It was tough, brutal and entertaining but it was the Cell C Sharks who reigned supreme in their second round Carling Currie Cup clash with Toyota Free State, emerging 38-31 victors at Jonsson Kings Park on Sunday.
After the cancelled match against the New Nation Pumas in midweek and the loss of log points, this match took on added importance in the race for final log positions with the conclusion of the pool stages rapidly approaching and the five points will do their campaign the world of good.
The Cell C Sharks won 47-30 in the first round match in Bloemfontein three weeks ago and made it two from two with this exciting match that yielded ten tries.
Both teams played some early testing rugby, checking what the other was all about before the visitors delivered a quick-fire attack that ended in the first try of the game in the 7th minute, the conversion from out wide resulting in a seven-pointer.
The Cheetahs quickly conceded a Cell C Sharks try with a great break-out from Cameron Wright who put his team on the front foot and Free State in trouble defensively, before sending the ball wide to speedster Thaakir Abrahams who raced down the touchline for a great response.
When earlier being thwarted by some outstanding Cell C Sharks defence when Free State opted to send a penalty to the line, the next chance they had, decided to go for the points rather, opting to kick a penalty to extend their lead to five points as the game approached the end of the first quarter.
Free State added a second penalty to push their lead to 13-5 a few minutes later, but the perfect response from the Cell C Sharks initially had Free State under pressure on defence where they conceded penalties to set up the lineout, driving maul option which was executed to perfection with Kerron van Vuuren touching down with Chamberlain’s conversion taking his team to within one point of the visitors.
Henco Venter got try number three minutes later after Free State had bungled their exit under pressure and from the resultant Cell C Sharks scrum, the captain saw a gap and muscled his way over with Chamberlain making no mistake for a 19-13 lead on the half hour.
The visitors did well to create two positive opportunities in the Cell C Sharks 22, but both times couldn’t handle the defensive pressure. However, their third foray in quick succession finally earned the reward with a try in the corner with a minute of the half remaining. With the wide conversion missing the mark, the Cell C Sharks held a one point lead going into half-time, ahead 19-18.
Early in the second half, Free State were reduced to 14 men with a red card for a shoulder strike to the head of Dylan Richardson, and from the ensuing attack, some lovely interplay led to Cameron Wright running the perfect support line to get the bonus point, converted try and extend their lead to 26-18.
The visitors reduced the gap to five points with a scrum penalty but their joy was short-lived as they were forced into a long period of defence and with a man down permanently, were always going to be asked to work hard, finally conceding a second driving maul try for van Vuuren and the Cell C Sharks’ fifth, with replacement flyhalf Lionel Cronje pushing the lead to 33-21 and the final quarter left to play.
Not three minutes later, Free State scored with a number of pick and drive efforts, earning their third try of the game, but almost immediately from the kick-off, the Cell C Sharks were back on the scoreboard, a lovely cross-kick finding space and Abrahams scoring his second as he dotted down just before the ball rolled into touch.
In the last five minutes, repeated infringements from the Cell C Sharks saw them lose two players to the sin bin in quick succession
With time on the clock ticking away, Free State hammered away at the try-line and with a minute remaining, earned the bonus point try out wide. The conversion was off-target so seven points separated the sides, but with the kick-off still to come.
Free State attacked for a good two minutes in search of the match-equalling try, but it was down to the poaching skills of James Venter to kill the game off for the visitors.
The post Committed Effort appeared first on The Sharks.
Cell C Sharks head coach Sean Everitt will be asking his players to deliver another proud and brave Carling Currie Cup performance when they host the Toyota Cheetahs at Jonsson Kings Park this Sunday afternoon.
The disappointment of losing to Griquas two weeks ago produced a massive effort against the Vodacom Blue Bulls last weekend, which a determined Cell C Sharks team won 35-28 and the coach has asked his players to match that against Free State.
“We were very happy with how the guys bounced back against the Blue Bulls last weekend, especially after our poor performance against Griquas,” Everitt said in the lead-up to this match.
“We worked hard that week, the players took ownership of their performance and bounced back really well, there was a tremendous amount of focus on that game. After giving away a number of penalties in the first half of that game, when we tidied that up, the guys were really good, put together some nice phases of play and scored some good tries. So we’re extremely happy with the performance, especially the result as far as log positions go.”
In their midweek game Free State drew 44-all against the Sigma Lions in a high-scoring, open match that yielded 12 tries in all – six apiece – and Everitt warned that Sunday’s opposition will bring attacking urgency to the game that needs to be bested both on attack and defence.
“Going into this week’s game against the Cheetahs, they’re a team scoring a lot of tries at the moment and averaging 37 points per game, but they also concede on average 35 points so we know there will be opportunities.”
The result of this match takes on added importance given that the Cell C Sharks’ midweek match against the Pumas was cancelled, while the Bulls earned a five pointer that takes them four points ahead of the Durban franchise on the Currie Cup log table.
“We know we’ll have to put in a big defensive effort on Sunday so we can remain in contention for top spot on the log.”
Cell C Sharks
- Khwezi Mona
- Kerron van Vuuren
- Lourens Adriaanse
- Le Roux Roets
- Emile van Heerden
- Dylan Richardson
- Thembelani Bholi
- Henco Venter (c)
- Cameron Wright
- Boeta Chamberlain
- Thaakir Abrahams
- Marius Louw
- Jeremy Ward
- Marnus Potgieter
- Anthony Volmink
Replacements
- Dan Jooste
- Ntuthuko Mchunu
- Wiehahn Herbst
- Jeandre Labuschagne
- James Venter
- Grant Williams
- Lionel Cronje
- Yaw Penxe
The post Cheetahs at Home appeared first on The Sharks.
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Quick Durban KwaZulu-Natal Fact: Rugby – The Sharks, who compete in the Super 14 with four other South African teams, four teams from Australia, and five from New Zealand. Natal Sharks (closely connected to, but not to be confused with the Super 14 team), who compete in South Africa’s domestic competition, the Currie Cup.
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