The New South Wales Waratahs overcame a dismal ball-handling and kicking display to wear down the Sharks 25-21 in a dour Super 14 match on Saturday.
On-loan England fly-half Adam Goode converted an Adam Jacobs try to put the Sharks within four points of their opponents 16 minutes after the break, but the teams went scoreless thereafter to allow the Waratahs to grind out their second win of the season on a muggy night at Sydney Football Stadium.
“It was always going to be tough. I think it was probably one of the more physical games at this level,” Waratahs captain Phil Waugh said in a televised interview.
“We hung in there well. We probably got away with a bit at the end there but those wins matter at the end of the season.”
The Sharks, who are winless after four games this season, could count themselves unlucky.
The Waratahs’ Kurtley Beale cut off a pass destined for number eight Ryan Kankowski who was charging towards the Sharks goal-line for a near-certain try with under three minutes left.
The interception was deemed deliberate and Beale was sent off, but the Waratahs escaped a penalty try that would have almost certainly cost them the match.
In a match blighted by both teams struggling to kick to field positions, the Waratahs dominated early possession but failed time and again to convert as passes missed targets and players coughed up the ball at the breakdown.
With scores tied at 6-6, the Sharks were reduced to 13 men in the 24th minute when Goode was sin-binned for a deliberate offside three minutes after hooker Jannie Du Plessis was sent off for tripping a player.
The Waratahs failed to capitalise, however, and instead sent a woeful pass into the arms of Kankowski, who scored the Sharks’ first try.
The error appeared to snap the Waratahs out of their stupor, and Daniel Halangahu dived between the posts minutes later.
Outside centre Tom Carter then barrelled over the line under an avalanche of defenders to give the Waratahs an 18-14 lead on the stroke of halftime.
Hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau gave the Waratahs their third and final try 11 minutes after the break, torpedoing into the mid-riff of a Sharks defender before planting the ball over the line. – Reuters