Playing the Blue Bulls at their own game, the Sharks answered every critic out there, won every battle that was on offer and totally deserved a most memorable victory.

It was bandied around that the Sharks would crumble when the Springbok layered Blue Bull team flexed their muscles. Yet every Sharks fan had seen how poorly the Boks had played this year and they knew that they had the skill to compete. And compete they did.

Man for man the Sharks outsmarted and outplayed a Bulls team that struggled to come to grips with a Sharks team that were relentless in defence and persistent in keeping the ball in hand for as long as they could. Without the ball the Blue Bulls were terrible and proved an age old farming adage true:  “ A Bull without balls is just an ox.”

The likes of Bakkies, Spies, Olivier, Hougaard and Steyn were made to look ordinary which is a worry for a Springbok team which seems to rely so heavily on what does now look like fragile talent.  However we predicted that one of the big tests for the Sharks would be the half back combination of Macleod and Lambie against Hougaard and Steyn.

Frankly Hougaard was a disappointment as Charl Macleod put on a display of creativity that makes one wonder how on earth Ricky Januarie gets picked for the Bok squad and the outlandish talents of the Sharks scrumhalf gets ignored.

Lambie who I have watched since his Michaelhouse days took the challenge of playing against the Springbok flyhalf in his stride and to be fair was the only class No.10 on the field. It was the biggest challenge in his career and he just has to have one hand on a Springbok jersey by now.

There are two weeks to go until the final against Western Province who will present another challenge to the mighty Sharks but after witnessing one of the great performances by the men in black and white the Capetonians would do well to recall the famous line in the 1975 Jaws movie “ If you want to catch the Shark you’ll need a bigger boat.”