- The boot of Curwin Bosch was a major difference between the Sharks and Western Province on Saturday.
- Bosch slotted three monster penalties to open up a 9-0 lead for his side at Newlands.
- The Sharks won the match 19-9 to book their place in the Currie Cup final.
There was very little in the way of expansive, running rugby in Saturday's Currie Cup semi-final between Western Province and the Sharks at Newlands.
From the very first action of the game, when Curwin Bosch failed to reach the 10m line with his kick-off, the contest was riddled with errors.
Even the only try of the match, scored by Sharks lock JJ Van der Mescht, was a result of the visitors bashing away at the WP line and it would have done little to excite the neutral.
The Sharks, of course, will not mind any of that at all.
They have booked their place in next weekend's Currie Cup final against the Bulls at Loftus after a 19-9 win that was seldom easy on the eye.
It was supposed to be Western Province's swansong at Newlands, but it was instead the Sharks who walked away smiling and much of that had to do with the boot of Bosch.
After just 12 minutes, the Sharks were already leading 9-0 thanks to three penalties from Bosch that were all taken from inside his own half.
It was a stunning start for the 23-year-old, who has struggled to settle as a professional No 10 but has made huge strides in that regard this season.
The result was not safe until the final minutes for the visitors, and WP did claw their way back to 9-9, but those early penalties proved to be massive.
By the time he was done, Bosch had also nudged over a drop goal and a conversion for a personal haul of 14 points.
"He's taken us out of the trenches a couple of times in games," Sharks coach Sean Everitt said after the match.
"With the extended time that he's had at No 10 he has grown in confidence and so has his kicking game.
"Today, the drop goal and the penalties that he kicked was obviously the difference in the game and I'm really proud of his performance.
"He made a big contribution in the result tonight."
Bosch's near-flawless display and ability to hurt WP on the scoreboard from anywhere within 60m will be hugely encouraging for Sharks fans ahead of their Loftus trip, but it also showed that Western Province are perhaps still deficient in that department.
Tim Swiel has been a more than capable option and has kicked his side into the right areas for a good portion of this campaign, but at the start of Super Rugby Unlocked last year Dobson wanted Damian Willemse to be his flyhalf.
"I think No 10 has been a challenge for us for a little while now," Dobson conceded after the match.
"We haven't really settled there.
"We were pushing Damian and he went to the back (fullback) and he's done well at the back, so we possibly haven't got that right."
Game management aside, Dobson also acknowledged that it would help to have an option in his set-up who could kick penalties consistently from serious distance.
"You saw in the first half Curwin knocking one over from close to their 10m line and then you saw us getting a penalty on the half-way line and having to go for touch. It does change things a bit," he said, adding that the start from the Sharks and Bosch had hurt.
"9-0 put us under enormous pressure ... if you make a mistake on 9-0 and go 16-0 down, you're in a lot of trouble.
"It would be something nice to have in the arsenal, because pretty much every other team has it. It is something we're going to have to look at."
So Curwin Bosch has scored 3 penalties at a distance of 164m, that's an average distance of 55m per kick @MattP555 @SuperSportTV #SSRugby
— Seseki (@Seseki) January 23, 2021
Is there a better kicker in South Africa than Curwin Bosch at the moment?
— Zulu kaNtombela (@Ntando_Mpofana) January 23, 2021