Lions down disjointed Sharks
10 Jun 2009
The Lions were good value for their 39-3 victory over the Sharks, but the Springboks won’t be shaking in their boots.
This match was always going to gauge where the Lions stood just 10 days from the first Test, more so than it would be about assessing where the Sharks were in their preparation for the Currie Cup, and in that regard the Springboks won’t be too concerned.
The Lions were hardly awful, in fact, their patience through the phases was impressive, while there were solid performances by individuals, most notably centre Jamie Roberts who carried powerfully all night, and scrumhalf Mike Phillips who has now surely cemented his place in the Test line-up. But for most of the match they sorely lacked a killer edge and the creativity that needs to be there if they hope to upset the Springboks.
They improved as the game wore on, but their improvement has to be viewed in context. This was a severely depleted Sharks side lacking quality players in key backline positions. The 36-point deficit will be labelled emphatic by some, but you are naive if you believe you can equate this match to the standard the Lions will face in the Tests.
The Lions attempted to blend the measured with the expansive, and ended up with an ugly hybrid of the two for most of the contest. Their backline attacks were generally far too lateral to trouble the Sharks, and the fact that flyhalf Ronan O’Gara resorted to speculative cross-kicks and grubbers underlined the lack of creativity and incisiveness in the back division.
The Lions signalled their intention to boss the set phases and driving mauls when they opted for a lineout instead of a goal attempt early in the match. They set up three powerful drives until they eventually turned over possession. The Springboks, watching from the stands, would have noted the tactic, as it is sure to be a primary avenue of attack during the Test series.
The next 40 minutes would be characterised by much of the same, as the Lions camped in the Sharks’ red zone, only to be repelled by some determined defence and a spirited breakdown contest. The routine became predictable – they would cough up possession, jog back to the lineout after the clearing kick had found touch, relaunch their attack, only to be turned over once more when a try seemed a certainty.
Much was made of Saturday’s poor showing at the breakdown, and tonight’s performance won’t do anything to dispel a perception that it is a facet of play they are vulnerable in. What amplified their woes is that on Saturday they were devoid of a specialist opensider, whereas tonight they fielded skilled scrapper David Wallace. The Irishman failed to impose himself, and his cause wasn’t helped by the limp performance of his teammates at the tackle point and breakdown.
Skipper Paul O’Connell promised improved physicality in this facet of play. On the evidence of tonight’s performance he won’t be pleased.
Given their absolute domination of possession, and the sheer number of times they got onto the Sharks’ 5m line, they should have led by at least 25 points at the break. Instead, the deficit was just four points – Rory Kockott taking the only scoring opportunity they had – and their ineptitude, particularly at the breakdown, must alarm the Lions’ coaching staff.
Their problems didn’t end there. The scrums, an area of the game the Lions pride themselves on, wasn’t as efficient as they would have hoped either, with Sharks tighthead Jannie du Plessis pressuring Gethin Jenkins throughout their duel.
The black and white wall offered plenty of resistance, but the pressure was incessant, and they were finally breached when the Lions played off the top of a lineout on the 5m line and punched through two phases before hooker Lee Mears powered over from close range. Ronan O’Gara added the extras.
There was a bittersweet moment halfway through the first half which would have further jolted the tourists.
O’Driscoll has been spoken up as a master, and that he might be, but it’s indisputable that he is an ageing master, evident by the fact that his speed eluded him when he most needed it. He intercepted a pass on his 22m and sprinted clear. In his prime, the Lions faithful would have been celebrating the moment O’Driscoll laid hands on the pill, but as he shifted through the gears it became obvious that the once mighty stallion no longer had the speed that was a key feature of his play at the height of his powers.
Sharks youngster Lwazi Mvovo will one day boast to his grandchildren that he hauled in the great O’Driscoll, but it will be a shallow boast.
The half ended as it had started, with the Lions surrendering possession on the Sharks’ tryline, and the tourists trudged down the tunnel looking bewildered.
They did, however, start the second half more purposefully, and scored soon after the restart when Mike Phillips jinked his way through some diabolical defence to score in the corner. O’Gara missed the conversion, but extended the lead to 12 points (15-3) shortly thereafter with a penalty.
The Lions seemed to click into gear thereafter, troubling the Sharks’ defensive line with every foray. A period of sustained pressure yielded another three points to O’Gara.
The Lions were always going to have the upper hand in the back division given the experience they boasted in comparison to the Sharks’ rookies, and it was through here that they scored their third try.
The ball was shifted wide to O’Driscoll, who drew the last defender and offloaded to Luke Fitzgerald, who was left with a clear run in on goal.
Their fourth was the pick of the bunch, Lee Byrne scything through the defence after an overlap had been created by some smart work by his inside backs. O’Gara kicked his fifth goal to take the Lions 32-3 ahead before Jamie Heaslip touched down after the siren to end the contest.
