Sharks HQ becomes House of Cards
Crusaders run all over hapless home side in spite of being down to 12 men at one point
LOSING BATTLE: Sharks winger Lwazi Mvovo tries in vain to slip through the Crusaders’ defence in yesterday’s match at Kings Park
at Kings Park THE Crusaders came bearing an Easter gift in the form of a rugby lesson as they shredded a toothless and off-colour Sharks unit yesterday.
In the past in Durban the Crusaders have ground out wins or been on the wrong side of close games, but such was their ruthlessness that they put the game to bed in the first half.
The bonus point was wrapped up in the 35th minute through Ryan Crotty’s try.
It was an exhibition of fluid offloading rugby with the main aim being to create mismatches in defence, which were as common as roadblocks in the city.
Each time a Crusaders back found himself with a Sharks forward, it was like watching a beat-up police van trying to catch a Ferrari on the N2.
The ease with which they picked out gaps in the Sharks defence was astounding and their intensity on attack and defence was incredible.
Most of their tries came from the pressure they exerted on the Sharks when they had the ball, and like marshmallows in a fire the hosts just melted away in the heat of the Crusaders’ attacking wave.
In a season where they have spoken of improving performances and being intense at game time, they were at the other end of the spectrum.
The intensity they display in practices seems to be left on KP2 but, in fairness, the Sharks were due a hammering after underwhelming performances despite collecting three consecutive wins.
No sane rugby person would have predicted the Sharks would be on the receiving end of a pummelling, but a team of superior skill exposed their shortcomings.
One of these is their defence, as the 20 tries that they have conceded this season is a far cry from the defensive solidity which underpinned last season’s campaign, when they conceded only 22 tries throughout.
They also missed 16 of the 79 tackles they made and teams like the Crusaders feast on that kind of generosity.
The Sharks have struggled to find synergy and cohesion but yesterday they were atrocious.
They could not even make the most of a three-man advantage after the Crusaders had three of their players sin-binned for various offences in a three-minute spell just before half time.
Nepo Laulala, Kieron Fonotia and Nemani Nadolo were sent to the cooler for late shoulder charges and kicking the ball away respectively.
The Sharks’ Jean Deysel signed off on the frenetic stanza with a red card for deliberately shoving his knee into Matt Todd’s head.
It was as if the Sharks had their minds on the Chris Brown concert, which was scheduled for later in the evening.
The Crusaders were in a party mood, but theirs’ was restricted to the field as they ran in a further three tries early in the second half to cancel out any thoughts of a comeback.
The most dispiriting of those was Colin Slade’s 43rd-minute try when he collected his delicate chip over the defence.
The Crusaders still had a two man disadvantage but such was their confidence they could turn water into wine and rocks into bread. Adding insult to injury, Todd and David Havili added tries of their own and only Slade’s errant second-half boot prevented the Sharks from conceding a half-century of points before the hour mark.
Odwa Ndungane was one of the few Sharks players who could hold their head up high and was the deserving scorer of the Sharks’ only try, in the 55th minute.
Just when the Sharks thought the Crusaders let them off the hook, Tom Taylor collected a loose ball and hared downfield and clocked up the half-century. It was a fitting scoreline that highlighted the gulf between the sides.