South Africa’s Sharks made it six wins out of six and top the table after a 27-14 victory over New Zealand’s Wellington Hurricanes in Durban on Saturday.
It wasn’t pretty, but Dick Muir’s charges did the business to remain the only unbeaten side in this year’s Super 14 southern-hemisphere interprovincial competition.
The home side led 10-9 at the break. It was also the first time this season that the men from Durban managed to score four tries in a match and thus earn a bonus point. They now have 25 points, two more than the Blues, who had the weekend off.
The Sharks were quickly on the board thanks to a superb driving maul by the forwards that brought them to within inches of the try line.
When the ball came out, young winger JP Pietersen collected a long pass from Ruan Pienaar and showed great pace to beat the Hurricanes’ tacklers to go in for the score. It was one of the few occasions the visitors’ strong defence was unlocked.
With few try-scoring chances coming the way of either side, Hurricanes flyhalf Blair Stewart was handed the ball to have a shot at goal whenever his team entered the Sharks’ 22m area.
He struck in the 19th and 30th minutes to put his side into the lead, but the Sharks, whose driving maul caused a number of problems for the men from Wellington, regained the lead seven minutes from the interval when Johan Ackermann was driven over the line by his teammates after the Sharks had opted to kick into touch for the line-out instead of going for three points.
The Hurricanes reduced the gap to just one point when Stewart knocked over his third penalty to leave the score at 10-9 in favour of the home side at the break.
With the Sharks’ backs, especially youngsters Pietersen and Francois Steyn, showing greater skill and intuition than their more experienced opponents, the home side slowly started getting the upper hand and it took only six minutes of the second period for them to go in for their third try.
It came from a line-out drive again and on this occasion it was number eight Jacques Botes who went over. Butch James added the extras.
The Sharks soon scored their fourth try for the bonus point from exactly the same move that earned Ackermann and Botes their tries — the drive from the line-out.
On this occasion it was veteran flanker Warren Britz who came up with the ball and James again added the two points. The Sharks flyhalf soon struck with his first penalty of the day to stretch his team’s lead to 27-9.
Home-team coach Dick Muir then rung the changes and gave former Springbok captain Bob Skinstad a 20-minute run, but he also lost line-out stalwart Johan Muller to what appeared to be a serious neck or shoulder injury.
With the number of changes to both sides, the match turned into quite a scrappy affair in the final quarter, but the Hurricanes did manage a try through prop John Schwalger, although the final 15 minutes produced nothing significant for either side.
The Sharks face the Brumbies next week, while the Hurricanes are up against the Lions at Ellis Park. — Sapa-AFP