Sharks: Destination Brisbane
It's a long road to Brisbane for the Sharks this week, but coach John Plumtree and his team are just relieved to still be alive in the competition.
The Sharks destiny was in their own hands on the weekend as far as reaching the playoffs was concerned, but the fate of where they played was up to the Bulls.
When it came down to either the Reds in Brisbane or the Crusaders in Christchurch it was down to the Bulls clash with the Lions to determine which set of plan tickets the Sharks booked.
While taking on either of last year's finalists would be a massive challenge, Plumtree revealed that his side are happier o have the shorter journey to Brisbane this week.
“Both those teams were in the final last year, both are really good teams, they both have outstanding nines and 10s, they're champion teams," Plumtree said.
"We've had some history in Christchurch and would prefer to go to Brisbane, it's lovely there. And the Bulls don't like playing the Reds, they have a terrible record there, at least we've won there before."
When the Brumbies stumbled at the final hurdle in their match with the Blues the Sharks discovered that a victory without a bonus point would be enough to see them through, but the Durban side wrapped the match up with four tries anyway.
"Ultimately, we always thought we'd probably need five points to go through and as it turned out with the Brumbies dropping out, that changed but it's hard to tell a team not to go out and score four tries when that's what they're paid to do," Plumtree explained.
"But that didn't matter, it's no use worrying about four tries or points difference when you're 15 points behind. That's how it was looking for a while and that was quite stressful for all of us."
In the first 40 minutes the Sharks hardly looked like a side that was still in the race for the title against a very determined Cheetahs outfit with Heinrich Brüssow wreaking havoc at the breakdowns.
"Our line-out didn't function, we got free-kicked for early engagement at an early scrum, and with five or six set-pieces that failed in the first 20 minutes, we didn't get any territory after that," Plumtree added. "The Cheetahs dominated the advantage line and breakdown because we were unable to get across the advantage line and that was something we identified and had to fix up after half-time. I made some changes and we managed to do that which was pleasing.
"Once we got some go-forward, they started falling off some tackles and then we were okay. I think everyone was a bit nervous, we talked about embracing the challenge and making sure that we played, but when the fundamentals of your game break down, you can't do that and that's what happened in the first half."
Despite the struggles in the first half Plumtree was pleased with the way his side reacted after the break and took the match by the scruff of the neck to secure a convincing 34-15 victory with tires from Keegan Daniel, Charl McLeod, Marcell Coetzee and Ryan Kankowski.
"When we got some flow going, got our ball-carriers involved, once we got that going, we got it right," he said. "You have to hand it to the Cheetahs, they really came to play and they're a side that can worry you. They play an all-round type of game, they aren't predicable and we're just relieved to get through that and into the qualifiers."
Plumtree also made special mention of the Man of the Match JP Pietersen: "I thought he was brilliant; he was a game-breaker and was probably the difference. I thought JP was outstanding in phase play, he played beautifully."
