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The Cell C Sharks' dominant display against the highly rated Waratahs wasn't just the response that was required after their opening defeat, it was also their biggest and most emphatic statement of the season so far and underlined why they are favourites to win Vodacom Super Rugby.
When the Sharks lost their first away game at Loftus, there would have been many who would have felt the bubble was about to burst. Ace lineout forward Pieter-Steph du Toit was clearly missed in that game, and then Patrick Lambie, the flyhalf around whom so much depended, sustained an injury that has ruled him out for the season.
In the build-up week to the Waratahs game it was also confirmed that the other first choice Sharks lock, Anton Bresler, would effectively miss the rest of the competition when it was announced he would undergo a shoulder operation that would rule him out for four months. The Sharks surely were ripe for the picking, and they were up against a Waratahs unit that Sharks director of rugby Jake White himself listed among the favourites to win the competition.
In the early parts of the season the Durban rugby environment has also been rife with rumours that the Sharks players haven't been happy with White's strict discipline. According to the whispers, a raft of them are negotiating with overseas and other organisations in a quest to escape the Spartan training regime they were put through during the pre-season.
It would all be understandable if it were true. No coach has ever come in and changed a pre-existing culture without some form of negative reaction from those players, particularly the more senior and entitled ones, who have been allowed to live in a comfort zone.
And the Sharks players haven't just experienced one culture change over the past nine months, they've experienced three. John Plumtree had his own way about him and the players who were with him at the Sharks from when he took over from Dick Muir in mid-2008 would have been used to his methods and approaches.
Then came Brendan Venter, who told them they should consider themselves to be more than just rugby players and should have lives and even careers outside of the sport. As he was at Saracens when he first started at the English club, Venter was hugely popular and the players warmed to him.
White was never going to be as popular, and it is no secret that several players who played under him at the Springboks didn't exactly love him. They considered him too school masterly. That is apparently the criticism that has been circulating in his new trading as coach of the Sharks.
But here is the thing – White got results at the Springboks. They won the World Cup. And if the players are unhappy with him at the Sharks, most of the Sharks fans who were at Growthpoint Kings Park won't care if they continue to be unhappy with him, for it doesn't appear the unhappiness is preventing them from getting results.
On the contrary, the Sharks took the field like angry bees, and motivated by the talk through the media from the Waratahs coach during the week – White said he had pinned some of it to the dressing room wall to gee his players up – they produced by far their best performance of the season so far.
So much for the Sharks finding that the injuries to Lambie, Du Toit and Bresler would veer them off course and start the much anticipated implosion. Had it not been for the late Bernard Foley consolation try, the Sharks would have won the match 32-3, and the Waratahs coach has a good imagination if he really thinks it was a tight game.
His defensive system did keep the Sharks in check for long periods when they had emphatic and suffocating territorial ascendancy, but from the vantage point of the press box it was always obvious which team was physically dominating a game that was not for the faint hearted.
Former coach Dick Muir was encountered after the game, and he was able to recall how the Waratahs had dominated his team physically in a semifinal in Sydney in 2008. He remembers that happening a lot at the hands of the Waratahs down the years. This time the boot was on the other foot, White clearly knows what is required to beat specific opponents, and the players certainly didn't give the impression of being a team that wasn't playing for the jersey and the coach.
As White had pointed out, that was even the case in Pretoria the week before, where although the Sharks lost and were outdone in the physical arm-wrestle to a disturbing degree, they did come storming back at the end in a desperate quest for victory. Clearly this team and these players have pride, and it would be churlish not to give White credit for that.
The upshot of the performance is that, with the help of other results going their way, the Sharks are now in the dominant position on both the log and in the South African conference that they were playing for the previous week.
The Chiefs fought back to draw against the Vodacom Bulls, a result that was good for the Sharks for two reasons, the Stormers lost again, and so did the Brumbies and Crusaders.
Interestingly, with the exception with the Christchurch upset and the Pretoria stalemate, the trend of home team dominance continued this past weekend, with the synopsis for the season now reading played 42 and 35 of those games won by the home team.
That draw might provide us with a small clue of why it has been so lopsided in favour of home teams. Injuries and departures for overseas have introduced a high inexperience quotient to the competition this year, and it is the away games that new players usually struggle with most.
But a good team can expose inexperience in the opposition line-up regardless of the venue, and that is what the Chiefs did at Loftus. It is doubtful that the more experienced Bulls teams at the past would have squandered the massive lead they enjoyed this past Saturday.
WEEKEND RESULTS
Crusaders 26 Hurricanes 29
Melbourne Rebels 32 Brumbies 24
Blues 30 Highlanders 12
Reds 22 DHL Stormers 17
Vodacom Bulls 34 Chiefs 34
Cell C Sharks 32 Waratahs 10
Massive statement from Jake White's team.
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