Cell C Sharks Go Down Fighting – Featured Durban Blog

The Cell C Sharks lost their unbeaten status after going down 19-14 to the Crusaders in a tense, tight Vodacom Super Rugby clash at Growthpoint KINGS PARK on Saturday evening.

The teams hammered away at each other in the early exchanges, before the Crusaders earned a scrum penalty, but the attempt was pushed wide in the first scoring opportunity of the game.

It was clear that although, like the other New Zealand sides, they play with a predominantly attacking mentality, the Crusaders gave the ball plenty of air, looking to test the back three with high kicks, peppering, in particular, Willie le Roux, who was up to the task and denied the visitors any advantage.

Although the Crusaders enjoyed the territorial advantage, they had no reward for their effort as they encountered the resolute, impenetrable Cell C Sharks defence, admirably stern this season.

The match was played at a furious pace, with the Crusaders doing most of the early attacking, but also making the mistakes, denying themselves the rewards they sought until, in the 25th minute, they created a numbers’ overlap after good work from their forwards to score the opening try of the game.

And then, out of the blue, came the luck the Cell C Sharks needed. As a team, they were forced to step up on defence against another strong Crusaders’ incursion deep in their half, when Lwazi Mvovo intercepted a long, skip pass and ran the 70m to score his team’s opening try with less than five minutes of the half remaining.

Joe Pietersen missed the conversion, but the Crusaders had started their charge too early and he was given a second opportunity to equalise, this time making no mistake.

The Crusaders had a last chance to push ahead with a penalty in injury time, but the attempt went wide and the sides went into the half-time break even on seven points’ apiece.

The Crusaders had yet another opportunity to add to their points’ tally, only for flyhalf Charlie Mo’unga to miss a third attempt at posts.

The vistors’ woes continued as they dropped the ball on attack, Lwazi Mvovo pounced and ran in his team’s second try, Joe Pietersen converted and the Cell C Sharks were in the lead for the first time in the game.

There was further drama when the Crusaders were reduced to 14 men for retaliation and time for the Cell C Sharks to get out of their 22.

But the Crusaders, irrepressible as they are, were the ones who were goaded into action, gigantic Fijian winger Nandolo going over in the corner for a TMO referred try. The conversion went wide, but directly from the kick-off, the Crusaders had another TMO refferal, this time, the ruling that a player stepped into touch and the Cell C Sharks continued to hold the lead, albeit a very tentative one.

Sadly for Philip van der Walt, the try saving tackler had to leave the field on a stretched after a clash of heads with just over a quarter of this tight clash remaining.

The game turned on its head with the Crusaders enjoying a purple patch of possession, but under extreme pressure from the offensive defence, allowed the ball to pop loose. Cobus Reinach hacked it ahead and Willie le Roux outstripped the defence to score what sadly turned out to be a TMO dissallowed try.

There was a sense of a momentum shift in the home side’s favour as they then won a scrum penalty but it was a short reprieve and the Crusaders, taking the ball through umpteen phases, finally managed to break through, Keiron Read scoring the try that took his team back into the lead. The successful conversion took them into a 19-14 lead with less than 10 minutes remaining and they managed to hold out against a late onslaught to retain their lead, and the victory.