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Buoyant Sharks lead the way

Monday 11th August 2008

Leaders of the pack: Ruan Pienaar and Johan Muller

After an unconvincing start to the season the Sharks moved to the top of the Currie Cup table on Friday with an emphatic 32-10 victory over Western Province. Their campaign, slowed injuries and the comings and goings of a handful of Springboks, is now gaining momentum.

The team from Durban have silenced their critics in the last two weeks, scoring 11 tries and picking up 10 valuable log points and looked in good shape with first round of the competition's return legs now under their belts.

While both sides were missing a number of Springboks on Friday, Western Province captain Gcobani Bobo felt his side's inexperience against a Sharks' side brimming with Internationals was the difference.

"The experience of the Sharks really helped, they did well. But I am proud of the youngsters in my team, they showed their worth. I'm happy, our guys worked hard, showed commitment," said Bobo.

One of the star performers for the Sharks was Springbok scrum-half Ruan Pienaar. Pienaar's future in the national set-up seems to be hanging in the balance but his performance at Newlands showed that he is a world class player. Of course the Sharks number nine could do little without good ball and was full of praise for his loose trio.

"It was good to come back to the Sharks but it was a great team performance. With three brilliant loosies, you can rely on them to steal ball and they carried the ball well," Pienaar told the Sharks website.

Pienaar was equally happy with his partnership with French international Frederic Michalak.

"Fred played very well tonight and gave us some good go-forward ball with his tactical kicking," he added.

While the scoreline might suggest a runaway victory for the Sharks, certainly the WP side gave a good account of themselves. But it was their lack of accuracy against a solid defensive effort from the Sharks that proved to be their downfall.

The Sharks are starting to look more clinical in their execution and dangerous on attack thanks to the effort and commitment by the forwards in laying the platform for everything else to fall neatly into place.

Indeed, Captain Johann Muller was beaming after the game and paid tribute to the team effort after the match.

"Credit to my guys, they were outstanding last week, and this week again was a great result for us," he said.

"We have some world class players and to have them back created real pressure for Province, they are fantastic players, but credit to all the guys. I thought the forwards and loosies were outstanding at the breakdowns."

Jean Deysel stole more than his fair share of the ball adding to the value he brings to the side, while Jacques Botes can always be counted on to provide the necessary support and Keegan Daniel is just everywhere.

Muller admitted that the mood in the Sharks' camp is buoyant and rightly so. 'If we play like we know we can, the result will take care of itself' is a common expression in the camp and the Sharks are starting to live up to their billing.

"You can see in the change-rooms, the guys are happy not because they are winning, but because of the way we are playing and the whole team is contributing," said Muller.

"We are on top of world and hopefully can take it though to the next few rounds."