The Sharks held on for a hard-fought 16-11 win over the Lions in a crucial Absa Currie Cup match at the Absa Stadium on Saturday.
With the Sharks welcoming back three Springboks into their lineup, there was great expectation that they would provide the coastal franchise with a spark that has thus far been missing this season.
But in the first half the Sharks still battled to find their feet or their form and it was a tough, hard grind for both sides.
Early on, Sharks flyhalf Ruan Pienaar slotted the first penalty to open the scoring. Pienaar started at pivot in place of French international Frederic Michalak who failed a late fitness test on Friday due to a hip injury sustained in last weekend’s match against the Cheetahs.
Moments later, Lions flyhalf Earl Rose evened things up with a penalty of his own but the Sharks immediately restored their three-point advantage, with Pienaar slotting another penalty in the 14th minute.
A dull 20 minutes followed before Rose levelled the score.
In the dying minutes, Lions No8 Willem Alberts nearly took the visitor’s into a half-time lead as he slipped out of a Pienaar tackle to make 50m and almost go over in the corner before being tackled into touch.
Thus, the score remained 6-6 as both teams headed into the interval.
The hard-fought nature of the match continued in the opening ten minutes of the second stanza, as both sides went at it hammer and tongs.
In the fifteenth minute the Sharks came close to getting the first try of the match, but lock Albert van den Berg was just held up over the line.
Nevertheless, referee Jonathan Kaplan had been playing advantage and Pienaar duly slotted his third penalty.
Against the run of play in the 65th minute, Alberts eventually got his try, picking up a loose ball on the Sharks 10m line to run down the left touchline unopposed.
The try took the Lions into an 11-9 lead, the first time they were ahead in the match.
With just seven minutes on the clock though, Sharks replacement Keegan Daniel at last scored the first try for the hosts, much to the relief of the partisan crowd. Pienaar easily slotted the conversion to take the Sharks into a 16-11 lead that they held on to until the final whistle. – Sapa