A magnificent solo try by Keegan Daniel helped the Sharks to a thrilling 34-25 win over the Blue Bulls at Durban’s Absa Stadium on Saturday night.
It was a slightly scrappy start to this crucial top-of-the table clash and eventually it was the Sharks who were left to rue a slow start as they conceded a soft try early on.
Bulls centre Wynand Olivier made the initial break and passed to fellow centre Marius Delport, who went over under the posts. Flyhalf Morne Steyn added the extra two and it was 7-0 to the visitors.
However, the Sharks were unfazed and it wasn’t long before they levelled things at 7-7 after winger Odwa Ndungane scored a great try in the right-hand corner after showing off his pace.
The second quarter saw both sides battle bravely as they tried to assert their ascendancy, but it was abundantly clear that they were two very evenly matched teams and, in the end, Sharks scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar slotted one penalty to score the only points in the remainder of the half.
The Sharks went into the break with a tenuous 10-7 lead but in the second half they quickly extended it to 17-7 after replacement JP Pietersen scored a majestic try.
The Bulls fought back magnificently, though, and two quick tries to lock Victor Matfield and then Olivier made it 17-17 with 20 minutes to play.
A few minutes later and suddenly the Bulls were the ones with a 25-17 advantage after Steyn slotted another penalty and Olivier crossed for another try.
The Sharks hit back superbly with a try from stand-out performer fullback Stefan Terblanche. The try and conversion by Pienaar made it 25-24 to the Bulls with just less than 15 minutes left on the clock. Pienaar then slotted another great penalty to make it 27-25.
Number eight Keegan Daniel then scored a magnificent individual try to make it 34-25 and that was all she wrote.
Leopards beaten
The only unbeaten run in the Currie Cup came to an end when the Eagles pipped the Leopards 35-34 at Outeniqua Park in George on Saturday afternoon to celebrate coach Phil Pretorius’s centenary.
The Eagles were fortunate to pull this one through in a see-saw battle as the Leopards’ goal-kickers missed seven attempts at goal. They scored five tries to four, but paid a heavy penalty for their early misses.
Clayton Durand missed his first shot at goal within a minute. It fell short of the upright and he missed a second opportunity two minutes later. He missed a third sitter within five minutes, all of which the Leopards would regret later.
Ambrose Barends, playing in his 50th game, made no mistake in the eighth minute to put the Eagles in the lead.
The Leopards changed kickers in the 11th minute but Anvor Schooney shanked the kick. Then both Durand and Theo van Wyk kicked straight into touch as the Leopards seemed intent on kicking every ball high on the Eagles’ back three.
The Eagles wanted to play rugby and Tertius Carse dived over the ruck to increase their lead. Barends curled the ball in to lift the lead to 10-0.
Durand’s luck completely deserted him when he missed his fourth kick at goal. What could have been 15-10 stayed at zero for the visitors.
Barends then increased the lead to two scores when he kicked his second penalty. Jan van Zyl scored his 15th try of the season after a brilliant break through the middle by Vuyo Zangqa — and Schooney missed.
Van Zyl scored his 16th on the stroke of half-time after a quick tap penalty near the Eagles’ line. Again Schooney missed, but at half-time it was game on with the score on 13-10.
A minute after the break, Valentine van Wyk scored wide out as the Eagles started with new vigour. Barends converted from the touch-line.
Deon van Rensburg scored his try within three minutes when he took a short pass from his forwards. Durand converted from close to the touch-line — his first successful kick of the afternoon.
The Leopards took the lead for the first time after 54 minutes when Rudi Mathee showed his class, bursting through the middle with pace and power.
The minute Michael Bondesio took the field he had an immediate impact on the game when he broke from inside his 22 to send the flying Vuyo Zangqa away on a 60m run while he was shadowed by the big frame of Mathee.
The Leopards edged ahead 34-20, but the game took another twist when Allister Kettledas sprinted 60 yards to score the corner and Christo van Niekerk received a yellow card seven minutes from full-time.
Barends reduced the lead to six points with a penalty and the Eagles drove over in the last seconds for Barends to kick the winning conversion.
Cheetahs beaten at home
Despite the loss of the inspirational Schalk Burger 11 minutes before the end of the match, a 14-man Western Province (WP) scored a thrilling 35-17 win over reigning Currie Cup champions the Free State Cheetahs at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
WP picked up a bonus point for four tries to keep their slender 2008 Currie Cup play-off hopes alive. They snatched their bonus-point try in the dying minutes of the match after their 14-man defence absorbed tremendous pressure from the Cheetahs.
WP averted early danger when they stole the ball at a Cheetahs line-out in the second minute but the home side secured a vital turnover four minutes later, after which winger Wilton Pietersen scrambled in at the corner flag to open the scoring in the match.
