frans are limited because they’ve shown in the past that they’re gamebreakers of the highest quality. That makes them so dangerous, they’re so unpredictable.”
No backline can play without a quality platform and eliminating the threat of the above mentioned players will start with gaining the ascendancy at the set phases and breakdown.
The Bulls have performed well in both these facets of play throughout their campaign and Rossouw emphasized how crucial this would be to their goal of winning the title.
“No backline can play without quality ball and while the Sharks have a superb backline they’re no different,” he said.
“If you cut their supply, of which Michalak is a vital part, you win a big part of the battle. That’s our aim.”
By Ryan Vrede
October 21st, 2008 at 6:50 am
Sharks to take this final.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:51 am
There will be no repeat of last year’s Super 14 disappointment.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:54 am
Should be a good game.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:55 am
Boy, Keo gets you writers up early.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:57 am
“Bulls to measure Michalak.”
Here, I’ll save them the trouble: he’s 1.80m (5ft 11in).
October 21st, 2008 at 6:59 am
Was that a tumbleweed?
October 21st, 2008 at 7:07 am
Imo – Sharks are favourites to win cause of home advantages . this is all i will say about the final.
Predictions……
… that arrogant i am not.
Death and taxes are the only certainties.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:11 am
These are two very evenly matched teams. Going to be very tough.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:12 am
#7 Staal: careful this year? but wait the bigmouths will come out soon
i must say i worried about the mind games of Frans
but it seems that HM
left him his manual
October 21st, 2008 at 7:23 am
#7 Staal: Na jy my weke lank herinner het na die S14 final laasjaar (toe nog Sampioenman), sal ek die jaar maar sharrap tot die game verby is…
October 21st, 2008 at 7:24 am
#9 superBul: Einstein left me his manual too. Didn’t help ****.
Other than Frans, the Bulls look awesome.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:26 am
we all know what part meisiekind wants to measure
October 21st, 2008 at 7:30 am
Anyone that has played a few seasons in the French League… can handle pressure… well Matfield excluded… he high-tailed it straight out of there tail betweenst his legs… far to rough and Timotei too expensive to import…
Freddie will be just fine… he didn’t kark under the pressure like Morne did the last time at South Africa’s best stadium…
October 21st, 2008 at 7:33 am
This will be a second rate final without the defending CC Champions playing.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:40 am
Finals are normally very tight games.
This one will not be so.
It will be won comfortably.
Deep down everybody knows by which team!!
October 21st, 2008 at 7:40 am
#13 bryce_in_oz: i wonder why that perenial backline dweller doesn’t cop as much abuse as some others for his lack of involvement in the rough stuff up front?
October 21st, 2008 at 7:41 am
#14 Loosehead: Definitly second rate as there is no Province there as well.
Thank god Chelsea are firing and will at least provide some sporting entertainment this weekend
October 21st, 2008 at 7:41 am
#16 the peanut gallery:
He is forgiven because of his line out skills.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:42 am
BREAKING NEWS
Massive balls of phlegm have been discovered along the Durban beachfront. Police spokesman Curry Naidoo says they believe the phlegm orriginated from the Sharks players, who went for an early morning run along the beachfront.
He believes it to be part of their anti-choking preperation.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:44 am
#18 tight head: he’s a glory boy.
rising high in the line-out where everyone can see you.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:45 am
“Blue Bulls backline coach Pieter Rossouw believes nullifying the influence of Sharks flyhalf Frederic Michalak begins with cutting down his space and time.”
what a novel idea! cutting down the flyhalf’s space and time. he should patent it…
October 21st, 2008 at 7:46 am
Check this out, it looks like Jake White may end up with the Lions, then we’re in the dwang next year! He offered his services to SA rugby and they haven’t even responded to him. Damn, we’re a nation of idiots some times. http://www.planet-rugby.com/Story/0,18259,3551_4362528,00.html
October 21st, 2008 at 7:48 am
#17 Bod: beware, that real football team in red is going to take the title this year.
the time of the flashy, glory boys is over. liverpool is on the rise once again. the giant has awakened.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:54 am
Michalak must definitely be the northern hem. no1 flyhalf this time around. Go liverpool!
October 21st, 2008 at 7:55 am
#22 the peanut gallery: The giants bubble will burst on sunday when it gets involved in the real deal. Late rallies to beat the likes of Wigan and Middlesboro at home wont suffice any longer.
I fear a trip back to slumberland is eminent…
October 21st, 2008 at 8:01 am
#24 Bod:”I fear a trip back to slumberland is eminent”…
a freudian slip perhaps. eminent vs imminent
October 21st, 2008 at 8:02 am
Ya i got to admit chelsea is a different animal
October 21st, 2008 at 8:03 am
#24 Bod:
Welcome back!
October 21st, 2008 at 8:07 am
#27 Dawn: Thanks for the help Dawn.
I dropped you a mail, but am having server issues blocking sending.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:08 am
zzz zzz zzz. Give us some insightful news. What did Schalk eat today, how much longer is Grobbelaar’s hair, and how many times did Luke Puke!
Now THAT’s entertainment.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:10 am
#25 the peanut gallery: mmmm….. I can see the rising fear when we harp on about semantics and avoid the real issue
October 21st, 2008 at 8:11 am
#22 the peanut gallery:
Beware of Arsenal, they have only lost to 2 minnow teams thus far this year.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:11 am
#28 Bod:
No problem.
(As they say in my second home, Jamaica)
October 21st, 2008 at 8:12 am
#31 Greenpoint-Gunner:
Sarky!
October 21st, 2008 at 8:13 am
Let me go to News24
Wanna read about our citizens being gunned down by the Taliban.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:13 am
let me put it this way. chelsea = victor matfield while liverpool = bakkies botha. now we know who’s got more class, but i know who i’d rather take into battle.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:13 am
We talking about soccer now?
