SP Marais has scored an intercept try to seal a 33-25 win for the Sharks over the Lions at Kings Park.
It was the visitors who started better, with the Sharks guilty of letting the game get away from them early one – for the second week in a row. To be fair, it was the Sharks who were dominant and attacking for much of the early play, but the Lions came away with the points all the same. Left wing Anthony Volminck scored an amazing 80m turnover try after a silly dink from Butch James on attack landed in the winger’s waiting arms; he repeated the feat a few minutes later when intercepting a flat ball from Heimar Williams and before you could really blink, the home side were trailing by 6 points to 17.
Much as they did last week, though, the Sharks rallied to dominate the contest for the rest of the half, with first-ever Sharks tries for Brynanrd Stander (after a multi-phase move that saw Jean Deysel prominent) and Williams. Butch James, unerring with the boot if so-so in general play, converted both and it was the home side who led 20-17 with just a few minutes of the half to play. They were denied the opportunity to press home that advantage though, with Odwa Ndungane yellow-carded for what looked like an accidental high tackle on Elton Jantjies, just before the break.
The Sharks held on, despite some constructive play from the Lions, while Ndungane was off, only to concede a score shortly after he returned; in this case, some disinterested play from Lwazi Mvovo saw an attacking ball spilled and it fell to Lions flanker Jaco Kriel to chip over the head of the self-same Mvovo to finish off the resulting move. Jantjies, who by this stage had started to take more control of the game as he ran well at the line, fluffed his lines with the conversion, leaving the Sharks a scant two points adrift. The Sharks struck back virtually straight from the kick-off, with James nudging over his last kick of the night, before the impressive Fred Zeilinga took over at pivot.
It was the 20-year-old from Newcastle who arguably put in the most important touches in the last quarter, as the Sharks went on finish stronger and seal the result. While the Lions admittedly had two tries of their own disallowed for various incidents of obstruction and off-side, Zeilinga’s good penalty and superb raking touch-finder, which set up the lineout that led to Marais’s try, proved telling.
The Lions will feel that they really deserved far more from a game that they controlled for long periods, but ultimately their composure let them down at crucial stages, while their set-piece work, particularly in the first half, was dire. The Sharks enjoyed better scrums and line-outs this week, but their first-up defence and option-taking was poor overall, leaving plenty for the coaches to work on during the week.
In a competition as close as this, though, you take your wins from whence they come and with this home game safely in the bag, it’s finally a case of “mission accomplished” for this Sharks side.
Scores:
Sharks (33): Tries Bry Stander, Heimar Williams, SP Marais. Conversions Butch James (2), Fred Zeilinga. Penalties James (3), Zeilinga.
Lions (25): Tries Anthony Volminck (2), Jaco Kriel. Conversions Elton Jantjies (2). Penalties Jantjies (2).
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SP was the only great thing to come out of this game. What a fantastic buy. The rest of the guys seem disinterested, Odwa and Deysel being the exception. This team needs spirit and a will to play.
Deysel hurt some people out there! Williams looked good on attack, attacked with speed and acceleration. Marais had a good debut too
A lot better than last week at least, gotta keep improving. Let in easy tries unfortunately. But I think we on an upward climb
Some unnecessary kicking away of the ball when we in the opponents 22. Butch needs 2 stop that
@RuckingFun (Comment 4) : Personally I hope Butch stops…playing altogether and gives way to Zeilinga 😈
Am I the only one who was really impressed with Heimar Williams? He just kept going the full 80 minutes. He started off with a bad pass leading to the interception, but him chasing the Lions late in the second half put so much pressure on them, it forced several turn-overs.
@TRF_Ezequiel (Comment 6) : ya he was very good
James and Chadwick need to give way next week.
Our attendance is so low we almost don’t have home advantage 😥
@robdylan (Comment 8) : dude you can’t say anything bad about Chadwick.
@SeanyJMc (Comment 9) : yeah I was there tonight, it wasn’t great but I think there were still more at the shark tank than at loftus. The kaapies seem to be the only ones to sort of embrace the currie cup but even they were had half a stadium vs the bulls last weekend
@robdylan (Comment 8) : agreed… seeing James trying to run fast… well I felt sad
The Sharks tried everything possible to lose that match… 14 points gifted to the Lions and on top of that letting go of a surprising scrum dominance by making to many changes
WELL DONE SP Marais! what a brilliant game you had young sir. You tackled…. you made yards and you happened to finish one. Thank you
@SuperEtts (Comment 13) : yeah I read the comments about how well we did and great we looked up front while at work. I then rushed home to see how we look ok, but NO dominance… then I thought What the hell was the fuss about???
@R Hayward (Comment 15) : @R Hayward (Comment 15) : The mind boggles… and then this persistence with forward strength is killing me. It seems we’re in a dark hole full of forwards that could end up draining the creativity and attack out of every talented back we have… should have raised my concerns to Smith when I walked into him at the stadium. He seemed lost trying to find a suite… funny that he’s probably never been haha
Our scrum once again was not up to scratch. Lineouts good but defence was here and there.And I still dont seem to see any game plan emerging. 😡 😡 😡
I want to know where is Flippie now?he said Lions by 50?hello you there Flippie?o think he went back to the Bulls or Lions to go and lick there wounds
Wouldnt mind a shake up in the backline.
Think Lwazi is looking pedestrian…
Would move Ludick to the wing and Bring in Tyler Fisher or Eesthuizen.
9.Mcleod
10.Butch/Fredz
11.Marias
12.Whitehead/Eesthuizen
13.Fisher/Eesthuizen
14.Ludick
15.Ods
@Talent (Comment 19) : I’ll prefer McLoed to start as well.
I often voice my opinion in favour of playing McCloed from the start on this blog which is strongly biased to rather playing Cobus. When McCloed just sneezes he is jumped upon. When Cobus merely touches the ball it is hailed as brilliant. I rate them both highly but this week I shall back up my opinion by reviewing their games. I have included the match times in for those needing to review the data:
Charl played 50 minutes. He made 31 passes including a great flick onto SP Marias close to the line. 29: 14
He made 7 telling tackles: On the centre 2:04, KRIEL MAUL 2:36,
Centre 6:28, Kriel 24:27, Cronje 33:33, Mienie 38:44, Helberg 47:55.
Joined the ruck to win a penalty 07:05.
Mcloed took a great high ball to start a drive 9:13. At 15:00 he attacked from the base with a dart and a grubber, a dart 21:06, took a tap n go 27:24, attack from deep for about 20m 31:58, darted (42:55) for another 11m gain.
He added to a maul 35:22 and and made his first error by kicking into a player 39:08 on our line. He cleared from base again 47:14 for a gain of 40m.
Cobus stats are: Passed 9 times, with 1 dropping on the floor on attack 70: 24. He made 4 great tackles: Boshof on our line 61:15, Jantjies 63:10 & 64:15 and Britz 66:48.
He joined the mauls 64:27, 64:32 & 68:19. Kicked a 50m from the base, kicked 63:03 & 72:32 and gave away a penalty for not putting the ball straight into the scrum 68:10 and darted on attack at 69:42.
Neither missed a tackle!
THANK GOODNESS FOR THE WIN!!! The young guys plus Odwa and Deysel had good games. McLeod was also not bad.
Lekker sharks, they paid the ref, lekker guys.. Well done for paying the ref hey
@Flippie (Comment 22) : Dit word elke dag oor en oor bewys. 😕
Daar’s nie Pille vir Stupid nie!
@KSA Shark © (Comment 23) : even if there were, I doubt the factory would be able to churn them out quickly enough…