Leading 25-8 at the changeover, the Sharks defeated Griquas 44-15 (seven tries to two) in a fast-paced Currie Cup fixture played at Absa Park, Kimberley, on Saturday afternoon.
Though the match began and continued at a cracking pace with effective Shark counter-attacks increasingly the order of the day, Griquas effectively lost the match when allowing the hard-running visitors to score their third and fourth tries in the closing 10 minutes of the opening half.
After Griquas’ indifferent first-half performance — and they made far too many mistakes against the marauding Sharks loose-forwards — coach Dawie Theron moved the experienced Conrad Barnard from fullback to his regular flyhalf position in the place of Tobie Botes, and right wing Gavin Passens to fullback. He also brought on Egon Seconds from the replacements bench to play right wing.
One minute into the second half, lively Griquas scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius was injured and replaced by Dougie Helmuth who, despite being short on match practice at Currie Cup level, gave an encouraging performance.
Four minutes later, a break down the middle by Waylon Murray saw him unselfishly feeding fellow centre Riaan Swanepoel who was well-placed to canter through and score the Sharks’ fifth try. With the conversion being successful, the Sharks led 32-8, to the delight of their enthusiastic support group sitting on the main grandstand.
Right wing Chris Jordaan’s first of two tries — the first being converted by flyhalf Monty Dumond — saw the Sharks opening up a 31-point lead with 20 minutes remaining.
Griquas were next to score when centre Riaan Viljoen intercepted inside his own 22m area, ran well and threw a long pass to very quick fellow centre Bjorn Basson, who ran 50m to dot down at the Sharks’ posts. Barnard converted.
Encouraged by their long-overdue second try, Griquas went into all-out attack mode. The hooter had already sounded with the home team poised for another five-pointer when wing Chris Jordaan intercepted near his own try line and ran all of about 90m to score the Sharks’ seventh and final try and so wrap up a convincing 44-15 victory.
In the face of their error-riddled performance, Griquas were very disappointing. Conversely the Sharks’ loose-forwards were outstanding with Jean Deysel proving hard to bring down with ball in hand.
Man of the match was prop Deon Carstens, who threw a monstrous dummy on his way to sprinting through from 30m to score the Sharks’ bonus-point-earning fourth try shortly before half-time.
Lucky win for Cheetahs
Defending champions the Cheetahs secured a rather lucky 15-10 win over a gutsy Boland Kavaliers side in a Currie Cup match at Wellington on Saturday after leading 5-0 at the interval.
The field was wet, heavy and muddy and the conditions were never going to suit the visitors. With the ball slippery, both sides made several handling errors.
The Cheetahs scored the first points of the match one minute into injury time of the first half, but flyhalf Chris Rossouw did not succeed with the conversion.
In the second minute of the second half, the Kavaliers levelled the score when Blue Bull acquisition Danwel Demas sprinted through to dot down after a smart grubber kick by flyhalf Isma-eel Dollie. Fullback Justin Peach converted for a Kavaliers lead of 7-5.
Ten minutes later, the Kavaliers had a golden opportunity to increase their lead but Dollie’s penalty attempt hit the upright pole.
However, Peach landed a three-pointer for the home side two minutes later to take a well-deserved 10-5 lead.
The Cheetahs, who could just not find their feet, levelled the score in the 20th minute when an inside pass by Tewis de Bruyn saw hooker Richardt Strauss diving over in the corner. Rossouw kicked a difficult conversion from the touch line to take the lead 12-10.
Seven minutes from full-time, Rossouw landed a penalty to make the score 15-10.
In the remaining minutes the Kavaliers attacked strongly but on two occasions poor handling cost them what should have been the match-winning points.
For the Cheetahs, left wing Fabian Juries was always dangerous while flanker Schalk van der Merwe drove forward tirelessly.
For the Kavaliers, Peach did not put a foot wrong, while scrumhalf Neil Papier shone in his 100th match. Up front live-wire loosehead prop Jean Botha is growing in stature. — Sapa