When it comes to forcing rivalries, nothing matches the Vodacom Cell C Hollywoodbets Sharks. Maybe it’s their ownership group — headed by the kind of New York Lawyer who makes sure that the only interesting thing about them is a big number in a checking account. It shows, believe me.
Maybe it’s their painful use of social media, which has so little charm and humour that it makes Elon Musk seem like a normal human being, and that’s no easy feat.
For most of this season, I have managed to do what almost everyone in the sport does pretty effortlessly, and that’s not think about the Hollywoodbets Sharks for a split second. It’s that which probably bothers them most. For a club that seems to revel in the idea of cheap heat, being roundly ignored is probably the key metric that the most painful banter can’t outrun, no matter how many bots on X (derogatory) interact with it.
I saw their “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” post this week, just gone, a sleazy trick of the algorithm to ensure I see the stuff I’m least interested in. “We are ready for a test of pace, skill, endurance (and a little luck) on Saturday in the tank! Bring on the rivalry!” with the somewhat contradictory title of “Luck will not be the decider at the Tank this Saturday 🦈🦌🍀”
Please be our rivals.
Please.
No.
It’s bad enough that we’ve had to be associated with the most interesting the Sharks have ever been when one of the Hendrikses — I forget who, it’s whoever ducked this game anyway — winked at Jack Crowley on the ground while feigning injury during a penalty shootout without being pulled into a rivalry with the lamest entity in this league.
It’s the kind of cheap heat you’d expect from a midcard heel, something to distract from the idea that outside of that, there’s very little else to think about.
That they’re a good side, with some of the best players in the sport playing for them, is an unfortunate side point. This is a side full of names that should be contesting URC and European finals every other season. They are infinitely better than how they portray themselves — and even how they’ve played this season — and that’s the problem Munster will have to navigate this Saturday in a humid, sweaty Durban — the deeply cringe packaging wrapped around a formidable, powerful team playing at home.
The Sharks are currently 11th in the URC, which is well below where they arguably should be on paper, especially given their Springbok contingent, most of whom are selected here. I have a feeling that, on Saturday, we’ll get a look at their upside, now that they finally have a run of home games to target.
Munster: 15. Mike Haley; 14. Calvin Nash, 13. Tom Farrell, 12. Alex Nankivell, 11. Shane Daly; 10. JJ Hanrahan (c), 9. Ethan Coughlan; 1. Michael Milne, 2. Diarmuid Barron, 3. Michael Ala’alatoa; 4. Jean Kleyn, 5. Tom Ahern; 6. Seán Edogbo, 7. John Hodnett, 8. Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: 16. Lee Barron, 17. Josh Wycherley, 18. John Ryan, 19. Edwin Edogbo, 20. Fineen Wycherley, 21. Paddy Patterson, 22. Dan Kelly, 23. Brian Gleeson.
Sharks: 15. Luan Giliomee; 14. Yaw Penxe, 13. Ethan Hooker, 12. Andre Esterhuizen (C), 11. Makazole Mapimpi; 10. Jordan Hendrikse, 9. Grant Williams; 1. Phatu Ganyane, 2. Fez Mbatha, 3. Hanro Jacobs; 4. Jason Jenkins, 5. Emile van Heerden; 6. Siya Kolisi, 7. Vincent Tshituka, 8. Phepsi Buthelezi
Replacements: 16. Eduan Swart, 17. Ox Nche, 18. Vincent Koch, 19. Corne Rahl, 20. Nick Hatton, 21. Bradley Davids, 22. Jean Smith, 23. Hakeen Kunene
Stylistically, the Sharks are the closest fit to the Stormers when it comes to leaning into the new meta of the modern game, but with a subtle shift.
They kick most often from #9, and contest those kicks at a really high rate, with a very decent contention rate. As you’d expect, they have the backend of that tactic covered pretty well with a very good scrum and a very good defensive lineout.
At a basic level, that means that they like to kick to contest, and are then somewhat comfortable living with the kicks they receive in return. and the outcome of those kicks.
