Sharks face desperate Reds
FOR the Sharks, a nightmare tour could not have been better scripted. The week before they visit the Reds in Brisbane for the tour closer, the 2011 champions finally pulled themselves together and went from conceding 50 points the week before (to the Crusaders) to scoring 50 against the Rebels, the Melbourne team that in turn had beaten the Crusaders in Christchurch and are pushing for a play-off spot.
The Reds have won just three of 12 games, while the Sharks are on four from 13. And the Queenslanders have already been shaken up by the news that coach Richard Graham is to be sacked and will be replaced by veteran Reds and Wallabies coach John “Knuckles” Connolly, who two weeks ago joined the coaching staff as Graham’s “consultant”.
So the Reds players know that 63-year-old “Knuckles”, who coached the side between 1989 and 2000, takes no nonsense and is examining who deserves to be cut and who should be taken on board next year.
It is the luck of the Sharks this year that they are encountering a Reds team that finally has everything to play for, given the coaching transition under way. It would have been much easier to play them a month or two ago when everybody was giving them a hiding.
Although the Reds won last week, they remain condemned in the eyes of their fans, and both sides are desperate for the win – the Reds to build on redemption and the Sharks to end a horror run of seven in a row.
“The Reds are in the same position as us in terms of their fans’ emotions, even though they won last week,” Sharks director of rugby Gary Gold said from Brisbane yesterday.
“They dare not now lose at Sharks director of rugby Gary Gold, whose beleaguered charges face a stern test against the much-improved Reds in Brisbane on Friday. Insets: Reds coach Richard Graham, left, who is to be replaced by John Connolly. home (to the 11th-placed Sharks), while we are away at a venue where South African teams struggle to get a result (be it the Boks or any Super Rugby team).”
Gold said that the tour had taken a big toll on his players, physically and mentally, but they were determined to give it one last crack, albeit against players who were also fighting for their lives.
“When you have two desperate teams, home ground advantage is a big factor,” Gold said. “We saw how well the Reds pitched up against the Rebels at their own stadium last week. But it’s important for us to worry about ourselves.
“We know we have a good team, we’re trying to play a brand of rugby that asks questions with ball in hand, but by the same token we can’t carry on compromising ourselves from a defensive point of view; and we have done, so we realise the areas we need to improve on.
“A really good performance and a win this weekend against the Reds is critically important for our confidence and how we finish our campaign in the eyes of our supporters.”
The Reds’ campaign is a mirror image of that of the Sharks.
In February, much was expected of the former champions, who still had many of the key players from that triumph – Will Genia, Quade Cooper, James Horwill, James Slipper, the Fainga’a brothers, Liam Gill and Adam Thomson, plus they had recruited James O’Connor, the former wonder boy recalled Europe.
“They have really good rugby players, highly experienced internationals, and this is a team going through a similar season to us,” Gold said.
“A couple of injuries, a couple of poor performances and they’ve found themselves on the end of bad results. We know we’re going to have our hands full this weekend.”
from
exile
in DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) looks set to make a string of changes to the rules of the 50-overs game to redress the balance between bat and ball in favour of the fielding team.
After a World Cup of record scores by individuals and teams earlier this year, the ICC’s Cricket Committee has recommended that the batting powerplay be removed, and two other tweaks to rules that restrict the fielding team.
Under the recommendations, fielding teams would no longer have an obligation to have two stationary fielders in catching positions in the first 10 overs of an innings.
The committee, chaired by former India captain Anil Kumble, also recommended that the fielding captain be able to place five fielders outside the 27m circle rather than the existing four for the last 10 overs of the innings.
“The committee (acknowledged) the attractive and attacking brand of cricket that was played during the tournament,” the ICC said.
Limited
“It also felt that there were times towards the end of an ODI innings that bowlers and fielding captains appeared to have limited defensive options available to them.
“The committee was very encouraged by some of the attacking captaincy displayed during the World Cup, and believes these changes will allow fielding captains greater freedom to both attack and defend when required.”
Batsmen like South Africa’s AB de Villiers and Australia’s Glenn Maxwell lit up the World Cup with an incredible rate of scoring, particularly in the last few overs of their innings.
The batting powerplay, which allowed the fielding team to have only three players outside the 27m circle for five overs, only contributed to the inflated scoring.
The statement said that the ICC would not impose a limit on the size of bats, but would reiterate that boundaries must be set at the maximum size at international venues.
Among other recommendations were that all no-balls in limited-overs cricket be followed by a free hit for the batsman, rather than, as now, just for no-balls where the bowler has overstepped the mark.
The committee’s recommendations will be considered by the ICC in June. – Reuters