‘Must do better’ should be the assessment in the Lions’ report card. The Springboks won’t be shuddering in fear.
By Ryan Vrede, at King’s Park.
573 Comments
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10 Jun 2009, 22:28 pm
Stormers will play a better game. They have more of their team to play with this Saturday. Only 4 made the Boks squad. Then again…………Not so sure. They messed up bit with their best against some very poor teams in the S14.
10 Jun 2009, 22:28 pm
#388 mbaxman93: Not so much.
10 Jun 2009, 22:28 pm
#392 Puma: what worries me is what is the mindset of our players going to be like
10 Jun 2009, 22:28 pm
#395 cris:
Reminds one of Jake White
No need to send packing
Has great skills in other aspects of the game
Needs to be complemented by a Pieter Russouw
10 Jun 2009, 22:29 pm
#390 JimT: Me neither. But I like Monye a lot. Bloody race horse.
10 Jun 2009, 22:30 pm
#401 Puma: province is going to get killed on saturday , specially if the lions play with round about the same team as today to gain that momentum
10 Jun 2009, 22:30 pm
#399 XhosaKid:
Hoping Luke plays a Stormer at the breakdowns this Sat
This place will EXPLODE
Shall make for great viewing
10 Jun 2009, 22:30 pm
#394 lightie:
Correct, watch out Lions your first real game of rugby next to the Bafokeng Kings comes this Saturday next against Lukas Kotse and his band of merry kotchers,
we might even have ourselves our very first surprise this tour, wouldn’t surprise me much if we did.
10 Jun 2009, 22:30 pm
#403 sharks_lover: Not so sure. You need game time together. That is very important. WE have nogthing!!!!!! Go figure. Boks are under cooked. If Sharks at least got their 10 players back it would have helped. Should have but never. Always the case with SA rugby.
10 Jun 2009, 22:31 pm
#409 Puma: nogthing = nothing.
10 Jun 2009, 22:32 pm
#399 XhosaKid: He better.
#400 skopskiet: Doubt it my friend.
10 Jun 2009, 22:33 pm
#408 skopskiet: Don’t put too much money on it.
10 Jun 2009, 22:34 pm
#408 skopskiet: Come now skop. Thats getting ahead of yourself. Really be real about this. Our Sharks never had 9 of their best. You cant count that. Our Boks with no game time is going to cost them huge. Huge bloody mistake by stupid coaches. We have brilliant players. Lets hope they just do the business. Think they will and the coach he is a joke well coaches.
10 Jun 2009, 22:34 pm
Cant see WeePee taking it this Saturday
We’re in a rather bad state at the moment
Lions will hold to much
As for the next match at Newlands
Reckon the Emerging Boks could do it
10 Jun 2009, 22:34 pm
wtf knows does not scare me, its prep and lack of one of cj or cj there that gives me nightmares. thats first one could catch us cold, if it all goes tits up, there aint no plan B.
Plan B is a recognised TH, a fetcher like brussouw whose going to scrap to try compensate for a beaten tight 5.
in fairness to the Boks tho they are class from 1-15, provided they are committed they will win, if not, they will lose, but that goes without saying.
Guess what i’m saying is this is not the type of touring NH side that has visited our shores recently, its stronger than a touring oz side and about as strong as a touring AB side with its depth at tight 5.
10 Jun 2009, 22:34 pm
#409 Puma: i enjoyed Mvovo on the wing tonight , quite strong and fast , and looked for work
10 Jun 2009, 22:36 pm
#413 Puma: ingore the moron bro he is only here to start trouble
his mother deserted him as a cub so he seeks attention elsewhere
10 Jun 2009, 22:36 pm
#406 sharks_lover: Well think they may not. We played the team that will play the Boks. No way will that sly and smart Scot coach of theirs play a Lions team that will face the Boks the very next week. It will be their 2nd side that will face the Stormers. We faced the Lions that will face our Boks.
10 Jun 2009, 22:36 pm
#409 Puma: Boet. We are usually bitching that they are OVERCOOKED.
These guys have just finished a brutal S14.
Ruan. Steyn. Adi. Schalk. JdV. Groot Bek. Are all coming off injuries.
There are good combos that know how to play together.
The biggest risk we face is putting out a dof 22 with Rose, Fatty, Nokwe on the park.
We have made the errors of omitting Zane and Brussow. We musn’t compound them.
10 Jun 2009, 22:37 pm
#397 SodaJoe:
Not a Brussouw. He will do a Burger. It’s not all about one player tallying up turnovers.
10 Jun 2009, 22:37 pm
#412 SodaJoe:
You may be putting too much money on the opposite, watch and witness a game of rugby come Saturday, Joe Pietersen, Grant, Bobo, Watson, Lebenberg, Fondse, gonna take the game to these tourists. Watch net.
