A burst of four tries that included a hat-trick in 14 minutes to flying Western Province right wing Egon Seconds blew away the 2005 Absa Currie Cup hopes of the Natal Sharks as they succumbed 45-21 to Western Province in a rugby match of great intensity in Durban on Saturday.
The Stormers got six second-half tries and the Sharks one in each half.
The Sharks led 16-6 at the break and although they had weathered a torrid last quarter of the first half, they were badly battered by Seconds and Western Province flyhalf Peter Grant who changed the order of events in dramatic style after the break.
In a hectic spell 11 minutes on either side of half-time, five tries were scored, and ironic as it may seem, the two to the Sharks one minute before the break and one minute afterwards seemed to have sewn the game up for them with a 21-6 lead.
But then opportunities opened up for Province, who were all fired up, and the Sharks’ defensive pattern down the right flank was torn asunder by the speed of Seconds, who also performed a near-miracle juggling act for the second of his three tries.
The bonus point had been secured for Province, and the gallant efforts of the Sharks — especially in the first half when they had Province on the defence with a series of innovative and, at times, insolent passing that was full of enterprise in skill and execution — were in vain.
Twice it nearly brought them first-half tries — once to quick-flying Henno Mentz who just failed to grasp the ball at full tilt and the second from a line-out where Warren Britz got away and over the Western Province line, only for referee Tappa Henning to rule a skew throw-in by John Smit.
Later, Britz left the field with a bad injury above his right ear that left him covered in blood.
Mentz did get his first-half reward when Springbok centre Jean de Villiers dropped a pass at his feet and Henno poached the ball to score a minute before half-time.
Then Brent Russell got into the act with a charge-down of an attempted Neil de Koch clearance that set up a heart-warming ”home” try for centre Grant Rees.
After that, Province showed their power in no uncertain terms — they had made a few dangerous first-half sorties towards the break — and it was the turn of the Sharks to defend for all they were worth. But De Koch added a fifth try for Western Province and then ever-steady fullback Earl Rose kicked a penalty to put the match beyond the reach of the Sharks at 38-21.
Just to rub salt into their wounds, Gio Aplon ran away from the defenders in referee’s optional time to make it six tries to two, and this was also converted by Rose.
The crowd of 24 000 had come to the stadium with high expectations. They believed it had inspired the Sharks to a better result until the Province hurricane turned things around completely. — Sapa