Cheetahs centre Meyer Bosman converted splendidly from the touchline to give his side a 7-0 lead.
Indiscretions on the ground by the Cheetahs in the ensuing minutes allowed WP to close the gap after flyhalf Peter Grant was on target with two penalties (7-6).
The Cheetahs showed excellent defence as WP gained the upper hand with several penetrative raids deep inside the opposition half. WP were rewarded for their efforts when their scrumhalf Ricky Januarie charged down an in-goal clearance kick by Cheetahs fullback Bevin Fortuin and gathered the stray ball to score in the 18th minute. Grant was on target with the conversion (13-7).
Three minutes later Bosman reduced the deficit for the Cheetahs with a penalty (13-10).
Province loosie Burger was adjudged to have interfered with a Cheetahs jumper at a line-out and referee Phillip Bosch ordered the offender to the sin bin in the 29th minute. Meyer failed with his penalty attempt.
The Cheetahs stepped up a gear as they looked to exploit the sin-binning but they had to wait for eight minutes before they could breach the WP defence as their speedster Fabian Juries wormed his way down the touchline on the left flank before scoring his side’s second try.
Meyer converted to give the Cheetahs the lead for the second time in the match (17-13). But WP bounced back with an unconverted try through Joe Pietersen to regain the lead on the stroke of halftime and after an excellent run by their Fijian international Sireli Naqelevuki (18-17).
Pietersen had entered the fray as a substitute only two minutes earlier after fullback Conrad Jantjes was forced to leave the field with a blood injury.
The Cheetahs threatened at the outset of the restart when Juries enjoyed a clear run inside the WP half but Januarie scrambled back in defence with a try-saving tackle in the 43rd minute.
There were a few more raids by the Cheetahs who threatened the WP try line but WP absorbed the pressure to keep their slender lead intact.
WP bounced back against the run of play after their hooker Schalk Brits snatched the ball from a Cheetahs tap at the line-out and broke powerfully before sending in lock Andries Bekker to record their side’s third try. Grant added the conversion to open an eight-point lead in the 49th minute (25-17).
This advance seemed to lift WP’s game and they went on to produce a sustained spell of entertaining rugby. Although they failed to crack the Cheetahs’ defence they consolidated their grip on the game when Grant goaled a 58th-minute penalty (28-17).
The Cheetahs tried hard to claw their way back into the game but they spoiled a few promising movements with sloppy handling.
WP were reduced to 14 players for the second time in the game, except this time the loss of a player was permanent. Burger was red-carded for a dangerous high tackle on his Springbok teammate Juan Smith in the 69th minute.
In the remaining 11 minutes of play, WP was forced to settle for a defensive role. They rose to the occasion superbly when they thwarted one Cheetahs attack after the other.
But the gods smiled on the Cape Town visitors when Jean de Villiers celebrated his first appointment as WP skipper when he intercepted a pass in the Cheetahs backline and raced in from about 80m to score a bonus-point try. Grant added the conversion in injury time to round off a thrilling 35-17 win.
Victory for Griquas
Leading 28-10 at the changeover, Griquas defeated the never-say-die Boland Kavaliers 48-22 in a crucial bottom-of-the-log Currie Cup fixture match played at Absa Park, Kimberley, late on Saturday afternoon.
After Boland fullback Justin Peach had put his team 3-0 up with a penalty in the fourth minute, the home team responded with two well-worked converted tries — the first by lightning-fast right wing Bjorn Basson (sixth minute) and the second by eighth man Heinrich Stride (15th minute) following excellent support play between backs and forwards.
Boland struck back with a try by prop WP Nel in the 24th minute and, with Peach kicking the conversion, it was 14-10 to Griquas.
In the space of two minutes Basson scored his second try of the half and then made another scored by left wing MJ Mentz. With flyhalf Conrad Barnard kicking another two conversions, Griquas, a bonus point to the good, led 28-10.
Early in the second half, Boland skipper centre Piet van Zyl’s opportunistic try, also converted by Peach, made it 28-17 to Griquas with 30 minutes remaining.
Barnard’s well-struck, angled penalty from long range gave the home team a handy 14-point lead which, midway through the half, became 21 points when Mentz rounded off a fine movement with his second try.
Basson completed a superb attacking match when, following up scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius’s cleverly placed kick into the corner, he gathered the ball at speed and dived over in the corner to complete his hat-trick.
With Griquas now leading 43-17 the Bolanders threw caution to the wind, running the ball at every opportunity.
Replacement left wing Renfred Dazel scored the Bolanders’ third try in the 34th minute but this was offset two minutes from the final whistle by Griquas replacement scrumhalf Tobie Botes’s five-pointer to make the final score 48-22 — and a valuable five log points for the home team. — Sapa