October 21st, 2008 at 8:16 am
arsenal se ma se
October 21st, 2008 at 8:17 am
#36 BlueBlood:
Yes, BlueBlood, we are. How does that make you feel?
October 21st, 2008 at 8:17 am
#36 BlueBlood:
ja they talking a whole lotta kakas
October 21st, 2008 at 8:18 am
Goodness
It’s not even there!
October 21st, 2008 at 8:19 am
#34 Dawn:
And some of our citizens have gunned down Taliban members.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:20 am
#38 WP Till I Die: blueblood doesn’t have feelings. feelings are for women and tinkerbells.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:21 am
#41 WP Till I Die: are you looking forward to that as well?
October 21st, 2008 at 8:23 am
#34 Dawn: if you want to mess around in other people’s shite, that’s what you get.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:23 am
#40 Dawn:
Here you go, Dawn:
“Taliban gunmen kill Christian aid worker in Kabul
By Amir Shah
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban assailants on a motorbike gunned down a Christian aid worker in Kabul on Monday and the militants said she was killed for spreading her religion — a rare targeted killing of a Westerner in the nation’s capital.
Gayle Williams, a 34-year-old dual British-South African national who helped handicapped Afghans, was shot to death as she was walking to work about 8 a.m., said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.
A spokesman for the militants said the Taliban ordered her killed because she was accused of proselytizing.
“This woman came to Afghanistan to teach Christianity to the people of Afghanistan,” Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press. “Our (leaders) issued a decree to kill this woman.”
Britain’s secretary of state for international development called the killing a “callous and cowardly act” and said Williams was in Afghanistan to help ease poverty.
“To present her killing as a religious act is as despicable as it is absurd — it was cold blooded murder,” Douglas Alexander said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the aid group, SERVE — Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises — said it is a Christian organization but denied it was involved in proselytizing.
“It’s not the case that they preach, not at all,” said the spokeswoman, Rina van der Ende. “They are here to do NGO (aid) work.”
Afghanistan is a conservative Islamic nation. Proselytizing is prohibited by law, and other Christian missionaries or charities have faced severe hostility. Last year, 23 South Korean aid workers from a church group were taken hostage in southern Afghanistan. Two were killed and the rest were eventually released.
According to its Web site, SERVE is a Christian charity registered in Britain and has been working with Afghan refugees since 1980 in Pakistan.
“SERVE Afghanistan’s purpose is to express God’s love and bring hope by serving the people of Afghanistan, especially the needy, as we seek to address personal, social and environmental needs,” the site says.
A member of Afghanistan’s highest religious council said Monday that rumors have spread over the last two years that Westerners have been preaching Christianity to Afghans.
“We have heard rumors that houses have been rented to preach Christianity in Kabul and some provinces, but we have no evidence that this is taking place,” said council member Jebra Ali. The council previously has made a formal complaint to President Hamid Karzai that Westerners are trying to spread Christianity in Afghanistan.
Monday’s attack adds to a growing sense of insecurity in Kabul. The city is now blanketed with police checkpoints, and embassies, military bases and the U.N. are erecting cement barriers to guard against suicide bombings.
Kidnappings targeting wealthy Afghans have long been a problem in Kabul, but attacks against Westerners have grown recently. In mid-August, Taliban militants killed three women working for the U.S. aid group International Rescue Committee while they were driving in Logar, a province south of Kabul.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a suicide bomber killed two German soldiers and five children in Kunduz province to the north, said Mohammad Omar, the provincial governor. NATO confirmed some of its soldiers were killed or wounded in the attack.
Omar said the soldiers were patrolling on foot when the bomber riding a bicycle hit them. Northern Afghanistan has been spared much of the violence afflicting Afghanistan’s eastern and southern provinces.
West of Kabul, meanwhile, assault helicopters dropped NATO troops into Jalrez district in Wardak province on Thursday, sparking a two-day battle involving airstrikes, the military alliance said in a statement Monday.
More than 20 militants were killed, NATO said.
Wardak province, just 40 miles west of Kabul, has become an insurgent stronghold. Militants have expanded their traditional bases in the country’s south and east — along the border with Pakistan — and have gained territory in the provinces surrounding Kabul, a worrying development for Afghan and NATO troops.
Those advances are part of the reason that top U.S. military officials have warned the international mission to defeat the Taliban is in peril, and why NATO generals have called for a sharp increase in the number of troops.
Some 65,000 international troops now operate in Afghanistan, including about 32,000 Americans.
Speaking in London on Monday, Gen. John Craddock, the head of U.S. European Command and NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe, called into question the political will among alliance members for the mission in Afghanistan.
Commanders have called for more NATO troops to be deployed in the violent south, but some NATO members have refused to move their troops from more peaceful parts of the country and have imposed restrictions on the duties their forces can carry out.
“It is this wavering political will that impedes operational progress and brings into question the relevance of the alliance here in the 21st century,” Craddock told the Royal United Services Institute, a military think tank.
Associated Press reporter Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.”
October 21st, 2008 at 8:24 am
I wonder how blueblood feels sharing his beloved Loftus with Sundowns
October 21st, 2008 at 8:24 am
Keo should really post more soccer columns. He has cricket on here, why not soccer.? We the 2010world cup hosts for pete’s sake doesn’t that mean anything?
October 21st, 2008 at 8:24 am
#41 WP Till I Die:
I believe you.
I’m looking for the story.
No matter how hard you try, I ain’t gonna fight with you!
October 21st, 2008 at 8:25 am
#42 the peanut gallery:
Too true!
#43 the peanut gallery:
Does one ever look forward to it? I will do my duty insofar as my conscience allows it.