The Hollywoodbets Sharks had to overcome two late disruptions to their team but it wasn’t enough to stop them hitting their target as their forwards set up a comprehensive 45-0 bonus point win over Munster in their round 13 Vodacom URC match in Durban.
The Sharks need to be near perfect in the final third of the URC season if they are to reach the top eight position they need to qualify for next season’s Investec Champions Cup as well as the URC playoff games, a task that was made a bit stiffer by the good win that Connacht scored over Ulster in Belfast the previous evening.
The Irish side have joined two other South African sides in the form of the Fidelity SureDrive Lions and Vodacom Bulls in being a potential obstacle to the Sharks’ hopes.
Domination 👊@SharksRugby aren’t giving up on a Top 8 spot yet 🦈@Vodacom #URC | #SHAvMUN pic.twitter.com/crjmwcqzw2
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) March 21, 2026
That being so, there would have been some apprehension running through Sharks veins on the eve of the game when first Springbok centre Ethan Hooker had to withdraw from the team through family bereavement and then national captain Siya Kolisi had to withdraw through a calf strain suffered in training.
Le Roux Malan came in to join the always impressive and influential Andre Esterhuizen in the midfield and Nick Hatton came in at No8 to allow Phepsi Buthelezi to wear the No6 jersey normally worn by Kolisi.
Both did their job, but it was a night when there were two shining diamonds both in the back three and both at the opposite stage of their respective careers.
The first was the 19-year-old fullback Luan Gilomee who celebrated an energetic and impressive debut with the Sharks’ second try.
Luan Giliomee has a @SharksRugby try on debut 🦈@Vodacom #URC | #SHAvMUN pic.twitter.com/ZVKSj8UH3C
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) March 21, 2026
He scored after Esterhuizen, who was immense in taking the ball up and leading by example, had held up the Munster defenders with his body strength before passing out to Yaw Penxe, who flicked inside for Gioliomee, who had been involved earlier in the attack, to go over for a highly popular try.
Then later in the game, in the final minutes with the match settled as a contest, up popped the veteran 2019 Bok World Cup winning wing Makazole Mapimpi to score a quick brace of tries to make it a memorable celebration for him on the occasion of his 100th cap for the Sharks.
Makazole Mapimpi 🦈🔥
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) March 21, 2026
What a way to celebrate 100 caps in Black and White ⚫⚪#SSRugby | #VURC pic.twitter.com/8sUoMl7z9j
SHARKS' PACK SET IT UP
Not that it was a night that necessarily belonged to the Sharks’ backs. It was the big men who deserved the kudos, with Giliomee’s try that made it 12-0 after 28 minutes following an opening after six minutes that pretty much came from the Sharks’ staple strength on the night.
The Sharks forced a scrum penalty, the ball was kicked for the corner, and Buthelezi dotted down the first try off the driving maul.
It was good to see the young Sharks tighthead Hanro Jacobs featuring among the players voted for by the public for the man of the match award, which eventually went to Bok scrumhalf Grant Williams, for he delivered a powerful performance in the scrums and it was in that phase that the Sharks effectively laid the platform for their domination.
They were strong with their driving mauls too and those strengths just never allowed Munster, who were without some international stars who were being rested because of their heavy load in the recent Guinness Six Nations.
Munster, like the other two overseas teams that were beaten earlier in the weekend, should look a quite different side when they get to Loftus for their second game of the tour next weekend.
But they will go into that game having lost ground to the top four on the log, which includes the South African team, the DHL Stormers, that still has to play this week (their game against the Dragons in Cape Town is set for Sunday afternoon) and with the knowledge that they were mostly outmuscled by the team they were involved in such a tight and feisty quarterfinal with at the same Hollywoodbets Kings Park venue last May.
It wasn’t a hugely entertaining game but then it was never going to be on a damp day in Durban and the one aspect of the Sharks’ template that definitely still requires work is their attacking shape.
Talking about attack though, Giliomee does look like a gem, a bit of a mixture of former Sharks star flyhalf/fullback Pat Lambie and Bok World Cup winner Cheslin Kolbe (in terms of pace and acceleration).
His try was supplemented with an “assist” as it was his pass joining the line that set up the attack that led to lock Emile van Heerden running the perfect line to score off a sublime offload on the line from Williams.
PHATU GOT IN ON THE SCORING ACT TOO
Williams was another impressive performer on the night for the Sharks, who led 12-0 at halftime, another being the loosehead Phatu Ganyane, with the Glenwood old boy driving over the line after a long period of sustained pressure for the Sharks’ third try in the 50th minute.
That made it 19-0 and given that the Sharks’ defensive system always looked like it had the Munster attacks wrapped, that was really game, set and match.
The fifth Sharks try as they emphatically got back on track after a two game blip on the highveld was scored by centre Malan, and then just for good measure the centurion Mapimpi ran onto a kick to score his team’s six try.
By then Jean Smith was on the field to kick two of the three final conversions as the Sharks hit their target for the game and ensured that after three games this weekend the South African challenge has been perfect in the sense that all three saw local teams score bonus point victories.
SCORES
Hollywoodbets Sharks 45 - Tries: Phepsi Buthelezi, Luan Gilliomee, Phatu Ganyane, Emile van Heerden, Le Roux Malan and Makazole Mapimpi 2; Conversions: Jordan Hendrikse 3 and Jean Smith 2.
Munster 0