You don’t want to scrummage too much against this team — especially us — and when they exit to touch, they’re very comfortable squeezing your throw through Tshituka and Van Heerden.
On paper, they are a diabolical matchup for us based on what we’ve seen this season. A big scrum, a highly contest-focused lineout and enough tight power to convert close-range opportunities.
Shape-wise, they’ll mostly play tight off the ruck — blindside, 10m from the previous ruck — to generate compressions that Williams can snipe around, with Hendrikse used primarily to move the ball to space and kick angled bombs for Penxe and Mapimpi to chase. They use this to move the ball into a spot where you either concede a scrum penalty or free kick — either put-in — and then start to hammer you around the fringes.
Defensively, they tend to counter-ruck more than jackal, but only on slow ruck positions, so we’ll need to be careful on how we play and where we play. Most of the rest of the time, they will spread out and try to apply heavy linespeed onto attacking layers.
With any kind of pace on the ruck, however, they tend to give up a lot of space around the C/D defensive channel if you can swing back and across the field.
This is also illustrated in their defensive data — they have a relatively low jackal threat, and big defensive dominance numbers, but with a high concession of missed tackles leading to linebreaks/tries.
This is particularly interesting for Munster, albeit on a day that is likely to be raining pretty heavily. We are particularly keen on exploiting this particular alignment in teams that don’t really contest the ruck all that often. We’ll have to be judicious when we choose to go after this, though, as we’re likely to take a good few heavy shots to open that window up.
Offensively, most of the Sharks’ work outside of transition will look like this, so we’ll have to make a decision pretty early on what our defensive strategy is. You can see the benefit in making the ruck a mess — it’ll slow down Williams, and take away a key part of the Sharks’ threat. The more play we can funnel to Hendrikse, the better.
This comes with a big threat for penalties at the breakdown, though, and they are particularly dangerous on close-range mauls, especially with Esterhuizen running off the break. They are really efficient at scoring in those scenarios, either directly or on the subsequent phases — same with scrum launches, so we’ll have to avoid those at all costs.
The Sharks will often kick in good attacking positions purely to generate those opportunities.
In saying that, though, I think there’s an approach that can work for Munster here; back-foot rugby, mixed with enough on-ball pressure to bring out the worst in the Sharks.
They want to kick, contest, and squeeze us at the scrum, before playing tight to win collisions through Esterhuizen. They don’t play a whole ton of offensive phases when they don’t need to, but we can stymie them — if we’re good enough aerially.
We know they’ll kick most of everything early on, so the selection of Haley, Nash and Daly is a direct counter to this. Win those early duels, have a few cuts off their front five on the drop — they don’t tend to jackal, so we should be able to pump some quick ball here — and then kick longer in return.
The Sharks’ back three and midfield are not natural kickers of the ball. There are many things they do well, but exiting under pressure through the boot isn’t one they can manage consistently.
This is the direct way to counter Sharks’ starter play, and leverage it to a place where they aren’t naturally comfortable. There’s risk involved, yes, because they are good transition runners — Hooker, Penxe and Mapimpi in particular — but they are uncomfortable exiting under pressure.
A lot will depend on our own lineout too — offensively and defensively — because if we can be solid there, and disruptive on theirs, we can starve them of the position they’ve used when they’re playing well.
The availability of Tom Ahern is crucial for this, because we’re a better lineout when he plays. 50 minutes of Ahern being the primary outlet on our ball, and himself and Sean Edogbo jumping on Tshitsuka and Van Heerden on theirs, and we can make this a messy game where the Sharks start to lose concentration. That’s where we can be dangerous.
The rugby that caused us issues in December could be a real positive here if we’re accurate, and if we balance it with more kicking than we normally do. They will blitz on flat lines, but they leave corners when they do. With enough quick ball around their 10m line, there are linebreaks there for us right up the middle of the pitch off #10.
Pass selection, pass discipline, and quick ball could be the winning of this game for us, if we can keep the Sharks away from the spots they’re excellent in for long enough. They will score tries on first or second phase, but we can’t get downbeat on that. Start solid, make them chase something, and then see if we can’t pick them off.
