As predicted, the travel after a mighty effort against the Bulls hindered the Sharks. They weren't helped early on by the referee whose pedantic nitpicking robbed them of early momentum. Bryce Lawrence adjudicates without a feel for the match, relying heavily on strict interpretation of some laws and a mystifying dismissal of others. His enforcement of the breakdown is schizophrenic. He must be frustrating to play with, because he annoys the shit out of me as an observer, but I digress.
An armwrestle in the first half hour marked by two teams seeking to not make mistakes. The Sharks with dominance at the breakdown and a brilliant break by the Sharks halfback to set up the first try. The game opened up after a magnificent effort by Maitland to put SBW over. A poor long pass looking to take advantage of an overlap was swooped on by Keiran Read and the game was now beyond the Sharks.
The Crusaders will want to send an extra man or two to the breakdown next week as the Stormers will have noticed who well the Sharks exposed the Crusaders early on - too busy setting up for the next phase of their continuity play. It seemed to me that the Sharks numbers weren't joining their first man from behind the last feet, rather from the side, but behind their man enough for the referee to ignore the gate. Kudos to them, if the ref doesn't mind, it's legal.
Quick thumbs up to the Shark's skipper, Stefan Terblanche whose gracious and eloquent losing speech couldn't be more different to Phil Waugh's effort 24 hours previous.
