Once again the Queensland Reds have proved themselves to be the Sharks bogey side in Vodacom Super 12 rugby as the home side let a golden chance of glory slip from their grasp in a somewhat inept performance in sliding to a 6-5 defeat before a 31 000-strong crowd at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday.
After earlier results from down under had favoured the Sharks position as semifinal challengers one would have expected the Sharks to be a dominant force. But they were far from that. Neither for that matter were the Reds much better in an error-prone game of forward passes, knock-ons and plain on-field tactical mismanagement.
Both Luke Watson (Sharks) and Wendell Sailor for the Reds had possible tries on a plate for them only to have them ruined by over- zealous and stupid forward passes in each case.
The game was eventually decided by two penalty goals to the Reds against a try to the Sharks in a match in which, if there had been a bonus point for every error, then the Queensland Reds and the Sharks would have been richly endowed after a painful experience of Super 12 rugby at its very worst.
That was a great pity for Sharks and Springbok captain John Smit who played his 50th game for the Sharks in this match even though the home side did pick up a bonus point for a one-point result difference.
Reds wing Wendell Sailor mounted a threatening early run at the Sharks almost as a tester. But it took a penalty goal to set the scoreboard rolling and it was Queensland captain Elton Flatley who did the honours for the Reds after prop Brendon Botha had been penalised about 45m out.
Sharks flank Luke Watson was denied a try when from a tap penalty flyhalf Butch James contrived to throw his overhead pass to his unmarked teammate with a forward motion.
Using a one-on-one bulldozing tactic of forward progress the Sharks again tested the Reds defence only to toss away another golden opportunity with a knock-on metres from the Reds line.
Noel Oelschig, given a run at scrumhalf in place of the campaign-weary Craig Davidson, revealed great tactical kicking skills that forced the Reds pack to retreat many metres at a time.
In the second half, though, he made way for Dave von Hoesslin.
There was the occasional flurry from the Australians from out of their defensive zone that spelt danger for the Sharks but generally they relied heavily on the boot of fullback Chris Latham to get them out of difficult situations.
Eventually the Queensland defence had to be breeched and it was from a pushover from 15m out that Botha, making up for his early error, got the touch as the whole pack fell over the Reds line.
The Sharks had a remarkable escape when Latham tried a soccer kick ahead that would have left the local defence stranded. But equal to the occasion and in a fine goalkeeping reaction Butch James collected the ball in his midriff and saved the day.
They had another escape when a bouncing ball eluded the diminutive Brent Russell near the Sharks line but Sailor knocked on as he failed to gather.
It left a two-point difference at the break at 5-3 to the Sharks.
The second half began as did the first with Flatley landing his second penalty goal. Then it was error after error as chances went abegging with Wendell Sailor missing out on a certain try to a forward pass.
Russell was almost through the smallest of gaps as the Sharks battled to overcome the one-point deficit and then coach Kevin Putt took off Eduard Ceotzee, Adrian Jacobs, Smit and Russell in a bid to revitalise his forces.
Replacements Skipper Badenhorst and Gregor Townsend were introduced along with Deon Kayser and Lawrence Sephaka. Junior Pelesasa, Tai McIsaac and Pete Niumata were new Reds in the latter stages.
But it made no difference. The errors continued unabated and that was that. — Sapa