Wasteful Sharks can’t even manage their tour’s smallest hill

The Sharks were unable to scale the first little hill on their overseas Super Rugby tour, going down 24-17 to the Brumbies in Canberra on Saturday, dogged by basic mistakes and ill-discipline.

The scale of the Sharks’ wastefulness and ineptitude was shown by their failure to capitalise on two yellow cards that were dished out to the Brumbies.

The first came in the 36^th minute when flank Lachlan McCaffrey was sin-binned for playing the ball on the ground whilst off his feet at a ruck.

The Sharks were 10-3 down at that stage but failed to close the gap, with McCaffrey making a neat scoring pass to wing Henry Speight as soon as he returned to the field.

The Sharks did score a try, prop Thomas du Toit driving over, when the Brumbies had their second player yellow-carded in the 53^rd minute, tighthead Allan Alalaatoa for entering a rolling maul on the wrong side, putting themselves back in the game at 10-15.

But they then conceded a scrum penalty (18-10) against seven forwards and Speight on the flank!

Who was the star in this match?

Brumbies flyhalf Wharenui Hawera was their key performer, varying his play well as the home side kept the ball alive for long periods, but without making 50/50 passes. His four penalties were also crucial, but they could not have come at a cheaper price as the Sharks showed gross indiscipline as well as being shaky in the scrums.

Key moments and themes

• More than half-an-hour had passed before the Sharks finally managed to get some phases going, and it led to their opening points through a Robert du Preez penalty for offsides. But by then the dominant Brumbies had already posted a penalty and a converted try.
• Having fought back to 10-15 with 23 minutes remaining, the Sharks had the wind knocked out of their sails by conceding three penalties in eight minutes. There were two successive scrum penalties as a new front row was brought on and then replacement centre Marius Louw was penalised for starting some push-n-shove. The Sharks will not have been impressed that at the previous penalty, referee Glen Jackson allowed McCaffrey to shove over replacement flank Tyler Paul without sanction.
• Wallabies lock Rory Arnold was a vital source of power for the Brumbies pack, carrying the ball gainfully as well as beefing up their scrum. He also made his presence felt in the lineouts, where the Sharks lost a couple of crucial throws in the red zone.
• When the Sharks finally managed to hang on to the ball long enough to get it to the wings, Curwin Bosch showed great pace to get around the cover defence and score, after outside centre Lukhanyo Am had slickly evaded his man. But the 77^th minute is hardly the time to start playing some rugby.

Point scorers

Brumbies – Tries: Lausii Taliauli, Henry Speight. Conversion: Wharenui Hawera. Penalties: Hawera (4).

Sharks – Tries: Thomas du Toit, Curwin Bosch. Conversions: Robert du Preez (2). Penalty: Du Preez.