Sharks in Disappointing Defeat – Featured Durban Blog

In a committed, passionate effort from two South African teams in this local Vodacom Super Rugby derby, the Lions ran out 24-9 winners over the Cell C Sharks at Growthpoint KINGS PARK on Saturday evening.

Both sides were called upon to deliver huge defence in the early moments, with Marcell Coetzee making an important turn-over to force defence into attack, with the Cell C Sharks coming ever so close to scoring the first try of the game within minutes of the start.

It was to set the tone for an exciting game, but a frustrating one at that. For the Cell C Sharks, it was a night when things simply would not go their way and they would have been hugely disappointed at the outcome.

Although the Lions were over the whitewash first, the TMO ruled a forward pass from Elton Jantjies and the score was denied.

But the second time referee Angus Gardner went upstairs, the try was awarded, this time to Andries Ferreira who manged to ground the ball on the line and the Lions, together with the conversion from directly in front, had a seven-nil lead with a quarter of an hour’s play behind them.

With the Lions enjoying good scrumtime, they added a penalty following a scrum penalty to stretch their lead to 10 points which was certainly not part of the Cell C Sharks’ script.

Jantjies added a second penalty as the the visitors started to build pressure on the scoreboard until a strong passage of play off the back of a number of phases, saw the Lions penalised on their own 22m line and Joe Pietersen responded with little trouble, converting to get his team on the board.

On the half hour, further devastation struck when Marcell Coetzee, so strong in the game, had to leave the field injured. His replacement Keegan Daniel, no stranger to the tournament, came on to earn his 107th cap for the Cell C Sharks, but it was a cruel blow for the home team who weren’t quite having things all go their own way.

Daniel did make a try-saving tackle in his first action of the game to underline just how much depth there is at loose-forward, and he later took over the captaincy, but the Cell C Sharks’ woes continued as another TMO-referred try stood, this time Lionel Mapoe managing to dive over the tryline.

With five minutes to the half-time break and at 18 points to three down, there was a mountain of work ahead and a desperate need to cut the margin down. Beast, taking his frustrations out on a Lions scrum put-in, earned an important penalty on the stroke of half-time and Joe Pietersen stroked it all of 45m to add another three points for the teams to go into the changerooms with the scoreboard reflecting an 18-6 lead to the visitors.

The Cell C Sharks came out of the half-time break breathing fire and had a good start, earning an early penalty off some strong attack and Pietersen made no mistake with the conversion. It was short-lived joy as Jantjies cancelled it out with another penalty.

Going into the final quarter, it was clear that there was no shortage of determination, but the harder they tried it seemed, the more desperate they became and that failed to translate into points, so necessary at this time. Just one try and they were really back in the game, but it was proving more and more elusive.

A fourth penalty as the game headed for the final 10 minutes pushed the Lions into a 15 point lead and the frustration continued as nothing would go the way of the hosts.

Try as they might, they could not turn determined attack into points, despite putting on some entertaining and explosive demonstrations of what they are capable of.

They depart on Sunday night for their three match New Zealand tour, knowing that it doesn’t get much easier.

The Cell C Sharks embark on their three match tour to New Zealand on Sunday, following their Vodacom Super Rugby clash with the Lions at Growthpoint KINGS PARK the previous evening.

After six matches – three of them would have been at home and three away – the Cell C Sharks fly east in search of more Super Rugby log points.

While in New Zealand, they will take on the Blues in Auckland, the Highlanders deep in the south of the South Island, concluding the tour with a clash against the Chiefs in Hamilton.

Included in the 27 man squad are front rowers Chiliboy Ralapelle, Dale Chadwick and Thomas du Toit, all of whom have not yet had a taste of Super Rugby this season, but who all bolster the pack.

They are three of the 16 forwards named to tour, with Director of Rugby Gary Gold and his coaching staff adding 11 backs to the squad.

CELL C SHARKS TOURING SQUAD