Sharks Supporters Thread

Any more news on their travels to NZ? I heard the ash cloud might have influence on their flight from Sydney to Wellington. :(
 
Word is they're in Wellington and that their original flight was rescheduled. A couple of the guys have tweeted about NZ.

Hargreaves: http://twitter.com/#!/Al_Hargreaves
Hey guys, a big howzit from a chilly New Zealand! Heres the column, hope you enjoy http://bit.ly/kMKsPH
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Michalak: http://twitter.com/#!/michalakfred
(Google translate)
We just arrived in Wellington, it is 1:28 in the morning we will try to sleep for an hour stalling by
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They should have had a training session in cold NZ today!
 
Kankowski for inside centre! Got the skills, got the speed, got the brains.

Nonu is just a chop who can't tackle properly. Rugby union should ignore him completely.

You don't want to know what I think about Bosman...
 
http://www.rugby15.co.za/2011/06/sharks-opt-for-alberts-over-kankowski/

So only once change to the starting line up and two on the bench. Opting for physicality and experience.

Willem Alberts swaps places with Kankowski. Van Staden and Botes on bench in place of Coetzee and Herbst.

The Sharks team:

15. Pat Lambie

14. JP Pietersen

13. Stefan Terblanche

12. Meyer Bosman

11. Lwazi Mvovo

10. Frederic Michalak

9. Charl McLeod

8. Willem Alberts

7. Jean Deysel

6. Keegan Daniel

5. Alistair Hargreaves

4. Gerhard Mostert

3. Jannie du Plessis

2. Bismarck du Plessis

1. Tendai Mtawarira

Replacements: 16. John Smit; 17. Eugene van Staden; 18. Ross Skeate; 19. Ryan Kankowski; 20. Jacques Botes; 21. Adrian Jacobs; 22. Louis Ludik
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Interesting for me is when it comes to these important matches (qualifier & must win against Bulls), that our Bok captain is on the bench and Sharks try to bring him on as late as possible.
 
Because there are better performing players than Smit. I think that when he comes on late he does add to the team and because he is a leader, late in the game he can get the guys to push for the win or to keep level heads and not throw it away.
 
Interesting statistical article from Sharks World.

Sharks quarter final numbers to ponder

I waited writing this piece until later in the week as I had sensed the weather, if not the volcanic ash, was going to have a say in the game.

The outlook for the game is very wet. I write from Wellington where Nelson is 20 minutes by very light plane. It usually has much better weather, but this week the rain has come and continues to fall as I write this and you read it.

Wet weather means handling errors and a kicking game for territory. Over the last couple of weeks the Sharks have tidied up handling errors. In the first 12 games the Sharks made double digital handling errors in 10 of the games. In the last 4 games they have made single digital handling errors. Put another way out of the 177 handling errors in SuperRugby, only 30 were in the last 4 games (last quarter of the season). However they are still the number one team for handling errors at an average of 11.1 per game. Higher than the Crusaders who have made 39 in their last four games. Last time they played, the Sharks made 17 handling errors to the Crusaders 11.

A wet game will mean the Crusaders will kick (from the hand) to gain territory. Certainly in the last two games that were wet (Blues and Hurricanes respectively) the Crusaders kicked 28 and 27 times each, higher than the 22.3 average at that time. The Crusaders make an average of 2 errors per game when kicking from the hand. The Sharks are averaging 1 per game in this regard.

Scrums time will be interesting as the Sharks and Bulls scrum last week ended up being reset 5 times, all on the Sharks feed. This was the usual number of resets for Kaplan who was the ref. The Sharks conceded 4 scrum penalties well above their 1.2 average. The Crusaders scrum is solid and I expect the scrum to be a focal point based on the Bulls game, which I’m sure the Crusaders have analysed.

The Crusaders concede about 1.5 penalties more on average than the Sharks, and it is likely to be at the ruck/maul. The Crusaders concede an average of 6.5 ruck/maul penalties per game making them the 3rd highest in the competition. The Sharks concede 5.2 per game and are 10th highest.

Penalties and scrum are reliant on the referee controlling this aspect. In this game it is Bryce Lawrence who also has got the final as well. Lawrence is 13th out of the 17th ref (1 is highest/most) to reset scrums, and awarded ruck penalties. He is 11th highest overall for penalties so he is not likely to want to get involved unless required, or at least that is what the stats are saying.

Coding each and every game it is clear the Crusaders will go backwards from the advantage line and wait for an opening. For this to happen players need to come out of the line, or miss tackles. Last week by my count the Sharks missed 29 tackles against the Bulls. This area has not been improving over the last few games. In fact it has been getting worse. Rain is a great leveller, and typically a wet game is played around the ruck (i.e. pick and go’s), this reduces the number of missed tackles, in my experience and may favour the Sharks.

On rucks the Crusaders are one of the best teams at holding the ball in rucks despite counter rucking. The 2.5 on average they lose taking the ball into a ruck is the lowest in the competition. The Sharks conceded an average 3.1 and are 10th highest.

Stats that favour the Sharks are clearly place kicking. Lambie, has a higher percentage that Carter. Further the Sharks score more tries against Australian and New Zealand teams than South African Super15 teams. Sharks average 1.9 tries against South African teams and 3.3 tries when playing New Zealand and Australian teams.

Will try and post stats during the game if I get time, but will be giving preference to my tweets, so follow me along. It is also nice to note that most of South Africa is behind the Sharks (Crusaders fans are everywhere..).
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http://www.sharksworld.co.za/2011/06/24/sharks-quarter-final-numbers-to-ponder/

I'm a bit worried now that I've heard it will more than likely be a wet game.
 
I'm happy to hear it will be a wet game - our squad is extremely physical and will enjoy a tight game. The Crusaders are dangerous in loose play, so maintaining possession and keeping them in their territory will be the key to beating them. Frustrate them into making mistakes...
 
Absolutely fscking pathetic.

When I posted the refs assigned to these games and I saw that Bryce fsckface Lawrence was handling our game I was already concerned. And so far it is justified. This fscker has fscking blinkers on.
 
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