10 Jun 2009, 22:38 pm
#415 cab: aye
But I worry about everything else too.
10 Jun 2009, 22:39 pm
#415 cab:
Doubt whether PdV intends on scrapping for the ball
Looks like we simply going out to moer up front
No small guy with technical super skills ala Brussouw or Luke
Rather a big bunch of brutal Boere bliksemming into submission at the collission
10 Jun 2009, 22:39 pm
#415 cab: Cab hiyas mate , my point exactly
I keep saying this we are not thinking smart here, the lions are comming at us with huge experience and we playing kiddies games
what worries me is everyone like tonight is rather saying how **** a watered down sharks team is instead of seeing the threat the lions actually pose
they are far better as a unit playing together , support brilliantly and everything is done at pace with strength
if we dont choose the right team and plan properly i am afraid we in for a terrible hiding
10 Jun 2009, 22:40 pm
#400 skopskiet: Skopskiet ons het nog altyd ons veskille gehaat. Ek hoop die WP wen saterdag. Maar eerlik (op papier) wie sal wen tussen vandagse sharks en saterdag se WP. Ek reken die sharks sal 6 uit 10 uit wen. Nou dra dit oor na saterdag en die wp se kanse is maar skraal.
10 Jun 2009, 22:41 pm
Calm down, people.
This is the best team that four nations combined can put together. And what have they been up against? SA’s best team? No. SA’s 2nd best team? No. Probably not even SA’s fifth best team.
Why? Because you can take out our top 28 players, and get down to our third best team and still come up with something FAR better than the Lions faced tonight, or in any other game thus far.
If you combined the best guys from the remaining Bulls, Sharks, WP and Cheetah players, you’d have a team far stronger than anything the Best of Britain have faced thus far.
Just the pack could be picked from the likes of:
Jannie du Plessis, Derick Kuun, Werner Kruger, Johan Muller, Wilhelm Steenkamp, Steven Sykes, Dewald Potgieter, Heinrich Brussouw, Deon Stegman, Duanne Vermeulen, Pedrie Wannenburg, the list goes on.
Seroiusly, one one side you have the best of all the British Isles.
And on the other side you take away the top 28 guys of SA. Then you split the remaining guys into 4 or 5 different, watered down teams, each then having to face the combined might of the British Lions?
Why on earth would any person in his right mind be worried if the Lions then manage to win these games?
Wait for the big guns to take the field. Then it will be mayhem.
10 Jun 2009, 22:41 pm
#415 cab: Cab don’t rate our Sharks side tonight boet. We had 9 missing players. No way could we beat them. I knew that the whole of bloody SA knew that but the daft Springbok coach that never released our 9 players to play for our Sharks. That was the Lions side to face the Boks. We have no game time mate. PdV should have released the Shark Boks to play tonight. Huge bloody mistake by him. At least we have our seniour players that will take control of the first test. Thank bloody hell for them. Our Bok coaches are a joke. Enough said.
10 Jun 2009, 22:41 pm
#421 skopskiet: I hope so. I really do.
The problem is the same – the WP front 3 as a whole are pap pathetic. And it all starts and ends there.
and back at the training camp
Smit better be using this time to scrum, scrum , scrum, scrum, scrum. (Seriously what genius thought it was a great idea to retread our hooker captain in to a 3?)
Come to think of it all 3 of them should be.
With Bismark getting extra homework THROWING THE BALL IN properly in to the fkn lineout.
10 Jun 2009, 22:42 pm
#400 skopskiet: Not getting ahead of ourselves, I hope Luke continues to play to the ball and that Duane does his ball carrying, then at least there is a chance for WP
10 Jun 2009, 22:42 pm
#423 saffa_guy:
And if the starting 8 cannot achieve the objective
We simply send on some equally physical replacements
Relentless physical onslaught up front
From the 60th minute it’ll become to much for the BIL
At this point the gaps will start opening
And our backs will take the match
10 Jun 2009, 22:43 pm
#427 Puma: Sorry for typos there.
10 Jun 2009, 22:45 pm
#423 saffa_guy:
lol, yeah always a good strategy. u right f’ck plan B, if the boks are committed they will win, simple.
#424 sharks_lover:
i think skoppie is just revving u sharks up, but its a class lions team whom i think are going to pomp wp too, but we shall see. for the bokke it will take a complete effort, players and coaches, this is a class outfit and will beat the Boks if not at their best or slapgat, which they often are 1st test of the season.
10 Jun 2009, 22:46 pm
#431 Puma: Boet you don’t have to worry about your typos. No one else does.
