The Hollywoodbets Sharks ended their Vodacom United Rugby Championship drought against the DHL Stormers with a 21-15 win at Hollywoodbets Kings Park that could not have been more dramatic if it was dreamed up by a scriptwriter.
The Stormers, as a winning sequence that goes back to early 2021 will tell you, have long been the Sharks’ bogey team, and they so nearly were again. The Sharks looked like they had the game in hand against a team that butchered a lot of scoring chances when they led 21-8 with just two minutes to go. However, the Stormers were rightly awarded a penalty try with just a few seconds left, and then, trailing by six points, they attacked in a brilliant multi-phase counterattack that started at their own tryline in what they knew would be the last move of the game.
The Stormers had been error-ridden up to then against a team that had to rely on their defence to win, something that may not have been expected beforehand, but in that last move, they showed their brilliance as well as their character.
Manie Libbok, on the field after Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was concussed in the first half, featured prominently, not least with the pinpoint cross kick that nearly sent scrumhalf Hershel Jantjies in under the posts. A desperate Sharks scramble tackle prevented him from running through on his own, but the ball was swung this way and that and eventually it was Libbok who scythed through a gap as wide as the Tugela River that opened in front of him in the Sharks 22.
Libbok crossed over and dotted down beneath the posts to the jubilation of his teammates and, no doubt, Stormers supporters everywhere. Libbok had missed a few kicks earlier in the game, but he could not miss from there - it was reasonable to assume the Stormers had scored a great come-from-behind victory.
However, these days we live in an era when rugby maybe has become over-technical, and to be fair, the Sharks were denied a try earlier by what, at least to me, looked like a marginal obstruction call against Vincent Tshituka. Ethan Hooker jetted over for what looked like his second try, only to be denied when the TMO went back.
TMO HAD TO GO BACK A LONG WAY
The TMO had to go back a lot further to deny the Stormers, to one of the very early loose scrums that started the buildup to what would have been their match winning try. There was indeed a little slip of the ball from a hand, the hand just happening to belong to Libbok, so the TMO was justified in suggesting to referee Marius van der Westhuizen that he should disallow the try.
But the question does have to be asked about what it does to the spontaneity of the sport when you do go that far back. Shouldn’t it be stipulated that in an instance like that, the call should be made much earlier, and not wait until after the score has been completed? As I say, the Stormers shouldn’t complain as a similar call went against the Sharks, but it must have been heartbreaking for the Stormers to be denied in that fashion.
Had the try stood, it would have been an escape act of Houdini proportions for the Stormers, and the Sharks would have been left wondering if they were ever going to beat their Cape rivals.
Stormers captain Dan du Plessis probably had it right in his post-match television interview - the better team on the day did win, in the sense that while the Stormers had so many scoring opportunities and dominated the Sharks scrum, making a real mess of their set piece, it was the Sharks who were the more clinical team throughout the match.
The pattern of the game was set in the early minutes, when the Stormers dominated territory and possession and pushed the Sharks back in the early scrums. But they were unable to get points on the board, and former Stormers player and now Sharks and Springbok captain, Siya Kolisi, had a lot to do with that in the way he held the visitors up at the breakdown.
SHARKS DEFENSIVE GAME WON IT FOR THEM
The Sharks’ defence kept the Stormers at bay, and at the same time, the Stormers contributed by perhaps erring in not kicking their first penalty at goal. Although of course, we would be telling a different story had Joseph Dweba found his lineout jumpers from the attacking set that came from the penalty.
Apart from the efforts of Kolisi and James Venter at the breakdowns, the other loose-forward Vincent Tshituka produced a try-saving tackle on Herschel Jantjies.
After that, the frustrated Stormers lost their discipline, and the Sharks set up in the Stormers territory for the first time after 11 minutes. Another penalty went to advantage and the Sharks used that to create the space out wide that Hooker used to swivel over in the right corner.
Not long after that, Kolisi barrelled over and at 14-0 up it looked like the Sharks might be on their way to the comfortable victory many had anticipated. It didn’t turn out like that, and the Stormers arguably had the better of most of the rest of the game, except for those occasions when they failed to bring down the Sharks runners. It was a day the Sharks produced some thrilling counterattacks from the back, and Aphelele Fassi was a worthy recipient of his umpteenth man-of-the-match award.
STORMERS MADE TOO MANY ERRORS
The Stormers, by contrast, will rue the errors they made, not least the one from Fassi’s opposite number Warrick Gelant when he had unmarked runners outside not long after the Stormers had scored their first points through a smartly-taken Feinberg-Mngomezulu drop-goal.
The Stormers should have scored again before the break but didn’t, but when they did score in the second half, it was thanks to an incredible burst of speed from Suleiman Hartzenberg, who chased down a kick into the Sharks' in-goal area five minutes after the game had restarted.
Both teams had chances after that, including the one that was disallowed for the Sharks, but the Stormers arguably had more, and will be kicking themselves for not making full use of them.
Instead, it was Andre Esterhuizen who capitalised on a Stormers error inside their 22, a head-high pass to Hartzenberg, by going over to score after the turnover had been made by none other than that man, Kolisi.
That made it 21-8, and that was the way it stayed until the penalty try at the death that set in motion the frenetic final minutes after the hooter that this otherwise quite scrappy game is likely to be remembered for.
Both teams will feel they were a little short of their best, but the big crowd that turned up at Kings Park will feel that they delivered a contest that will whet their appetite to come back again and again in the weeks and months to come. The win was the Sharks’ third in succession against recent URC champion teams and is an indication they are back on track.
SCORES
Hollywoodbets Sharks 21 - Tries: Ethan Hooker, Siya Kolisi and Andre Esterhuizen; Conversions: Siya Masuku 2 and Jordan Hendrikse.
DHL Stormers 15 - Tries: Leolin Zas; Penalty try; Drop-goal: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.