Riaan Viljoen has scored a try in injury time to seal a 22-20 win for the Sharks over the Blues in Durban.
It was the perfect example of the hackneyed “game of two halves” as the Sharks dominated territory and possession to take a good 17-5 lead at half time. Pat Lambie’s kicking boots clearly stayed at the Bok camp, as he missed two penalties in the opening period, but the Sharks scored two good tries off the back of rolling mauls in the opening 40, meaning those misses weren’t ultimately costly. A late try by Blues winger Frank Halai gave the visitors some hope, but with nearly 80% of the ball – and the set pieces in particular – going the Sharks’ way, it was a pretty one-sided affair for much of the half.
Alas, the Sharks that came out after the break were a poor shadow of those warriors from the first 40 and the Blues went on to score twice before the Sharks had even laced their boots back on. From 17-5 up, the Sharks suddenly found themselves all square and as Lambie continued to miss penalties, it was the Blues who then took the lead, a slender 20-17 advantage they held until the final minutes.
Bismarck du Plessis had by that stage taken the field – and the captaincy from an again-misfiring Keegan Daniel – and opted bravely to press for the try, despite a few kickable penalty options late in the game. His decision was ultimately the right one, with good teamwork eventually sending Viljoen over in the right hand corner with 82 minutes on the clock.
Beast Mtawarira, who led an amazing Sharks scrum effort, was awarded man of the match.
Sharks (22): Tries Marcell Coetzee, Charl McLeod, Riaan Viljoen. Conversions Pat Lambie (2). Penalty Lambie.
Blues (20): Tries Frank Halai (2), Rene Ranger. Conversion Chris Noakes. Penalty Baden Kerr.
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Keegan Daniel man of the match!
Anyone else notice Bismarck discussing something with Peyper for a while after the match? 😆
Poor kicking from Lambie 😥
At least he saved some face with a few good runs. Still not a great performance.
Very fast Rob. Once again the guy playing 100th game is on losing side!!
Busmark goving the ref a scrumming leason of note
Now if the cheetas lose today and we win the next two we go through on points difference
Notice I said IF
@byron (Comment 6) : True, but the Cheetahs deserve to make the playoffs and I hope they do! Technically we can still beat the Saders 😆
Think with 3 out of 8 Lambie kicking himself out of Bok team!!!! Not his best game and not even the die hard Lambie fan club can disagree with that!!!!!.
Great Saturday!!!!! Sharks win and I get my third star!!!! Think I must play Lotto today.
Beast was huge. Ditto Jannie
😈 Well done boys! We scrummed the wax out of their ears! Sorry jaco Peyper had to ref this! He was so out of touch with what was happening in the set pieces and around the fringes.
Charl McLeod was brilliant (so on this site he might get a 6 😕 ) Great service, kept us on the front foot, nice try and fantastic defense! MOTM imho. But then I must say the Beast, Kule and Jannie were great in the scrums!
Would rather have like to see us set up for the 4 tries rather than shots at goal. Bissie made the correct call for the win. 😈
@SeanyJMc (Comment 2) : 😈 Yep, he was trying to explain to Peyperhow to hold the rule book the rightside up. 😆 but Peyper bly so toe soos ‘n plastiekpop se poeph 😯 l
😈
We need to do all we can to keep Ludik. The guy is solid.
GreatSharksays it does not help we keep Ludik and not play him in his best position!!!! Anyhow if we start stuffing him around he is less likely to sign with Sharks again!! Ludik needs to play 15!!!!!!!!!!
Looking at the log, sharks can still sneak in if the universe so conspires…
RuckingFun ja boet it’s easy Cheetahs must lose to Blues without bonus point, with their bye Cheetahs end on 50 point, Blues must then loose against Chiefs leaving Blues on 48-50 points, the Sharks must then beat the Bulls and Kings with atleast one bonus point ending on 51 points and in 6th place. O yes and the Stormers must not get more log point against the same opposition as Sharks. Very easy indeed!
It would be so ridiculous if we made the playoffs and went on to win
@JD (Comment 14) : this was posted after the Stormers’ game after seeing how up and down Willie can be.
@SeanyJMc (Comment 1) : are you dreaming?
@JD (Comment 16) : Whats the point? we cant win the comp from 6th. So its pointless to even try and sneak it from 6th. We saw last year how travel affected us. You need 1/2 to win it.
@Uli (Comment 20) : The Sharks should be well rested, they’ve hardly been playing any rugby this season so the travel shouldn’t really affect them all that much 😈
Guys I was only sarcastic!!!!! Can’t see all that will happening.
Scrums and lineouts working like a dream. Now if only we can learn to pass, catch, kick and tackle we could take the cup.
rhineshark I don’t know if it’s because I used to play prop and hooker but that Sharks scrum was a thing of beauty!!!!! Would buy a ticket just to see that scrum performance again. Like you said it’s just a pity the rest of their game is not at that standard.
Do any of you pessimistic bastards even realise that we have a real chance of playing bulls at loftus in a play off? If we beat them and the reds beat the tahs and the blues beat the cheetahs with no bp etc etc….. Ok its a long shot but…..
Do any of you pessimistic bastards even realise that we have a real chance of playing bulls at loftus in a play off? If we beat them and the reds beat the tahs and the blues beat the cheetahs with no bp etc etc. Ok its a long shot but…..
With that scrum and maybe bismarck at captain
West Indies Cricket Board the most important part is Sharks MUST beat the Bulls and Cheetahs must lose against Blues who must then lose against the Chiefs. The thing is that altough it’s a long shot it really could happen!!!! We’ll just have to wait and see.
Rather worry about the state of the Sharks’ back-line play.
Their wings have to run from a standing start miles behind the gain-line. 10, 12 and 13, invariably passing above or behind their fellows.
fyndraai talking about Sharks making play-offs is just a bit of day dreaming. We know there’s lots of things to fix before Sharks can beat the Bulls and I don’t think a week is enough, but lets hope and findout. Keep the dream alive!!!!!!
@JD (Comment 30) : gonna happen
West Indies Cricket Board ja no pressure on the Sharks as nobody but us die hard Sharks fans wil give them a chance to beat the Bulls. Keeping the dream alive!!!!
The Sharks must be one of the most frustrating teams in world sport to follow.
For ANOTHER year we are in a fight against all fights to make the play-offs, even relying on other teams to lose to make it through.
We have seen this movie play all too many times before. The ending has never been good.
Even IF we sneak into 6th place (again) we realistically have no chance of winning the competition. That much was proved last year. It is just too difficult for any team.
Besides, what’s so special about 6th place? It is certainly not something to celebrate for a team as good as the Sharks.
We all like to cling to hope but we must not let that detract from the fact that this season has been another failure. Hopefully the new management will not be so accepting of continued failure.
They should just focus on winning the next two games.
I’m not rooting for it, but it’s not an unrealistic goal, and it would be a nice start to the “new era”.