It saddens us all to see our beloved National Cricket team going out of the WC tournament in such a manner, but the sporting world goes on and there are loads of other sport to concentrate on right now, if you are a South African supporter...!
Bafana-Bafana beat Egypt on Saturday in the dying minutes of the game and what a win for our National Soccer team - WELL DONE!!
The Super 15 action is heating up and what a great week-end of action we had...Stormers doing us proud down here in the Cape by stacking up the points against the Force from 'Down Under'.
And what an exhausting game it was to watch on Sunday, between the Sharks and the Crusaders. I do not think the historic Twickenham has seen this kind of rugby-action in a very long time. This game was a great exhibition for Rugby and Super Rugby...!!
Let us Review the Clash of SA's two Top Super Rugby Teams: SHARKS vs STORMERS
Sharks are the 'pace-setters'
2011-03-29 10:29
 Allister Coetzee (Gallo) |
http://www.sport24.co.za
Gavin Rich - SuperSport
Johannesburg - The DHL Stormers appear determined to go to Durban for their Vodacom Super Rugby derby against the Sharks on Saturday as under-dogs, with coach Allister Coetzee saying that the hosts have been the pace-setters in South African rugby since last August.
The Stormers currently top the South African conference, five log points ahead of the Sharks. Four of those points are made up of the bye that the Stormers have had and the Sharks have yet to have, which distorts the view a little bit.
But whichever way you look at it, the Sharks, after going down to the Chiefs and then the Crusaders, now have two more losses on their record than the Stormers have. That means that while the Stormers will be only too aware that the two Sharks defeats have come during an overseas tour, something that still lies in their future, the Sharks will be desperate at Kings Park.
“The Sharks have been the pace-setters since last year August in the Currie Cup,” said Coetzee at a press conference at the Western Province High Performance Centre in Bellville on Monday afternoon.
“We haven’t won in Durban as the Stormners since 2004. And after two losses they will come out in front of their home crowd and make it as tough as possible for us. They have been managed properly in terms of their travel. And when it comes to playing personnel, it is now only Patrick Lambie and Jean Deysel that they now miss through injury from their full-strength squad.
“Otherwise they are all fit and have lots of depth. We saw how well they came back in the second half and got stuck into the Crusaders.”
However, one word of warning that Coetzee, without quite intending to, fired at the Sharks concerns the area where his WP team fell down in last year’s Currie Cup final against the same opponents at Saturday’s venue. The area referred to is the physical side of the game, where the Stormers were bossed by the Sharks both in the domestic final and in the Super 14 match played in Durban in April.
Coetzee and the Stormers reckon that after identifying that as a problem area it is something they have worked on and sorted out. The Bulls were the other team they struggled against physically last year, but they turned the tables on them in that regard in Pretoria 10 days ago.
The Loftus Versfeld victory was achieved without Schalk Burger, who returns in tandem with the highly physical young promising lock Rynhardt Elstadt for a massive derby game which the Stormers know can leave them in a commanding position on the conference table if they win it.
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