[2016 Super Rugby] Bulls vs. Sharks (Round 4) 18/03/2016

[TRF_heineken]

Venue: Loftus Versfeld
Time: 19:00 CAT (SA, GMT+2)​

Teams

Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Jamba Ulengo, 13 Jan Serfontein, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Francois Brummer, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Arno Botha, 7 Jannes Kirsten, 6 Roelof Smit, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 RG Snyman, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Trevor Nyakane

Substitutes: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Hencus van Wyk, 19 Jason Jenkins, 20 Nic de Jager, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Tian Schoeman, 23 Jesse Kriel

Sharks: 15. Willie le Roux, 14. JP Pietersen, 13. Paul Jordaan, 12. Andre Esterhuizen, 11. Lwazi Mvovo, 10. Joe Pietersen, 9. Michael Claassens, 8. Daniel du Preez, 7. Philip van der Walt, 6. Marcell Coetzee, 5. Stephan Lewies, 4. Etienne Oosthuizen, 3. Lourens Adriaanse, 2. Kyle Cooper, 1. Tendai Mtawarira (captain)

Substitutes: 16. Franco Marais, 17. Juan Schoeman, 18. Coenie Oosthuizen, 19. Hyron Andrews, 20. Keegan Daniel, 21. Cobus Reinach, 22. Garth April, 23. Odwa Ndungane

 

[Bull]

Bulls
15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Jamba Ulengo, 13 Jan Serfontein, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Francois Brummer, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Arno Botha, 7 Jannes Kirsten, 6 Roelof Smit, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 RG Snyman, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Trevor Nyakane
Substitutes: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Hencus van Wyk, 19 Jason Jenkins, 20 Nic de Jager, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Tian Schoeman, 23 Jesse Kriel

Bulls will lose, possibly by a lot.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Bulls
15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Jamba Ulengo, 13 Jan Serfontein, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Francois Brummer, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Arno Botha, 7 Jannes Kirsten, 6 Roelof Smit, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 RG Snyman, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Trevor Nyakane
Substitutes: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Hencus van Wyk, 19 Jason Jenkins, 20 Nic de Jager, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Tian Schoeman, 23 Jesse Kriel

Bulls will lose, possibly by a lot.

Maybe, But I think we have a chance to win the Sharks. We had a week's rest, we had some time to prepare, We're mentally in a good position after our win against the Rebels, and we play at home.

Also, all we need to do is to kick over Ndungane's head and let any player chase the kick, even Nyakane is faster than Ndungane at the moment...

 

[unrated]

I always get a sense of paranoia when we play other South African teams at home, especially when the Sharks are on a win streak. I would appreciate it if the coach would start Mvovo this week as that would calm a lot of nerves.
Id say if serfontein keeps his knock-on 's under control for this game at least the bulls will be in a good spot to win. But barring a dreadful performance from the sharks then they should really take this one.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Dammit!

The Sharks have benched Ndungane...

 

[sonnench]

Sneaky feeling Bulls will beat us here.

 

[0tago]

Can someone please tell me what's going on with Du Preez, De Allende and Jesse Kriel? The lack of injury information in Super Rugby is really frustrating at times.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Can someone please tell me what's going on with Du Preez, De Allende and Jesse Kriel? The lack of injury information in Super Rugby is really frustrating at times.

Robert Du Preez - Cruciate Knee Ligament - out for at least 8 weeks
Damien De Allende - Ankle Injury, Expected back end of April/ Early May.
Jesse Kriel - fit and ready to play, he's on the bench this weekend.

 

[0tago]

Robert Du Preez - Cruciate Knee Ligament - out for at least 8 weeks
Damien De Allende - Ankle Injury, Expected back end of April/ Early May.
Jesse Kriel - fit and ready to play, he's on the bench this weekend.

This game should give us a real insight to what the Bulls are really like. Home against the top team. I'm still confused because they were awful vs the Stormers, yet showed some real quality against the Rebels and the Stormers loss was largely from a great performance from Du Preez, who probably would have put the Stormers over the line against the Sharks last week. How ever I think the Sharks will still win, given some of the Bulls lack of defending this season and the Sharks have the best defensive record in the competitive thus far. Pleased to see Kriel back, shame he's only get a run out off the bench and it's a shame Pollard is out for the Bulls as well, he would make them a complete different prospect.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Are some of the shark's jerseys missing the numbers? Watching it online and it looks that way.

Is that allowed?

 

[0tago]

Are some of the shark's jerseys missing the numbers? Watching it online and it looks that way.

Is that allowed?

Thought I was watching a warm up session when I turned it on because of the lack of numbers and it looks like their training skins.

Bulls are looking good so far, see if they can sustain it through the entirety of the game though.

 

[0tago]

Jesse Kriel immediately looking dangerous.

I would have liked to have seen Pollard fit this season as well, the SA conference would have been excellent.

- - - Updated - - -

Glen Jackson awful he yelled "Not touched" after a bomb dropped, so the players play the ball then he penalizes him for offside for playing it.

Come on Glen.


What an ending, Pietersen missed a sitter after the Bulls equalized at 16-16 with 1 minute to go, concede a penalty out in front off the kick off and Pietersen misses it and it finishes 16-16..

Willie Le Roux had a great game, but butchered a sure 2nd try by selflessly attempting to offload it when he could have gone over himself. Still MotM in my opinion. I think the Crusaders will beat the Sharks next week.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

What an ending. I'm lost for words

 

[Jaguares]

Pieterseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen

 

[argie]

Are some of the shark's jerseys missing the numbers? Watching it online and it looks that way.

Is that allowed?

Taking off.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Some of them had parts, but quite a few of them, since minute one, had no numbers at all. Look at 0tago's comment.

I am asking because i am not sure whether that is allowed.
I'm, admittedly, a bit paranoid about this issue. I play a 5 a side footie tournament, lowest league of the football federation here, and a ref made a huge deal about something like this not long ago.
But i digress.

 

[Jaguares]

The typical South African game. Pick and go style, booooooooooooooooooring

 

[0tago]

Some of them had parts, but quite a few of them, since minute one, had no numbers at all. Look at 0tago's comment.

I am asking because i am not sure whether that is allowed.
I'm, admittedly, a bit paranoid about this issue. I play a 5 a side footie tournament, lowest league of the football federation here, and a ref made a huge deal about something like this not long ago.
But i digress.

There was an issue with the application of the numbers pre-game and as they started to peel off during warm-up, a decision was made to remove them. It will be rectified with the kit supplier for the next round.

 

[TRF_heineken]

There was an issue with the application of the numbers pre-game and as they started to peel off during warm-up, a decision was made to remove them. It will be rectified with the kit supplier for the next round.

This. They also stated it on the local tv broadcaster. The jersey's they were supposed to play in didn't arrive in time to the stadium due to the recent floods and storms we had in the country. So they played with their warm-up jerseys that they haven't used in the week. But the numbers on the jerseys weren't correctly numbered. Some players had numbers in the 30's on their back, so with the consent of the opposing team and ref, they rather took off the numbers as best they could to avoid confusion.

As for the game itself. I have to say, I'm really proud of this young Bulls team. To draw against the Sharks, who have been the in-form team so far, was great to see. It's a pity the pitch was so wet, and that it was raining, forcing the players to revert back to a more conservative style. I was in Pretoria on Thursday, and it was pouring down the whole day, and I hear it still rained on Saturday.