The scenes of elation that enveloped the Leinster team at the final whistle told the full story of the effort they put in to score an epic 10-7 win over the Hollywoodbets Sharks in their top four Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash in Durban on Saturday night.
Epic not because you wouldn’t expect a team of Leinster’s quality to be able to win at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.
Rather because they did this with a much changed up team with academy players in some positions and because, when it was learned on the eve of the game that Leinster weren’t going to field their two Galatico overseas stars, most thought the Sharks would win easily.
Leinster finish their two-match tour on a high with a win at Hollywoodbets Kings Park 🔵🏉#VURC pic.twitter.com/4w6oX5OOOF
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) March 29, 2025
After all, with All Black Jordie Barrett and Springbok double World Cup winner RG Snyman missing from the Leinster line-up, it was the Sharks who were the star studded team with several World Cup winners as well as Boks who made their debut last season.
It was mighty defence, led by their captain Max Deegan at No8, that drove the Leinster victory drive against a Sharks team that had many scoring opportunities that were wasted by poor finishing, perhaps directed by a lack of composure inside the opposition 22.
And inside the opposition was where the Sharks spent the entire first seven minutes.
They had three penalties, they had a gilt edged chance of scoring they did not take, they did not capitalise on lineout position.
The Sharks dominated possession in those minutes and it looked like it was going to script and the Sharks would make up on missing opportunities by capitalising on their dominance later on.
Only it didn’t turn out that way, and the opening part turned out to be a microcosm of the game.
Leinster celebrated almost as loudly as they did at the final whistle when they managed to turn over possession at the end of that period.
A case of one small win that turned out to be one huge win?
Perhaps, for Leinster, with Deegan making a great run, managed to get themselves into the Sharks’ half.
After that and up until around the 30th minute, when the Sharks did finally started to get some attacking momentum, most notably in one attack that featured Andre Esterhuizen and Makazole Mapimpi playing in tandem twice, it was Leinster who had the ascendancy both in possession and territory.
Indeed, the Sharks did really well defensively themselves at times in this game, most notably just short of the quarter of an hour mark when they had to resist an incredible sustained multi-phase attack.
ILL DISCIPLINE COST THE HOSTS
When they did concede it was partly down to ill discipline, for Jaden Hendrikse was in the 18th minute yellow carded for a reckless lash with the boot at a ball Leinster had in their possession about a metre out from the tryline.
Playing 15 against 14, Leinster were what the Sharks weren’t enough - they were patient in exerting pressure and eventually the Sharks ran out of defensive numbers when a long pass found replacement back Henry McErlean unmarked near the corner flag.
Ciaran Frawley, who famously kicked the drop-goal that drew the series between South Africa and Ireland at Kings Park last July, missed the conversion, and he missed a later one on a day when there was only one successful kick for posts.
Frawley by the way was wide with a penalty attempt in the first half too.
But the missed kicks didn’t mean anything negative to Leinster in the sense that they were able to resist the beginnings of the Sharks’ fightback in the last 10 minutes of the half and were able to go to halftime leading 5-0.
And it became 10-0, with the Sharks in trouble, when another replacement back in Scott Penney ran a good line off Frawley to go over for a try near the posts.
Leinster would have expected that try to be converted but instead it bounced back off the upright, much to the delight of a mostly Sharks dominated crowd of in excess of 20 000.
Perhaps that miss galvanised the Sharks, for it looked like they had ignited their fire when three minutes after Penney’s score the Sharks put in a formidable drive from which Bongi Mbonambi scored.
The Hollywoodbets Sharks rolling maul comes in clutch 😤🤌
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) March 29, 2025
Bongi Mbonambi gets the home side's first points of the match 🎯
📺 Stream #VURC on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/uUKPS6UUGd
Jordan Hendrikse’s conversion made it a three point game with 29 minutes remaining, and for a long time it looked like both teams might be set to experience a sense of déjà vu.
That feeling of having experienced the same thing before would certainly have come to both teams had the Sharks’ scrum won the game for the Durbanites.
That was how they won against Zebre seven days ago, and also how Leinster lost to the Bulls.
CHANGES SAW SURRENDER OF INITIATIVE
However while the scrum dominance looked to be turning the game the Sharks’ way, when the changes were made to the front row it proved disastrous, with replacement hooker Fez Mbatha making a mess of a few lineout throws.
That wasn’t the only thing that worked against the Sharks and their momentum, but it certainly didn’t help as the visiting defenders stood up heroically to a final onslaught that somehow by that stage just looked like it lacked the steam to get them across the line as winners.
It’s been a season where the Sharks have one quite a few games they could have lost, but this was one that went the other way.
That’s not to detract from Leinster’s heroism, just that the Sharks could have won comfortably had they just been composed enough to capitalise on the chances they created.
SCORES
Leinster 10 - Tries: Henry McErlean and Scott Penney.
Hollywoodbets Sharks 7 - Try: Bongi Mbonambi; Conversion: Jordan Hendrikse.