The Sharks were crowned Currie Cup champions when they claimed a 17-12 victory over Western Province in the final at Newlands on Saturday.
As the scoreline suggests, this was a tightly contested match and momentum ebbed and flowed throughout but the Sharks got the rub of the green in the end as they committed less errors and eventually outscored their hosts by two tries to none.
The Sharks should have scored more tries, however, as they crossed WP’s tryline on three other occasions but they failed to ground the ball over the whitewash.
The match started cautiously with the teams feeling each other out during the opening exchanges and there was little interesting to report during the first 15 minutes.
Both teams had forays inside their opponents’ half during that period but neither side came close to scoring points until SP Marais opened the scoring in the 20th minute via a penalty after Louis Schreuder was blown up for playing the ball from an offside position.
Western Province held the upper hand at the scrums and pushed their opponents off the ball on a couple of occasions and would later capitalise from their ascendancy at the set-piece.
The Sharks thought they had taken the lead in the 30th minute when Thomas du Toit went over the whitewash from close quarters but his effort was disallowed after television replays revealed that Marais got his hand under the ball to prevent the grounding.
Two minutes later, the television match official, Shaun Veldsman, was called into action again when Jean Luc-du Preez dotted down against the base of the post but his effort was also disallowed due to a handling error in the build up.
Province’s scrum dominance continued and in the 34th minute Marais added another penalty after the Sharks’ pack infringed at the set-piece which meant the home side held a slender 6-0 lead at half-time.
However, the Sharks made the brighter start to the second half and four minutes after the restart, Akker van der Merwe scored the opening try when he barged over from close quarters after a superb line break from Marius Louw in the build-up.
Robert du Preez missed the initial conversion attempt, after referee Jaco Peyper ruled that WP’s players moved before he attempted his shot at goal, but he made no mistake with his second attempt which gave the visitors a 7-6 lead.
Five minutes later, WP regained the lead courtesy of another Marais penalty after Jean-Luc and Dan du Preez were blown up for a dangerous tackle on Sikhumbuzo Notshe.
Shortly afterwards, the Sharks strung several phases together inside WP’s 22 before Dan du Preez went over next to the uprights but he lost control of the ball after a superb cover tackle from Scarra Ntubeni.
However, WP had strayed offside in the build-up and Robert du Preez slotted the resulting penalty to give his side a 10-9 lead.
Midway through the half, the Sharks had a chance to extend their lead when Curwin Bosch attempted a penalty from 48 metres out but although his effort had the distance, it was wide of the target.
Despite that setback, the Sharks were slowly gaining the upper hand and in the 72nd minute Tyler Paul crossed for their second try from close range and Du Preez slotted the conversion to give the visitors a 17-9 lead.
Two minutes later, WP narrowed the gap via a Damian Willemse penalty and although they launched several attacks in the game’s closing stages, the Sharks kept them at bay with a solid defensive effort to clinch the win.
The scorers:
For Western Province:
Pens: Marais 3, Willemse
For Sharks:
Tries: Van der Merwe, Paul
Cons: R du Preez 2
Pen: R du Preez
Western Province: 15 Dillyn Leyds, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 SP Marais, 10 Josh Stander, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 7 Ernst van Rhyn, 6 Kobus van Dyk, 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Chris van Zyl (c), 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ali Vermaak
Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Caylib Oosthuizen, 18 Michael Kumbirai, 19 Salmaan Moerat, 20 Jaco Coetzee, 21 Justin Phillips, 22 Dan Kriel, 23 JJ Engelbrecht
Sharks: 15 Curwin Bosch, 14 Sibusiso Nkosi, 13 Jeremy Ward, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Aphelele Fassi, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Louis Schreuder (c), 8 Daniel du Preez, 7 Jean-Luc du Preez, 6 Tyler Paul, 5 Hyron Andrews, 4 Gideon Koegelenberg, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Juan Schoeman
Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 Mzamo Majola, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Jacques Vermeulen, 20 Luke Stringer, 21 Cameron Wright, 22 Kobus van Wyk, 23 Leolin Zas
Referee: Jaco Peyper
Assistant referees: AJ Jacobs, Cwengile Jadezweni
TMO: Shaun Veldsman
By David Skippers at Newlands