A fired-up Chiefs side denied South Africa a hat-trick of Vodacom Super 12 rugby successes on Friday when they turned in a dazzling show of superb defence supported by an attractive and aggressive style of running rugby and then had to rely on high drama for a 34-27 victory at the Absa Stadium in Durban Friday night.
They claimed a bonus point for four tries and the Sharks went away with one for finishing within seven points of the victors.
But the real drama of the night came when Henno Mentz was apparently ”held up” on the Chiefs line with seconds remaining and a draw very much in the offing. Most believed that he had scored the try and had the Sharks converted, it would earned them a draw.
After countless showings of the move on the big screen TV referee, an apparently indecisive Jonathan Kaplan — who is also, apparently, one of the best referees in the country — ruled in conjunction with referee George Auoub of Australia and his nearest touch judge that the ball had not been grounded by the Sharks man.
It was a tough call and probably one of the longest and most agonising TV referee decisions ever.
Kaplan explained why after countless runs of filmed evidence why he was not in a position to make a positive ruling on the last minute try-scoring effort Henno Mentz that would have enabled the Sharks to draw match.
After looking at the filmed frames over and over and over again Kaplan said: ”On the evidence presented to me I could not make a call. It was too inconclusive.”
He said that he had then asked referee George Ayoub of Australia via the radio link as to whether he or touch judge Andre Watson of South Africa had seen the ball grounded. Their reply was that they could not and it was after the two men had conferred that Ayoub gave the ruling that it was not so and that Mentz had been held up by the Chiefs defenders.
Kaplan’s final observation was that ”a ruling could not be made on the grounds of probability but only on certainty”.
It was the second time that the crowd disagreed with officialdom as the Chiefs appeared to benefit from what they firmly believed were two blatant errors before the Chiefs were awarded a try scored by centre Keith Lowen.
But there was no doubting the quality of their other three tries as they pegged back the Sharks semi-final aspirations in the wake of the successes achieved down under earlier in the day by the Stormers and the Bulls.
After being committed to total defence for the first five minutes in which the Chiefs dominated the pattern both up front and behind the pack with skilful ball control the Sharks were completely bamboozled by fullback Loki Crichton who easily had the beating of a desperate covering tackle by Brent Russell for a fine opening try, converted by flyhalf Glen Jackson.
A couple of suspect tackles from flyhalf Butch James went unpunished before the Sharks man got a penalty chance to reduce the deficit to 7-3 after intense pressure from the home side had threatened a better reward. But Jackson got the three points back with a low-trajectory penalty goal as the Sharks were hustled into error by a potently dangerous and determined Chiefs outfit after their loss to the Cats at Ellis Park last weekend.
The pace was fast and furious halted only by a shrill whistle blast from referee George Ayoub of Australia offering Jackson the chance to make it 13-3 with his second penalty.
The Sharks, coming off their great win over the Crusaders, appeared shell-shocked by the initial Chiefs aggression and gratefully accepted three points midway through the half as James notched his second successive kick, The Sharks were gaining in confidence at this stage and a powerful rolling maul had Springbok and Sharks captain shoved over the line for a very valuable try with James slotting the conversion to level the scores at 13-13.
Now the locals were into their stride and centre Adrian Jacobs was taken out at the corner flag following a well-planned and well-executed Natal ‘double-back’ move that had the Chiefs bewildered by the speed of movement and change of direction.
Coach Kevin Putt’s decision to beef up his pack for this game paid off when the Sharks outmuscled the Chiefs eight.
But almost against the trend the Chiefs added to their tally on the stroke of half-time with a move that was perhaps anything but legal.
A chip ahead by Jackson had the Sharks falling back into a panic mode and when Trevor Halstead was taken out by wing Sitiveni Sivivatu with the ball seemingly nowhere near his grasp, centre Keith Lowen was accorded a gift try converted by Jackson leaving the Sharks seven points in arrears at 13-20 with the second half to follow.
Russell Winter, on at eighth man in place of AJ Venter for a spell, all but secured a quick second-half score for the Sharks but again the superb Chiefs defence held them off.
Until the speedy Henno Mentz, taking advantage of the narrowest of gaps, streaked 35 metres for a grand score and James levelled matters again with the conversion. In almost a carbon copy eighth man Sione Lauaki scored try number three for the Chiefs with Jackson on target as well (27-20) prompting the introduction of Gregor Townsend at flyhalf. Then another Chiefs breakaway had wing Lome Fa’atau outpace the Sharks cover for the bonus point fourth try converted by Jackson.
But the never-say-die Sharks were back in contention to a crackerjack Brent Russell effort, again converted by James. And finally there was that great last second effort that so nearly snatched a draw for the Sharks at the death. – Sapa