Great running not enough to clinch the winSharks VS Cheetahs: The Sharks and Cheetahs kicked off the 1st South African derby match of round 2 of the 2010 Super 14 competition, at a sweltering Shark Tank, in Durban, on Friday night. The Sharks were still licking their wounds from their previous defeat to the Chiefs just six days before, but had made significant changes to the starting line up. Most notably the likes of Ruan Peinaar at #10.

The Cheetahs have become the Sharks bogey team in recent times, and came out of the blocks firing. Their team also bolstered with the inclusion of a number of Griquas players, after the Griquas recent success in the 2009 Absa Currie Cup competition.

Both teams exchanged shots at goal in the early stages of the game, but the moment of the match came in just the 24th minute of the game, when Cheetahs #15, Riaan Viljoen, broke through some poor Sharks defense, scoring a try, and embarrassing Sharks supporters the world over. 

The Cheetahs were on the wong side of the stats in almost every category, but a bad day with the boot from Sharks #9, Rory Kockott, gifted the Cheetahs an away win.

My two cents worth:

  • The Sharks spent a total of 6min28sec in the Cheetahs’ 22m area, but only managed to cross the line once, from a break that started way outside of the Cheetahs 22m. Talk about not using your opportunities.
  • Ryan Kankowski gained a total of 144m with his running.
  • The Cheetahs missed a total of 22 tackles, compared to the Sharks’ 6 missed tackles.
  • The new interpretation of the tackle laws may make things a tad trickier for the opposition fetchers, but Heinrich Brussow still managedto find something to do, making a monster, 21 tackles in total, with 100% success rate.
  • The Cheetahs have three of the quickest men in world rugby within their starting line up, but need to find a way to utilise them effectively.
  • Something seems wrong at the Sharks camp. They desperately need to sort things out if the want any chance of having a successful 2010 Super 14 campaign.

Sharks VS Cheetahs 2010 Highlights: [WRNrugbynews]

Scorecard: