News

Victorious Sharks book home final

October 11 2008

The Sharks booked themselves a home Currie Cup final after beating the Lions 29-14 in comfortable fashion at ABSA Park in the first of Saturday's two tournament semi-finals.

The Durban-based outfit are now one step closer to ending their Currie Cup drought - a trophy that has eluded them for over a decade.

Meanwhile it's back to the drawing board for the Lions who were never a serious threat to their victorious hosts.

The Sharks, armed with Springboks aplenty in their ranks, implemented a game-plan much like their name suggests: attack, attack, attack.

The Lions, starved of possesion in the first half, were forced to make twice as many tackles as a sea of black and white jerseys continued to drown out their defence.

You can't win a rugby match if you haven't got the ball, and this was certainly the case in the Lions' camp where opportunities to score were very limited indeed. Missed kicks at goal didn't help either - especially in a winner-takes-all semi-final.

Lions captain Cobus Grobbelaar played a huge role on the ground, stealing a number of balls for his team, however, he and his team-mates were also regularly penalised at the breakdowns for illegal tactics and the Sharks made the visitors pay for their indiscretions.

The home side got off to a near perfect start, had it not been for an early miss at goal from Ruan Pienaar. But the Sharks scrum-half made up for his third minute blunder with two successive kicks that took the hosts into a 6-0 lead.

With the Sharks taking a few minutes to settle and find their feet, the tempo quickly picked up with both sides throwing the ball around like a hot potato. However it was the Sharks that brought along their oven mittens and controlled the pigskin better, putting the Lions under all sorts of pressure.

It was merely a matter of time before the Sharks struck with their first try, and boy was it a beauty.

With the ball spun wide, winger JP Pietersen had a prop to beat before unleashing Ryan Kankowski down the left-hand touchline that saw the destructive number eight sprint 50 metres for the opening touchdown.

Pienaar made sure of the extras from far out and with thirteen minutes up on the clock, the Sharks were in front with as many points.

The Lions were handed a chance to close the deficit with a simple penalty attempt, but fluffed the three points as the ball drifted wide off an Earl Rose strike.

The crowd were then spoilt with two tries in two minutes from the two sides - both of them entertaining to watch in their own right.

First up was the Lions who for the first time in the game, ran the ball down their back-line brilliantly using quick hands all the way to lightning quick winger Trompie Nontshinga.

With the Lions flyer running out of space, a clever chip infield was followed by a desperate covering chase by Sharks veteran Stefan Terblanche, who proved that even with an abundance of experience under a player's belt, the bounce of the rugby ball will prevail every time.

Not even the incoming Jaque Fourie could control, but the Lions centre did manage to knock the ball back for partner in crime Doppies la Grange to follow up the comedy of errors for the simplest of tries he will ever score under the posts.

After some deliberation from the match TMO, referee Mark Lawrence was given the green light to award the try that Rose duly converted. The Lions were on the board and back in the match.

But not for long, much to the annoyance of their sparse fans in the stadium.

The Sharks hit back in perfect riposte, running back at their guests with Terblanche making up for his costly error with some good tactical running that had Francois Steyn in full flight.

An inside pass to Springbok team-mate Adrian Jacobs kept the move alive until a basketball pass over the top of Lions defenders to another Bok colleague Odwa Ndungane ended with yet another international, Frenchman Frederic Michalak diving over in the corner.

"Ole!" were the cheers heard from the ecstatic Sharks supporters.

Cheers turned to raptures when Pienaar again showed his reliable place-kicking talents with another flag-raising conversion that put the Sharks 20-7 in front after a quarter of the match played.

Steyn wanted a piece of the goal-kicking action and didn't disappoint with a trademark long distance penalty attempt that flew a whopping 60 metres to increase the hosts' lead.

Both teams had elected to use the air a lot but it was the Lions who would find the Sharks' superior skills providing them with the advantage and impetus to take a commanding 26-7 lead at half-time.

It was a lead that they would never relinquish and which was enough to see them through to victory.

The second half was much of the same, the Sharks in dominant form and allowing the Lions little room to move. They certainly came out better after the break to play some attacking rugby and tried to cut loose when the opportunities arose, but always found a defensive wall too strong to penetrate.

At one stage, the Sharks had to defend for five minutes but did so magnificently and heroically to keep their line safe.

Following this period of play, it was the Sharks' turn to exert pressure and although they were unable to add a try, they did manage to score points once again through the boot of Pienaar.

It took 22 minutes for the first points of the dire second half to arrive as he extended the lead to 22 points with less than a quarter of the match remaining, but it was a score that closed out the match for good.

Although the Sharks failed to add any further points and the Lions scored a fortuitous try on the stroke of full-time to Fourie from a lucky bounce off the crossbar, it was to have no bearing on the match which was over as a contest.

The scorers:

For Sharks:

Tries: Kankowski, Michalak

Cons: Pienaar 2

Pens: Pienaar 4, Steyn

For Lions:

Tries: La Grange, Fourie

Cons: Rose, Jonk

Sharks: 15 Stefan Terblanche, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Adrian Jacobs, 12 Francois Steyn, 11 JP Pietersen, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Jean Deysel, 6 Jacques Botes, 5 Johann Muller (c), 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.

Replacements: 16 John Smit, 17 Deon Carstens, 18 Albert van den Berg/Nikolai Blignaut, 19 Keegan Daniel, 20 Rory Kockott, 21 Bradley Barritt, 22 Waylon Murray.

Lions: 15 Earl Rose, 14 Louis Ludik, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Doppies la Grange, 11 Trompie Nontshinga, 10 Louis Strydom, 9 Jano Vermaak, 8 Ernst Joubert,7 Justin Wheeler, 6 Cobus Grobbelaar (c), 5 Franco van der Merwe, 4 Anton van Zyl, 3 Ross Geldenhuys, 2 Willie Wepener, 1 Heinke van der Merwe.

Replacements: 16 Ethienne Reynecke, 17 Lawrence Sephaka, 18 Jannes Labuschagne, 19 Derick Minnie, 20 Chris Jonck, 21 Michael Killian, 22 Jaco van Schalkwyk.

Referee: Mark Lawrence

Touch judges: Deon van Blommestein, Cobus Wessels

TMO: Johann Meuwesen

By Dave Morris