The Cell C Sharks held firm against a concerted late Leinster onslaught to score a crucially important 28-23 victory in a tightly fought Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at Hollywoodbets Kings Park in Durban on Saturday.
* Get DStv to watch all the URC action *
The Sharks scored four tries in a game that was played in wet weather for three quarters of it to grab a full house of five log points and it was the perfect moment for them to produce one of their most heroic and brave performances of recent times.
The game was played in front of what looked like the biggest rugby crowd in Durban for a long time, no doubt boosted by the family Fan Day the Sharks franchise hosted at the stadium during the course of Saturday.
Producing a winning performance against a champion team, and Leinster are a champion team, could help bring the fans back to the stadium in numbers on a more regular basis.
And it was a deserved win. Yes, Leinster were under-strength, and might be kicking themselves for not winning the game when they had the opportunity when they were camped on the Sharks line for the last seven minutes of play.
FASSI'S X-FACTOR MOMENT
But everyone knows Leinster are strong no matter what team they put out, and they showed in the first half just how efficient and champion minded they are as they opened up a 17-7 lead which normally in a wet game would be nigh impossible to make up.
That the Sharks came back and eventually won can be put down to fullback Aphelele Fassi’s brilliant break and run as he counter-attacked from the back to put scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse in for the try.
The score came on the stroke of halftime and would have been hugely psychologically important for a Sharks team that was starting to look like they were going to be beaten at that point.
Instead of going into the break with a 10-point deficit, they went in just three points behind, and that would have made a huge difference to the Sharks’ confidence.
The Sharks had started off well enough and enjoyed a marked territorial advantage early on, but flyhalf Curwin Bosch missed two penalty attempts, one that he should normally expect to get with his eyes closed, but the second from 58 metres.
It was a not a night though where Bosch’s place-kicking let them down, for he made up with it with an excellent showing when kicking from hand.
BOSCH HAS GAINED A LOT OF CONFIDENCE
That was crucial in a wet weather game. The former South African Schools pivot has also built his confidence in recent weeks when it comes to his willingness to take on the opposing defences, and he made some excellent breaks and ended the game with the top running metres.
Much of that confidence can probably be ascribed for the magnificence of the Sharks pack in recent weeks, with the forward unit continuing where they left off in dominating the Emirates Lions and the Dragons in their most recent matches.
The scrum used to be the Sharks’ achilles heel, but since the acquisition of Springbok front-rankers Ox Nche from the Cheetahs and Bongi Mbonambi from the Stormers that has changed. In this game it was what got them out of jail against a well drilled Leinster team.
Well, that and the Sharks’ field kicking, led by Bosch, plus the X-factor of Fassi and Makazole Mapimpi, with the latter scoring an intercept try in response to the Scott Penny try that opened the scoring for Leinster and put them into a 7-0 lead after 16 minutes.
The Mapimpi try, with the intercept coming as Leinster tried to run wide from set phase, came three minutes after the Leinster score and with Bosch’s conversion levelled the scores at 7-all.
Leinster perhaps made a mistake by kicking long onto the Sharks’ best counter-attackers like Fassi and also, on the night, Bosch, but they looked like they might be taking control of the game despite their lack of possession when a 27th minute Kieran Frawley penalty was followed by an excellent try to wing Tommy O’Brien, who ran onto a pinpoint cross kick and then outstripped the Sharks defence.
SLOW POISON AND YELLOW CARDS
That was just four minutes before the break and had it not been for Fassi’s counter off a long Leinster clearance that set up the Hendrikse score, the Sharks would have been well behind.
But while toward the end of the first half the Sharks had been conceding penalties, and also into the start of the second, slowly but surely the slow poison of the Sharks scrum and their mauling game began to take toll on the visitors and the hosts started to get the penalties going their way.
Eventually the referee lost patience and it led to Leinster losing two players to yellow cards, for a while it was concurrently, and that did help the Sharks in such a close game.
While Bongi Mbonambi with a driving maul try and then Phelpsi Buthelezi powered over off yet another good Sharks scrum close to the Leinster line, Leinster could only add two penalties after halftime.
They did come tantalisingly close in the final minutes but some heroic Sharks defence kept them at bay to lift them to fifth place on the log and almost assure themselves of a place in both the playoffs and next year’s Champions Cup.
Leinster certainly had to do more tackling for most of the game than the Sharks did and the hosts did deserve to come out on top.
ScoresCell C Sharks 28 - Tries:
Makazole Mapimpi, Jaden Hendrikse, Bongi Mbonambi and Phepsi Buthelezi; Conversions:Curwin Bosch 4.Leinster 23 - Tries:Scott Penny and Tommy O’Brien; Conversions:Kieran Frawley 2; Penalties:Kieran Frawley 3.