10 Jun 2009, 22:46 pm
#427 Puma:
The flaw with your postings is regardless of the result your judgement of PdV shall remain the same
Fail = PdV’s fault
Succeed = Its the players
10 Jun 2009, 22:46 pm
Delayed by traffic; did not see the game. Thought I had it recorded but not. Will watch highlights any time now.
What is this result?
Massacre. The boys here on keo must be gutted.
10 Jun 2009, 22:46 pm
#426 Tacitus thinks the Bulls made certain “experts” look silly this season: Well said Tacitus , 100% correct , i even earlier in the week said the sharks team should have been atleast combined with the bulls team( the left overs from both teams ) to make a more solid team
people here forget we just played the test team of the lions and its 4 countries of good rugby stature combined into one
and the lions had to face a very watered down provincial team and they expected us to win ??? me thinks not
our rugby administrators have let us down with poor thinking
10 Jun 2009, 22:46 pm
#418 Puma: Come on now PUMA, thats unfair to WP, coz they are damned if they win and damned if they dont. Sharks simply lost the collusions, Keegan is no 8th man, he’s an opensider and Botes is a solid provincial grafter, nothing special
10 Jun 2009, 22:48 pm
#432 cab: amen
10 Jun 2009, 22:48 pm
Watch Lions on Safari.
BI Lions 1980, Bill Beaumont’s team
Jan Snyman jou yster!!!!
10 Jun 2009, 22:48 pm
#432 cab:
Someone has to be the optimist
On a more toned down note
Do believe folk are writing off Burger to easily
He is going to suprise with his fetching performance
Spies will assist
10 Jun 2009, 22:49 pm
#434 saffa_guy: Nah. That’s not true.
Puma is an early supporter of Piet Snor.
But the squad selection has made all of us unduly anxious.
10 Jun 2009, 22:49 pm
BI Lions 100 – WP 13 ?
10 Jun 2009, 22:49 pm
#437 XhosaKid: i said today that keegan is not an 8thman and some cut me down and said i was mad
i said they should have rather played a natural 8th man like whitely from the sharks VC team
he is also big and strong and has played 8thman all his life
10 Jun 2009, 22:50 pm
Cheers guys!
Just cannot believe the result…
10 Jun 2009, 22:50 pm
PdV is trying to avoid the front end collision, he’s hoping our front three don’t get drilled into the ground and at least even if we don’t get parity there we at least don’t get drilled into submission.
Everything else is geared to happen at pace because we good enough through the second row and back row to give them better than they give us or as good at least,
and he’s banking big time on Pienaar at 10, cos if he doesn’t cook first game up then he better have M.steyn on bench. (But I suspect if he’s got JPP at 15 and Ndungane and Habana on wings then he’ll have January, Fourie and F.Steyn – not M.Steyn on the bench – hence no back up goal kicker behind Pienaar).
Jones or Hook or O’Gara are all seasoned veterans, so PdV is going to have to prepare to run these guys ragged, if he goes in for a slug fest, I reckon we come off second best, only way to beat them and good is do what we did to Aussie at Ellis Park, show them some absolute Spingbok clean heels, that they’ll respect, slug fest will be playing right into their NH hands, then we lose.
10 Jun 2009, 22:51 pm
hell i been saying in here all week the sharks are going to get hell with that weak backline
and early on we lose the one big defender in the team to make matters worse
no ways was this mix and match backline so inexperienced do well against the might of the BI
10 Jun 2009, 22:51 pm
#440 saffa_guy: Bud if Spies assisted as a fetcher it would be the very first time.
We didn’t pick a fetcher. simple. Same as always.
Dof.
10 Jun 2009, 22:51 pm
#427 Puma:
a first string backline might have kept the scoreline, but the forwards were done in and they basically have a bok B side in Carstens, Dup, Sykes and Muller – according to TH our best technical scrummers – who were drukked. if you losing posession and tightloose, its only a matter of time before u broken down in 2nd half.
10 Jun 2009, 22:51 pm
One last thing before I log out tonight. Why the bloody hell are we training at sea level? Damn bloody stupid if you ask me. WE have two tests at altitude. Boks should stil be training in the highveld. You lose all advantage of altitude training in just a week if you never lived there. We have 10 coastal Sharks and 4 from Stormers. The rest will probably keep the altitude in their lungs for a few weeks. Like the Bulls/Lions and Cheetahs Boks. To take advantage of altitude you just train there until at least two days before going to play at sea level. Why has no one told this coaching side. WE will have no advantage of the altitude when we go back. Lions players will have lost ther advantage now playing at sea level then going to Cape Town then back to Durban. We missed something. Boks should still be based in Fourways. No humidity to get used to here in Durban this time of year so no need to come here to train just yet. Would have come with a huge advantage with altitude training. Should only have come next Thursday.
10 Jun 2009, 22:53 pm
#427 Puma: I would assume that is just emotions talking right now….
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