By the time Handre Pollard made his long awaited Currie Cup return here yesterday, the Blue Bulls were in desperate need of a spark.
In the opening 50 minutes the Sharks had bossed the collisions and had built a bit of a cushion, by no means luxurious, but enough to absorb what the visitors were likely to throw at them.
Pollard, although workmanlike, neither has the recent game time or confidence to turn a match on its head. Besides, in the teeming rain it was nigh impossible to provide a spark.A FAIR WEATHER BUNCH
As it turned out, the Sharks are now assured a Currie Cup home semifinal and it will require some effort if they are going to be denied a path to the final.
They displayed adaptability to quell the challenge of the Blue Bulls, but the slow grind they were forced to employ got them home, eventually.
It is no fluke that they top the Currie Cup points table by such a generous margin. The Bulls had patches in which they held the whip hand in territory and possession but they never really looked like breaking the Sharks' winning sequence at home. To be fair, the wet ball and soggy underfoot conditions might have helped Bulls of the past but the current crop are a fair weather bunch.POOR BULLS EXPOSED
This was not the place to push the envelope, or reset their personal boundaries. Their coach John Mitchell is in the throes of embedding a bold new playing style which places a high premium on skill and manoeuvrability, and the latter requirement was denied them here yesterday...