Sharks hammer hapless Boland
Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:36
The Sharks ran in eight tries as they recorded a convincing 48-3 win over a hapless Boland team in their Round Nine Currie Cup encounter at the Boland Stadium in Wellington on Friday.
They followed up their 46-10 first round victory at The Absa Stadium Durban from earlier in the tournament as they scored eight tries enroute to the result that would have taken them – for the time being at least – back to the top of the log.
The Sharks showed early inclination of their intentions, but initially couldn’t see the opportunities they created for themselves through, but finally made good with a powerful and ultimately, very effective driving maul off a lineout, and then minutes later with a quarter of the match played, were half-way to the bonus point and leading 12-nil.
The Sharks were full value for their early lead and showed a willingness to throw the ball around, although not always to full effect, but still showing encouraging signs of playing expansive rugby when it was on, and then, as the opening try showed, keeping matters tight and controlled when called for.
The second try came off good reading of the play, hooker Craig Burden showing that he has lost none of his pace as he outsprinted the defence, having poached a long, skip pass from the Boland attack and making 70m to score under the posts.
Sharks flyhalf Juan Hernandez had missed a tough first conversion but made no mistake this time, and was called into action a little later to convert The Sharks’ third try, this time the visitors showing excellent patience on attack as the ball was recycled through four of five phases off an attacking scrum with Jacques Botes getting over for the first of his three tries.
Boland managed to snatch a penalty in amongst all this, and a few times were stopped short of the tryline on attack, showing that they were going to give as good as they got, although the stern defence from The Sharks never failed to keep the tryline intact and denied the home side all but just three points, the teams going into the changerooms with the visitors leading 19-3 and full value for their lead.
The second half failed to ignite until the final quarter when The Sharks finally managed to close out one of their numerous incursions deep into Boland territory, a driving maul off an attacking lineout ending in the fourth try and importantly, the bonus point.
Boland hadn’t yet given up, but were no real match for the likes of Stefan Terblanche and Juan Hernandez’s kicking game or the forward power play with Jean Deysel once more relishing every opportunity to cause untold damage on attack. Boland did attempt to slow the ball down and were penalised frequently for their indiscretions on the ground, The Sharks opting to kick for touch and attack off the ensuing lineouts, but would have been disappointed at not closing out more opportunities.
In saying that, Boland’s defence at close-quarters was sound and they did well to reduce the damage. To their credit as well, even in the face of impending doom and a result that was running away from them in fairly emphatic fashion, they continued to attack and look for that elusive try, with The Sharks having scored a further three tries in 10 minutes to take to six the total number of times they had successfully crossed the home side’s tryline.
With the game well won, The Sharks could have been forgiven for easing up on the pedal but to their credit, they maintained their intensity and scored a further two tries in the final minutes of the game, the last one coming well into dead time as the teams continued to play well after the hooter with The Sharks showing how devastating they can be on attack.
The Scorers:
For Boland:
Pen: Watts
For Sharks:
Tries: Daniel, Burden, Botes
3, McLeod, Mvovo, Dumond
Cons: Hernandez 3, Swanepoel
Teams:
Boland Cavaliers: 15 Llewellyn Adonis, 14 Deon Scholtz, 13 PJ Vermeulen, 12 Hein Myburgh, 11 Cornal Hendricks/Alvin Hugo, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Charlie King, 8 Zandré Jordaan, 7 Carel Hoffman, 6 Wendal Wehr, 5 Rito Hlungwane, 4 George Earl, 3 Jané du Toit, 2 Clemen Lewis (captain), 1 Janro van Niekerk.
Replacements: 16 Harry Vermaas, 17 Johan Roets, 18 Nico Esterhuyse, 19 An other, 20 Denzil Willemse, 21 Ernie Kruger, 22 Justin Peach.
The Sharks: 15 Stefan Terblanche (captain), 14 Chris Jordaan, 13 Waylon Murray, 12 Riaan Swanepoel, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Juan Hernandez, 9 Charl McLeod, 8 Keegan Daniel, 7 Jean Deysel, 6 Jacques Botes, 5 Albert van den Berg, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Patric Cilliers, 2 Craig Burden, 1 Deon Carstens.
Replacements: 16 Skipper Badenhorst, 17 Melusi
Mthethwa, 18 Alistair Hargreaves, 19 Michael Rhodes, 20 Ross Cronjé, 21 Monty Dumond, 22 Andries Strauss.
Referee: Peter Allen (Scotland)
With thanks to sharksrugby.co.za
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