Pirates make most of fragile Chiefs defence
at the FNB Stadium five Soweto derbies against rivals Orlando Pirates that they have been involved in during that period, including the one that took a while to spark into life yesterday afternoon.
Is it Komphela? Is it the quality of players?
Whatever it is, reality will settle in at the end of the season when the trophy cabinet at their headquarters remains barren.
Willard Katsande tumbling down all on his own after winning back possession on the hour mark just about summed it up for Chiefs.
A long afternoon, when the Zimbabwean midfielder and his teammates hardly put together a string of decent passes to control this Nedbank Cup last 32 clash against Pirates. It might sound harsh, but the basics of football eluded them.
Just as well that the opposition was equally having an off day – until Tendai Ndoro stepped up to score twice in the second half.
The kind of action on display would not win Amakhosi any cup, and they so desperately needed to go all the way in this equivalent of the FA Cup to get something out of a rollercoaster campaign.
Chiefs were always going to be vulnerable at the back without Lorenzo Gordinho, their star man in rearguard after 11 consecutive matches that were accompanied by two man-ofthe match awards and winning goals against Wits and Maritzburg United in the Premiership.
He was, unfortunately for the Glamour Boys, serving a one-match ban having collected his fourth yellow card last week at home to Polokwane City.
And boy, was he sorely missed, particularly when Pirates striker Ndoro got going.
There was a lot of ballwatching when Mpho Makola played the two-goal hero through for his first, an error Chiefs were unlikely to make at back had Gordinho been on the pitch.
Morgan Gould was also not up to it, and perhaps was picked ahead of Daniel Card- oso and Ivan Bukenya because of his experience. On the fringes because Gordinho’s partnership with Eric Mathoho has worked so well, Gould did not show he was a veteran.
Being knocked out of the cup will hurt Chiefs and their fans this morning, and even more so in May, if they fail to topple Premier League leaders Mamelodi Sundowns to win the championship, which looks highly likely.
What will sting the most when Chiefs look back at their season is the fact that they could not win massive games.
Komphela, if he’s done enough to stick around for the upcoming 2016/17 season, will have to find a solution, and quickly. THIS was a warts-and-all victory for the Sharks if ever there was one but its value cannot be underestimated in the context of what is going to a challenging Super Rugby campaign for the Durban team.
The Sharks were sucked into the trench warfare they had said they wanted to avoid against the combative South Americans, yet showed admirable resilience and character to wrestle over the finish line four sweat-stained points to the good.
The Sharks had hoped for an aesthetically-pleasing spectacle that would not only impress their home fans but also avoid the scrap that suited the visitors more than it did a youthful home team.
Last night the Sharks’ management would not have cared less, given that their players have now showed they have more than one arrow in their quiver and the guts to go blow for blow with the toughest of opposition.
The match had added significance given that the Jaguares are in the same Pool as the Sharks and are play-off rivals, plus earlier in the day the Lions, also in the Sharks’ Pool, won an away match in Hamilton against the Chiefs.
The Sharks could not afford to drop this game given these facts and that they now travel to the Stormers and Bulls over the next fortnight.
Coach Gary Gold had said his team would approach the game as if they were playing a Test match against the Pumas and that they would be hellbent on not gifting the Jaguares soft possession to counter-attack but this proved wishful thinking.
The Sharks started well with an early Joe Pietersen penalty. This was negated, and then some, by a Jaguares counter-attack near the halfway line that saw the blindside well exploited and left wing Emillio Botelli sped home for the opening try, converted by flyhalf Nicolas Sanchez.
But the Sharks were dominating territory and Marcell Coetzee scored off the back of a driven lineout, a weapon the Sharks used with great affect during the game and which was poorly defended given that lineout mauling was for so long a part of the Argentine rugby culture (over the last few years they have shifted to a more enterprising game under the influence of coaching consultant Graham Henry, the All Blacks’ 2011 World Cup winning coach).
Sanchez levelled the scores at 10-10 in the 15th minute when he struck home a penalty goal only for Pietersen to kick the Sharks 13-10 ahead two minutes later.
The Sharks’ driving maul was a growing strength and when the Jaguares were penalised a second time for pulling down a Sharks’ drive, it was flanker Rodrigo Baez that was shown the yellow card by referee Jaco Peyper.
The home side had been showing attacking intent and when they once more kicked the penalty to the corner and attacked the try-line, it was the other Jaguares flank, Pablo Matera, who was binned for a professional foul.
In the tourists’ opening match against the Cheetahs, they were also relegated to 13 men in the first half of that game in Bloemfontein, underlining that discipline could be an ongoing issue for the overzealous South Americans.
The question now for the Sharks was whether they could take advantage of the significant two-man advantage in a vital period that straddled half time.
That question was answered almost immediately when the Argentineans scored in spectacular counter-attacking fashion. Sharks No 8 Daniel du Preez had burst through on the halfway line and with a threeman overlap out wide tantalisingly short of his passing range, he took contact, lost the ball forward , and the Jaguares spun it quickly out wide where Boffelli made ground and then kicked it through to the Sharks’ in-goal area where fullback Santiago Cordero won the race to the touch down.
That was on the stroke of half time and the visitors would have been thrilled to be 15-13 ahead with just 13 players on the field.
The Jaguares held out until their flankers returned, though, the Sharks scored not long after when Pietersen goaled his third penalty. Some 20 minutes of bitter attrition later, Pietersen extended that lead to19-15, but it was a tenuous lead with 10 minutes to go considering the attacking ability of their opponents, but the courageous Sharks held out. SCORERS Sharks: Try: Marcell Coetzee. Conversion: Joe Pietersen. Penalties: Pietersen (4).
Jaguares: Tries: Emiliano Boffelli, Santiago Cordero. Conversion: Nicolás Sánchez. Penalty: Sánchez.