The Cell C Sharks secured a scrappy 15 / 9 victory over the Western Force on Saturday in a game that won’t be remembered for quality.
It wasn’t pretty in Durban, far from it, but the home side won’t worry about that as they got the job done against a Force side who should have scored 3 tries, 2 of which were chalked off by the match officials.
The Sharks asserted their physical authority early on as a dominant scrum against the head led to a 1st shot for flyhalf Francois Steyn, who was off-target on the 5-minute mark. However, it looked like the set-piece was definitely going to be a trump card for the Sharks.
Surprisingly though, the Force would win a scrum penalty at the next scrum but this time Sias Ebersohn was the player missing his attempt at goal.
Mistakes weren’t limited to the kicking tee in Durban as the score remained at 0 / 0 for the 1st 30 minutes, as both outfits struggled for gainline success and fluidity in attack. Sharks hooker Kyle Cooper in particular was having an off day with his lineout throwing early on.
It was never going to be something special that opened the deadlock and it looked very much like the Western Force had done it when a pick-and-go from No 8, Ben McCalman, saw him score… or so it seemed until the TMO and referee Nick Briant adjudged him to have been short.
Consolation for the Force came via a penalty the New Zealand official came back for and Ebersohn made no mistake this time to make it 0 / 3.
Ebersohn, a former Cheetahs flyhalf, doubled the Force’s advantage 1 minute before the break as the Sharks came offside and that was how it remained going into halftime, with the Australians definitely the happier side in a poor match that had few scoring opportunities.
The Sharks emerged in the Durban rain without Springbok tighthead Jannie du Plessis due to him failing his concussion assessment, with Lourens Adriaanse replacing him.
But that didn’t affect their game as they came out well, with a bouncing pass from Steyn seeing fullback SP Marais get over for a try to make it 5 / 6.
Despite the difficult missed conversion, the 2nd stanza was all Sharks and had Odwa Ndungane held onto a Renaldo Bothma inside pass after his good break on the right on 60 minutes, the hosts would have been in front. Instead the Sharks had a quarter to find the elusive points.
And they came 3 minutes later when a scrum offence went against the Force and replacement back Fred Zeilinga did the damage off the tee.
However, 8 / 6 should have become 8 / 9 when Ebersohn lined up a penalty from bang in front. Unfortunately for him it was an awful missed effort, which came back to bite him as from a counter-attack, Sharks fullback SP Marais broke and then set up flying wing Lwazi Mvovo to make it 15 / 6.
Credit to the Force though who never gave in and thought they had scored when flanker Steve Mafi went over. However, the TMO and Assistant Referee intervened and the score was chalked off due to obstruction at the ruck from Ben McCalman. The Sharks now looked to be home and hosed.
Clearly it wasn’t the Force’s day and a late spillage from centre Kyle Godwin, 1m from the try-line summed up a disappointing result, which was comforted somewhat by a late penalty from Luke Burton that secured them a losing bonus-point from a game they might well have won.
Teams:
Cell C Sharks: 15 SP Marais, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 JP Pietersen, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Frans Steyn, 9 Conrad Hoffmann, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Jean Deysel (Captain), 6 Renaldo Bothma, 5 Marco Wentzel, 4 Mouritz Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Kyle Cooper, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: 16 Monde Hadebe, 17 Thomas du Toit, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Lubabalo Mtyanda, 20 Daniel du Preez, 21 Stefan Ungerer, 22 Fred Zeilinga, 23 Waylon Murray.
Western Force: 15 Luke Morahan, 14 Marcel Brache, 13 Kyle Godwin, 12 Luke Burton, 11 Nick Cummins, 10 Sias Ebersohn, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 Kane Koteka, 6 Steve Mafi, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Sam Wykes (captain), 3 Tetera Faulkner, 2 Nathan Charles, 1 Pekahou Cowan
Replacements: 16 Heath Tessmann, 17 Chris Heiberg, 18 Oliver Hoskins, 19 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 20 Angus Cottrell, 21 Ian Prior, 22 Zack Holmes, 23 Dane Haylett-Petty.
Referee: Nic Briant (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Jason Jaftha (South Africa), Quinton Immelman (South Africa)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Cell C Sharks boss Gary Gold was left frustrated after his team got themselves into another tight contest.
The Sharks’ 4 victories in this year’s Super Rugby competition have been far from convincing, with a single point victory of the Chiefs last week followed up with a dour 6 point victory over the Force.
Gary Gold is obviously happy that his team is picking up some winning momentum, but he is frustrated that the Sharks keep getting themselves into these tight situations which call for great escapes.
“We may be good at winning close ones, but I feel like we should not be in these close ones,” Gold said after picking up a 3rd consecutive victory against the Force.
“The penny has to drop, and we have to understand that we cannot be putting ourselves in these pressure situations.”
One of the benefits of the pressure situations the Sharks keep finding themselves in is the chance for their character and determination to grow while churning out victories.
“I am happy with the character, and 1 or 2 aspects of the game – the defense was courageous, and the scrums are improving week in and week out.
“We are doing a lot of work at scrum time – especially with the reserves.
“There were enough opportunities for us in the 1st half to really capitalize, we should have done enough to be out of range by halftime.”
Gold was frank about his team’s overall performance this year, stating that they are a team that should be competing with the best, however, at the moment, they are not there yet.
“We are not nearly playing well enough by our standards,” Gold continued.
“We all know what is coming next week (Crusaders in Durban) so the improvements are going to have to be incredibly vast.”
Gold did take some positives out of the Sharks’ run of 3 consecutive victories.
“I am happy for small mercies at this moment – nobody got sent off, that is a good start!” he said dryly.
“Nobody got injured and we won the game.
“I know this group of players can play a lot better, and if we have this kind of character, our set pieces function and we start playing well, we can be a competitive team with the top teams.”
Force coach Michael Foley was another disappointed man as his team failed to finish off the many opportunities they was presented with.
“I thought the guys fought very well in the game, and they created a lot of opportunities,” Foley said after the match.
“I take my hat off to our blokes for that.
“But we did not finish the job.
“It is one thing to do all the hard work and create the opportunities but you have to finish them.
“There were key moments in the game where our basics let us down a bit.
“We had moments where we had to push ahead, and against a Sharks side in Durban, those opportunities do not come easily,
“So when you get them, you have to take them, and if you do not then all that hard work is to no avail.