Durban — This weekend the South African teams in the United Rugby Championship return to local derbies and after a month of fixtures against touring overseas opposition, the matches between the Sharks and the Lions and the Stormers and the Bulls will reveal the extent to which these teams have grown.
Of the 16 matches recently played by the four sides against the Europeans, 15 were won, with the only hiccup being the Edinburgh defeat of the Sharks in a Kings Park quagmire.
Looking specifically at the Lions’ visit to the Sharks on Saturday (4pm), the visitors are on a roll, having pulled themselves up by their bootstraps to win four in a row after a disastrous sequence of nine consecutive defeats.
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The green grass of home, not to mention the rarified atmosphere of the Highveld, has been kind to Ivan van Rooyen’s team and they have had convincing wins over Cardiff (37-20), Munster (23-21), the Ospreys (45-15) and Edinburgh, who went up to Emirates Airline Park cock-a-hoop after beating the Sharks only to lose 15-9.
In all of those wins, the altitude certainly played a part, with the Lions finishing strongly against a tiring opposition. But their change in fortune is down to much more than the screaming lungs of the gasping opposition — the defence has been nothing short of phenomenal and it seems that Springbok legend Jaque Foure’s defensive teachings have sunk in.
Another significant factor for the Lions has been the form of their halfbacks — Jordan Hendrikse at flyhalf and Morne van den Berg have been outstanding. Hendrikse was conspicuous by his absence through injury over most of the losing stretch and he has made a huge difference over the last month while Van den Berg is probably the South African find of the competition, the new Faf de Klerk with his attacking menace around the fringes of the rucks, his eagle-eye for a gap and then his acceleration to capitalise on it.
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This brings us to the Sharks’ 9 and 10. I thought former Lions and Springbok attack coach Swys de Bruin made a very good point regarding the Sharks' halfbacks after the weekend’s action.
He said it would make a big difference to Curwin Bosch if the Sharks settled on a scrumhalf partner for him — no more chopping and changing between Grant Williams, Jaden Hendrikse and, to a lesser extent, Cameron Wright, and having chosen one of them, task him with taking some of the kicking pressure off Bosch early in the game, to allow the flyhalf to settle down.
Hendrikse fits that bill in my opinion. He is the best kicker of the ball although I have seen Wright time some beauties in the Currie Cup, and as a recent Springbok, Hendrikse does seem to be the way forward.
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Williams did tour with the Boks last year but was not capped, and while he is the quickest of the three, his game management is not as good as that of Hendrikse.
Bosch had a very good game against the Dragons last week, and it has been pointed out by his coach that he did many good things in the game against Edinburgh and did not warrant the criticism that has been directed at him.
Nobody wants a prodigy such as Bosch to fail and this weekend we will have a better idea of where he is at — the Lions’ pack is much stronger than that of the Dragons and young Hendrikse and Van den Berg have growing reputations.
IOL Sport