Hurricanes in unlikely comeback

PEP Guardiola faces a huge test of his loyalty to Manchester City after his club were hit with a stunning two-year suspension from Uefa competitions.

City have been banned from the Champions League and Europa League for the next two seasons and fined 30 million euros after Uefa found them guilty of committing “serious breaches” of financial regulations.

The Premier League champions overstated sponsorship revenue in accounts submitted between 2012 and 2016, according to European football’s governing body.

Uefa also said City failed to cooperate with an investigation into the matter launched by its Club Financial Control Body.

The shock punishment will cost City an estimated £170 million in lost Champions League revenue and the club reacted furiously, immediately vowing to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

“Manchester City is disappointed but not surprised by today’s announcement by the Uefa Adjudicatory Chamber,” a statement read.

“The club has always anticipated the ultimate need to seek out an independent body and process to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence in support of its position.”

But, while City urgently plan their appeal, the football world waits to see how Guardiola reacts to a punishment that could convince the Spaniard to quit the Etihad Stadium at the end of the season.

Guardiola reportedly has a break clause in his contract which means he can depart at the conclusion of this

THE Hurricanes’ lengthy unbeaten run at home against South African teams in Vodacom Super Rugby looked under threat at half-time.

That was until, they launched an impressive surge in the third quarter to secure a comprehensive 38-22 win over the Cell C Sharks in Wellington yesterday.

At half-time the teams were locked at 17-all and at that point the Hurricanes, who had toured to South Africa and Argentina before this game, were starting to look tired as they made heavy weather of converting their forward dominance into a proper advantage on the scoreboard.

The Hurricanes quickly changed that though after half-time, with Ben Lam running in two tries and Dane Coles, on as a replacement, dotting down off a line-out drive to put the home team out of range by the time the hour mark, and the last quarter, was reached.

The 21 unanswered points in that 20-minute period ensured that the Hurricanes’ winning run at home against South African teams — the Cheetahs were the last team to beat them in New Zealand — was extended to 14.

It also ends the Sharks’ positive start to the season, with a couple of home truths, not the least of those being the importance of having a tough, combative forward pack if you want to be successful, being drummed out to the visitors.

The Hurricanes forward personnel hasn’t changed much, apart from the addition of All Black Coles, since they were outplayed by the Stormers in Cape Town two weeks ago, but in this game they looked a completely different unit as they ruthlessly exposed what many critics were expecting at the start of the campaign should certain stipulations be met that satisfy the City hierarchy.

City officials were said to be confident that, despite an underwhelming season which has seen them fall 22 points behind runaway Premier League leaders Liverpool, Guardiola would honour a contract that currently ties him to the club until 2021.

But staying with City now European football could be off limits is likely to be a rather more unappetising prospect for Guardiola.

Whether the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss wants to stick it out at City will show how much he has grown to love the club since arriving in 2016.

Guardiola is close to City directors Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano, who worked with him at Barca, but his season to be the Sharks’ soft underbelly up front.

In mitigation for the Sharks, they were disrupted.

They didn’t start with the two props they had selected for the game, with Thomas du Toit not in the squad at all and Ox Nche on the bench, with the reasons for the late change not being specified.

Then once the game started they lost flyhalf Boeta Chamberlain, who was in for Curwin Bosch after the regular flyhalf flew home because of a family bereavement, and their World Cup winning wing Makazole Mapimpi.

Perhaps the latter disruptions explained the other big Sharks problem on the night, which was the horrendous last line of defence.

As they were the previous week against the Highlanders, the Sharks outside backs were brilliant with ball in hand and when the forwards did win possession the Sharks also showed their creative capabilities.

But while he is an undeniable star of the future and a special force as an attacking player, fullback Aphelele Fassi still needs to learn about some of the other basics of playing his position.

The rest of the Sharks back three also came off second best when it came to the aerial game, with the Hurricanes profiting too easily from their kick passes.

Ngani Laumape scored one try off that avenue of attack in the first half and Ben Lam followed up with another in the second.

Lam scored two tries in the second half, his first being the product of a strong run after Jordie Barrett’s good decision making and pass after fielding a poor clearance plus some woeful inities to City’s Abu Dhabi-based owner Sheikh Mansour might be frayed if there is no escape from the embarrassing ban.

Leading City to a pair of Premier League titles in record-breaking fashion and winning a domestic treble last term underlined Guardiola’s enduring qualities.

However, he has failed to get past the quarter-finals of the Champions League with City and another daunting test lies in wait in the last 16 when they face Real Madrid next week.

The most recent of Guardiola’s two Champions League titles as a manager came way back in 2011 with Barca and his failure to add to that tally is the one blemish on his otherwise glittering CV.

The critics who crow that he can only win Europe’s elite club prize with a genius like Barca’s Lionel Messi in his team have nagged at Guardiola for years.

So the prospect of wasting two seasons waiting to return to the pursuit of his holy grail could be too much for Guardiola to bear, especially as rampant Liverpool look capable of keeping the Premier League crown out of City’s grasp for years to come.

Asked about the potential for a European ban in December 2018, Guardiola had been optimistic, but that trust proved misplaced.

“We will not be banned. I trust in them (the owners),” he said at the time. “If it happens, because Uefa decide that, we will accept it and move forward.”

Everything has changed now and reports, immediately after news of the ban broke, claimed the 49-year-old would consider his future unless City win the appeal. — SupertSport tial line defence from the Sharks.

That was the score that broke the half-time deadlock and it was from there that the Hurricanes gathered the momentum that removed the Sharks from the equation as potential winners.

In truth, the Sharks never looked like winners given the way they struggled at forward, with the Hurricanes’ defensive line-out enjoying the sort of success they could only have dreamed about before this and the scrum exerting pressure.

But given the fact the Hurricanes had to travel back from Buenos Aires this week, the Sharks’ ability to make the most of half opportunities did put them well in the game at the halfway mark.

Even in defeat, and even given the sobering lessons that were drummed out, the Sharks still showed plenty of flashes of what new coach Sean Everitt is working towards, not the least the brilliant attack that featured the two props that ultimately led to a try that was disallowed because of a forward pass much earlier in the movement.

Shortly after that the Sharks scored off an intercept try inspired by skipper Lukhanyo Am and although they had been under pressure for most of the early part of the game, and had conceded way too many penalties — five by the 18th minute — it looked for a while like luck might be with them.

But the Hurricanes quickly reasserted themselves through their scrumming dominance, with a strong scrum and resultant penalty advantage creating the momentum that led to Wes Goosen scoring their first try out on the right.

By then Chamberlain had gone off and back-up scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba had come onto the field out of position. . — SuperSport