Sharks grind past Blue Bulls
Despite giving away three yellow cards, the Sharks managed to grind out a 19-13 Currie Cup win over the Blue Bulls in Durban on Saturday.
Despite giving away three yellow cards, the Sharks managed to grind out a 19-13 Currie Cup win over the Blue Bulls in Durban on Saturday.
A try from flank Dewald Potgieter in the 84th minutes saved a losing bonus point for the Blue Bulls after Skipper Badenhorst has scored the only other try of the game for the Sharks.
The Griquas – who face Boland on Saturday – are now the tournaments only unbeaten team!
One hates to say it, but the most anticipated game of the weekend (Saturday's Test in Bloemfontein aside) turned out to be a bit of a anti-climax.
Of the starting 30 players, only seven were involved in last year's Currie Cup Final (two Bulls, five Sharks). As promising as that figure is for the development of the respective teams, this match at the Shark Tank failed to reach the lofty heights of last October's epic clash.
We eventually stopped counting the turnovers given away by the Bulls at the breakdown. The Sharks line-out was a mess and their handling was not up to defending champions' usual standards. That said, credit where credit is due, the Blue Bulls poached six of the Sharks' line-out throws.
The Bulls will head home to Pretoria harbouring a number of regrets. Only able to score from three of their nine incursions into the Sharks 22, and having played with an extra man for half an hour, their inability to strike when the opportunity presented itself will have Frans Ludeke scratching his head.
The first half was a fairly uneventful affair. With two very well organised defences on display, neither team as able to take the game by the scruff of the neck and both coaches would have been concerned with error count.
Riaan Swanepoel opened the scoring for the Sharks after just three minutes with the cheeky drop goal. The Blue Bulls could hardly get their hands on the ball in the first quarter of an hour and went 6-0 down when Rory Kockott slotted a penalty for not rolling away.
When the Bulls finally did get some possession they tried, but failed somewhat, pick and drive it up. Francois Brummer and Kockott then exchanged penalties to leave the status quo.
Monty Dumond thought he had scored the game's first try on 32 minutes but referee Mark Lawrence called play back on the advice of his assistant and sent Albert van den Berg to the sin bin instead for a misplaced elbow.
With the extra man, the visitors plied the pressure in the closing stages of the half but lacked the spark needed to crack the Sharks' line. The men from Pretoria would end the half with an advantage in the territorial stats but were unable turn that into points. The teams headed for a stern half-time pep-talk with the score at 9-3 to the hosts.
The second period began the way the first ended – with Sharks player seeing yellow. This time it was Jacques Botes, though the flanker might feel a little hard done by as he joining as ruck without binding, but was certainly not dangerous.
Brummer added three more points for the visitors when Keegan Daniel failed to roll away – the Bulls' only points from the two sin-bin periods.
The game finally burst into life with ten minutes left on the clock when Badenhorst crashed over. The replacement hooker rounded off the game's best period of play as the Sharks forwards showed a few deft touches after stringing together six phases.
A minute later Badenhorst was given his marching orders. At 19-6 down the Bulls threw the kitchen sink at the Sharks defence, but were unable to throw a try-scoring pass as a number of chances went a begging.
Potgieter finally crashed over in a pile of bodies to salvage a losing bonus point, which might prove to be very valuable come the end of the season.
The Scorers
For the Sharks:
Try: Badenhorst
Con: Kockott
Pens: Kockott 3
Drop: Swanepoel
For the Blue Bulls:
Tries: Potgieter
Con: Brummer
Pens: Brummer 2
Yellow cards: Albert van den Berg (Sharks – 32nd min – foul play); Jacques Botes (Sharks – 52nd min – entering ruck without binding); Skipper Badenhorst (Sharks – 73rd min – not rolling away)
The Sharks: 15 Stefan Terblanche (c), 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Andries Strauss, 12 Riaan Swanepoel, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Monty Dumond, 9 Rory Kockott, 8 Keegan Daniel, 7 Jean Deysel, 6 Jacques Botes, 5 Albert van den Berg, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Patric Cilliers, 2 Craig Burden, 1 Deon Carstens.
Replacements: 16 Skipper Badenhorst, 17 Wiehahn Herbst, 18 Michael Rhodes, 19 Justin Downey, 20 Ross Cronje, 21 Len Olivier, 22 Luzuko Vulindlu.
Blue Bulls: 15 Tiger Mangewni, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Jaco Pretorius, 12 Stefan Watermeyer, 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Francois Brummer, 9 Heini Adams, 8 Dries van Schalkwyk, 7 Dewald Potgieter, 6 Jacques Burger, 5 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Derick Kuün (c), 1 Gurtrho Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Frik Kirsten, 18 Jaco Engels, 19 Fudge Mabeta, 20 Gerrit-Jan van Velze, 21 Marius Delport, 2 Marnitz Boshoff.
Referee: Mark Lawrence
Assistant Referees: François Veldsman, Ben CrouseTelevision match official: Shaun Veldsman