A Bittersweet Week

There were highs and lows for The Sharks union over the past week, a tumultuous week in which there was a sad farewell to a legend, the Cell C Sharks Under 20s winning the SA Rugby Under 20 Cup, the Currie Cup side victorious over the log leaders and the Heineken Champions Cup coming to an end at the quarter-final stage.

On Thursday, JP Pietersen’s Under 20 side closed out a tournament they went through unbeaten when they defeated the Blue Bulls Under 20s 32-29 in the final at Hollywoodbets Kings Park to be crowned 2023 champions.

Then on Friday night, Joey Mongalo’s Currie Cup side registered a 19-12 victory over the Pumas who had been unbeaten going into the fifth round match.

“We are happy with the performance, especially happy with the first 20 minutes when we played tactically very well, then the other side was the character shown when we were down to 13 men,” the team’s head coach admitted.

“That’s not coaching, but players starting to believe in each other.”

Despite losing two players, Mongalo acknowledged the galvanising effect this had on his team.  “This team seems to respond well to adversity, because every time things get tough, they stand up. All credit to the players, the leadership really stood up, Reniel Hugo was massive.”

The Cell C Sharks captain was also named SuperSport’s Man of the Match and Mongalo suggested that Hugo was the right man for the accolade.

“I love the guy, on an individual level, I absolutely love the guy, so it’s great for him to lead the team. He has a calm head but leads a lot through action and when he speaks, the guys follow. He deserves the accolades he’s getting and I’m thankful to have him in the leadership group.

“I must compliment the entire playing group, not just the guys who started but also those who played off the bench, it was a huge effort.

“This win gives us confidence and hopefully that breeds more and more belief. This group is one win away from understanding just how good they can be.”

The Cell C Sharks’ Heineken Champions Cup defeat to Toulouse on Saturday evening called an end to their campaign – indeed all the five South African teams are now of their respective European campaigns – and Director of Rugby Neil Powell admitted just how hard the team had taken the loss.

“A big disappointment, you could see walking into the change-room after the game, it was dead quiet, you could see the disappointment on the guys’ faces,” he said afterwards. 

“For most of the game, we were really in it, but the turning point was our try that was disallowed because of a forward pass. The game is all about momentum and if we had scored that try, we would have gained some momentum and tried to stay on top of them and finished strongly.

“We were in it for the first 65/67 minutes but we unfortunately couldn’t finish it.

“From our side, the guys showed big effort, big fights, the guys really tried hard and left everything out there on the field.  But there were too many mistakes, when you get to the knock-out stages, it’s really important to be clinical, try to limit team and individual mistakes, but unfortunately, we weren’t as clinical as we would have hoped to be.”

He admitted that it was a sad end in an away game, against a really good Toulouse team who understand what it takes to be successful in these competitions and especially in the knock-outs.

“We have to get over the disappointment because our next game in the URC is on Friday, we have to close the door on this game and shift our focus to Benetton.”

Meanwhile, a celebration of the life of Ian McIntosh, whose contribution to rugby and the lives he touched, will be honoured at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Wednesday. Gates open at 3.30pm with the memorial commencing at 5pm on the main field.