Mike Greenaway
THE best thing about this game was that it was a fair result. Each team was as bad as the other. Neither side deserved to win. In fact, Sanzaar should consider withdrawing the log points altogether for this sleight on Super Rugby.
Seriously it really was that bad, and harkened back to the infamous “worst ever Super Rugby match” in 2005 when the Queensland Reds beat the Sharks 6-5 in an excruciatingly poor encounter.
It seems surreal now to recall Sharks players during the week talking about the need to turn on the try-scoring taps and start picking up bonus points but the reality was that the shocking Sharks ended up scrapping for their lives in a gut-wrenchingly disappointing display against the team that is stone last on the Super Rugby log.
With respect to the lowly Rebels, if they were winless going into last weekend’s match against the table-topping Brumbies, and won, then what shape is Australian rugby in? We can partly answer that by pointing out that the makeshift Kings beat the Waratahs in Sydney yesterday in what must be one of the most infamous defeats in New South Wales history.
For three-quarters of last night’s horrow show, it seemed the Sharks were destined for a humiliating defeat of their own. Only in the 63rd minute did they draw level when Curwin Bosch made it 6-6.
That’s right, not a try on the board by the three-quarter mark of this miserable game, – and there would be none produced in the bedlam of the last stages of the game.
What was the Sharks’ excuse? Naturally it becomes a heck of a lot tougher when a player is red-carded in the 17th minute for an inexcusable lapse of discipline, although the Rebels also lost a player for 10 minutes in the second half for a professional foul, and then their scrum-half was carded in the 68th minute for a deliberate knock down.
The offender for the Sharks was centre André Esterhuizen, who was red-carded for a tip tackle. When will the players learn? The referees have only been clamping down on this offence for about a decade now!
The bye week clearly was not good for the Sharks. They seemed to still have sun tan lotion on their hands when they made 14 handling errors in the first half alone.
To be fair to the Sharks, on three occasions they rumbled the ball over the line from lineout mauls, but the tries were disallowed for one reason or another. Even golden boy Curwin Bosch showed that he is fallible and made a number of errors at 10, and missed two kicks at goal that he’d have normally nailed in his sleep.
The Melbourne team entered the match with statistically the worst set piece in the 18-team competition, having the worst lineout success and the second worst scrum success, while the Sharks are in the top six in both of these departments.
The expected scrum domination by the home side materialised and the Sharks linouts went unchallenged, and they poached a few against the throw, but they did little constructive with the solid possession.
Early on a booming Bosch penalty punted to the Rebels corner saw the Sharks soar in the lineout, then rumble over with Tendai Mtawarira in the vanguard. The try was disallowed and that pattern would repeat itself with regularity. The Sharks really should have done better from those mauls.
They really should have done better in every department. In the final frantic 10 minutes they butchered so many opportunities that you started looking around for shifty bookmakers.
In fact, the Rebels nearly snatched it when wing Sefa Naivalu almost ran the length of the field to score, but was hauled in by the fleet-footed Bosch. Then, two minutes later, Bosch kicked what should have been the match-winner.
The Sharks had taken the lead for the first time with just two minutes to go, but nobody would have been surprised if something had gone wrong in the last two minutes they had to hang on. And, naturally it happened. The Sharks infringed, Hodge kicked the points, and the nightmare was over ... SCORERS Sharks: Penalties: Curwin Bosch (3) Rebels: Penalties: Reece Hodge (3)