In an entertaining Currie Cup return leg match between Griquas and the Cell C Sharks at Tafel Lager Park on Friday, the visiting Sharks came away with a 40-22 bonus point win.
The five log points keeps us firmly at the top of the log and with three home matches at Growthpoint KINGS PARK remaining in the pool stages, sets us up nicely to the run-in to the knock-out rounds and a home semi-final.
Matches in Kimberley have not always ended so happily and while it was tough early on, the Cell C Sharks showed our pedigree to maintain a run of wins that now stands at eight in succession.
Griquas earned first blood with a seven-pointer, exploiting space out wide as they took an early lead in the third minute of the game. Four successive defeats for the home team may have messed with their log position, but they certainly weren’t playing with dampened spirits.
They are always competitive in Kimberley and the Cell C Sharks were warned of this early on, but after seven straight victories, there’s no discounting our fighting spirit. An attacking lineout five minutes later was initially hammered up by the forwards before quick hands from Curwin Bosch led to Marius Louw going over for our first try, with Bosch levelling matters with the conversion.
Louw’s centre partner Jeremy Ward scored our second try following some good interplay between Bosch and Keegan Daniel who had lots of work to do before offloading to Ward for his try. Bosch added the two with almost half an hour of the game played.
With the game headed for half-time, a low, flat pass was sent to Odwa Ndungane out wide, but in the process of dotting down, the TMO review showed that the tackler had managed to push him into touch.
We came back for penalty advantage and this time we were successful, Ross Geldenhuys driving powerfully, with the second TMO review clarifying that the try was good. Crucially, we had scored right on the stroke of half-time to deliver a psychological blow for the hosts who would go into the break decidedly less content with a 12 point deficit than the seven they were behind moments before.
Three tries to one for a 19-7 lead was a good result, but the hosts were never going to accept that.
Like the first half, Griquas scored first having enjoyed rare ball possession in the early stages of the second half, a 45m penalty cutting the deficit marginally. But their joy would have been short-lived after a penalty in a similar position in Griquas’ half was sent to touch, the forwards drove the ball up from the lineout and Marius Louw hit the line straight and hard and powered over for his second try and our fourth.
Bosch converted the bonus point try for a 26-10 lead.
We added a fifth try after pushing Griquas off their own scrum ball, Tristan Blewett, with his first touch of the ball on debut sprinted through the disorganised defence, unselfishly offloaded and Keegan Daniel was on hand to run in the try.
With a quarter of the game remaining and at 33-10 up, the result looked to be locked down but Griquas weren’t giving up just yet and struck back almost immediately with a second try. Despite trailing by 18 points, the hosts showed a new lease on life and put a dangerous passage of play together that started in their own 22 and broke down in ours thanks to some fantastic defence.
But it was a timely reminder not to rest on our laurels for the final 15 minutes of the match. With two minutes remaining, Griquas put a very good passage of play together to score their third try, but by then it was too late for anything aside from rescuing some pride.
The hosts would have been extremely disappointed as Jeremy Ward scored a minute later after a strong break by Sbu Nkosi, desperately unlucky not to score after a very busy effort on the night.
It wasn’t easy but it was comprehensive in the end and that’s what matters.
The post Explosive Win appeared first on Sharks Rugby.
Preview: Cell C Sharks vs Griquas:
Cell C Sharks head coach Robert du Preez admits that while the team have been enjoying unprecedented success, they need to perform at a level they are capable of, to take our game to the next level.
The first round match at Growthpoint KINGS PARK was a resounding success, the second win in what has been an extraordinary run of seven straight victories. But that 41-3 win is in the past and Griquas at home will be a completely different prospect.
With Lukhanyo Am dropping out this week with an ankle injury, there’s an opportunity for Hilton College’s schoolboy star, 21 year old Tristan Blewett to make his senior debut for the Cell C Sharks, having featured strongly at age group level and now elevated to the matchday 22.
“Tristan has been part of the Super Rugby squad since the end of last year already,” explained head coach Robert du Preez. “He’s a guy with a terrific work ethic, a real energiser in the squad set-up and fantastic for a guy like that to get an opportunity. We’re very happy to have him.”
One of the standout features in our run of success in this year’s Currie Cup competition has been the fact that the coach has had the luxury of selecting from an almost completely fully fit squad each game, resting and rotating players at will.
“It’s really important that we employ the whole squad to keep everyone keen, there’s great competition between the players. And for the guys who are pushing hard, are part of our set-up but not getting game time, it’s important that we manage them going forward.
“For someone like Rhyno Smith who’s missing out this week after scoring the try that won us the game against the Pumas, and slotted a conversion from out wide to win the game against Western Province, while it’s fantastic to have guys like that in our squad, we’d obviously like to give them more game time.”
With four matches of the pool stages left, one away and the last three at home, du Preez explained that they are focused on this week’s clash with Griquas, not on the block of four games.
“We’ll just go one game at a time, we won’t think too far ahead and it’s really important that we take our game to the next level against Griquas. Whilst we got the win in the end against the Pumas, it wasn’t good enough for this team, it’s capable of a lot better.”
Despite the first round result, du Preez is having none of it and chooses to focus on the future, rather than the past.
“We’re playing in Kimberley which is a tough environment. They like to throw the ball around, they’re not scared to have a go but we’re going to be concentrating on our game and that’s to have a really good performance, that’s what we need. Especially in light of the last three games which are against really tough sides.”
Although we’re chasing an eighth straight victory and maintaining our lead on the top of the Currie Cup log, the coach denied that there is any pressure related to those two entities, and if there is a target on the Cell C Sharks’ back, then he’s not focusing on that.
“I certainly don’t look at it like that, our goal is simply to get better every game. And if we do, with the talent we have in this team, we’ll do well.”
The post Preview: Cell C Sharks vs Griquas appeared first on Sharks Rugby.
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