The Sharks XV continued to build their reputation as a team running into ominous form and building as serious Carling Currie Cup contenders by picking up another five valuable log points with a hard fought 31-23 win over DHL Western Province in Cape Town on Saturday.
Actually that scoreline was a lot closer than it looked like being for much of the game, with WP fighting back really well after falling 21-3 behind shortly before halftime.
Had the hosts been better at finishing their opportunities, they could have stolen a win - although in truth the Sharks, who look really well coached by former Springbok wing JP Pietersen, were much the better team.
That was underlined by a four to two advantage for the Durbanites when it came to tries.
Four tries for the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV give them the upper hand over Western Province 👏#CarlingCurrieCup pic.twitter.com/S1WfGdNHxd
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) August 24, 2024
The area where WP fell particularly short was in the lineouts, which were a mess, and as skipper Willie Engelbrecht put it afterwards you can’t win games if you don’t get your set-piece right.
The defeat means that Province effectively drop out of the Currie Cup race, while by contrast their coastal rivals are now firmly ensconced in the top four, with the pressure now on the Airlink Pumas to retain their pressure on the Sharks by getting full points from their game in Welkom on Sunday.
The Sharks are third at the time of writing, but the Cheetahs are two points behind in fourth with their game against the Lions still to come.
WP DISRUPTED BY INJURIES
The top four as it stands does look like a fair reflection of the Currie Cup season so far, with the Sharks having now gone five games unbeaten - four wins and the draw against the Pumas - since they started to turn the corner by shocking the Lions in Johannesburg.
This wasn’t the best Sharks performance, and it needs to be noted that WP were severely disrupted by a swathe of injuries that caused late changes to the team on the day of the game.
Indeed, much of the story of why WP are out of semifinal contention is because of the injuries that have forced the coaches to dig much deeper into the resource base than has been the case at other unions.
The WP side that lined up in this game bore little resemblance to the one that started the season.
That said, the Currie Cup is a development competition these days, and being forced to spread the net creates opportunities that can be of huge benefit to the senior team’s plans in the long run.
WP have played well in patches this season despite their results and started solidly by forcing an early scrum penalty and taking a 3-0 lead after four minutes, and that followed an opening miss from long range from WP flyhalf Jurie Matthee.
But after that it was pretty much all the Sharks, with their first try being scored by flanker Tino Masevere off a quick tap penalty taken by scrumhalf Bradley Davids in the 14th minute.
SHARKS SHOW THEIR CLASS
Man of the match Lionel Cronje kicked the angled conversion and was then on target twice more when the Sharks broke down the WP resistance late in the half with two quick tries, the first being the dam breaker and a brilliant solo effort from the man known as the Boogeyman, centre Jurenzo Julius.
The captain Nick Hatton, who has proved himself an excellent leader in his reprisal of the legendary Tommy Bedford and Wynand Claassen roles with a No 8 captaining and wearing headband, swivelled over for the second and the Sharks were 21-3 ahead and deservedly so in a game where they’d dominated both possession and territory.
They gave away some of that momentum when a loose pass saw Kyle Smith, one of the players called in as a late replacement, score the intercept try that brought the hosts back to 11 points at the break (21-10).
The Sharks were forced mostly into a defensive role in the third quarter, WP’s best passage of the game, with Matthee kicking two penalties in a period where Province should really have converted at least one of their try scoring opportunities.
Matthee’s 64th-minute penalty meant WP were back in the game at 21-16 down, but that is when the Sharks upped a level and showed their class, with Cronje and Julius showing their passing skills in sending the pacy and powerful Eduan Keyter over in the left corner.
Cronje’s conversion meant that with 15 minutes to go the Sharks were back in control at 28-16 up.
However, a few minutes later a player educated in Durban, the powerful WP loosehead Vernon Matongo, powered his way over the line for Province’s second try, something that should have pleased the second Northwood old boy to play for the Streeptruie (the first was Andy Marinos in the 1990s).
That would have introduced some nerves in the mostly young Sharks team but they showed their nous by playing the final minutes in the right part of the field and from there it was the veteran Cronje who removed any possibility of defeat by snapping over a good drop goal.
SCORES
HOLLYWOODBETS SHARKS XV 31 - Tries: Tino Masevere, Jurenzo Julius, Nick Hatton and Eduan Keyter; Conversions: Lionel Cronje 4; Drop-goal: Lionel Cronje.
DHL WESTERN PROVINCE 23 - Tries: Kyle Smith and Vernon Matongo; Conversions: Jurie Matthee 2; Penalties: Jurie Matthee 3