The Sharks beat the Falcons 46-17 in the Currie Cup rugby series on Friday night in Brakpan after leading 17-3 by half-time.
The men from KwaZulu-Natal got their campaign back on track after two losses with a perfect tally of five points. They outscored the Falcons by seven tries to two.
The home side contested well in the first half-hour of play, but injuries to crucial positions in the backline cost them dearly. After injuries to fullback Mpho Matsaung and wing Sam Willard, Falcons flyhalf Riaan Viljoen had to move to fullback, while Jovan Bowles had to move from inside centre to flyhalf for the hosts.
The reshuffled backline didn’t help their cause too much either as the Sharks sealed the match with three tries in 13 minutes in the second half.
The Sharks squandered many opportunities from handling errors, but made up for it by taking advantage of the errors gifted to them by the Falcons. Two of these chances resulted from a lack of communication among the home side’s patched backline.
The match almost turned ugly late in the second half when replacement props from both sides, Kees Lensing and Piet Grobler, started a huge brawl in which many more players joined. Referee Phillip Bosch sent both front-rowers to the sin bin. — Sapa