Dice falls right for Sharks - at last!
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| Riaan Swanepoel © Ghetty Images |
It has been a tough couple of weeks overseas for the Sharks, and the refereeing errors that cost them almost certain victory over the Waratahs in the second match must still be an unhappy memory. Indeed, there was refereeing controversy in the final minutes of the opening match against the Chiefs as well.
So it was one of those happy coincidences that the game where they finally got it right and got their noses over the line for a victory also came on the same night that for the first time this season the marginal refereeing decisions went their way. On both occasions it was the right call, but there were two instances where on another day the call could easily have gone the other way, against the Sharks.
The first was probably the pivotal moment of the match, the one that set up a Sharks win as a distinct possibility. It came as the game headed into the second quarter, with the Highlanders leading 6-3 after two successful Israel Dagg penalties had cancelled out one from Ruan Pienaar.
To that point the Highlanders had dominated possession and territory, with just obdurate Sharks defence and a high Highlanders error rate keeping the home team from crossing the line on several occasions.
But for the first time in the game the Sharks took the ball up strongly, after it was moved across the field Keegan Daniel found the gap, and Pienaar ended up sliding against the post. Unfortunately for the Sharks Pienaar made contact with the upright only with his back, but the Sharks continued to press before Bismarck du Plessis thrust himself towards the post.
Although it was not clear from the television replays, the referee claimed he saw the ball placed against the post by Du Plessis -- and his call to the TMO was quite clear: “I saw him ground it, tell me why I cannot award the try”.
On another day the TMO might have received a different instruction, and had that been so, it would have had to be ruled inconclusive.
The second time a marginal call fell the Sharks way was as important. It came four minutes from time, with the Highlanders replacement wing appearing to have gone over in the left corner for a try that would have left the Highlanders with a conversion to draw the scores level at 23-all.
It was a close run thing, with the television replay showing that the Highlanders player may just have scraped touch in goal at the same time as he grounded the ball on the corner flag. So instead of adding a try to their score, the Highlanders had to go back for a 22 drop-out, and soon after that Adrian Jacobs pounced on a wayward pass to run half the length of the field to score.
With a 14 point lead the Sharks were never going to lose from there, and although they will still be unhappy with several aspects of their play, they deserved their victory on the basis of a strong second half performance.
John Smit had been named as a reserve for this match but ended up starting due to Beast Mtawarira being laid low late in the week by flu. Smit was solid in the unfamiliar position of loosehead prop, but it was hooker Bismarck du Plessis, who has much to prove after a stop-start season caused by having to be swopped every second week with Smit, who was the pick of the visiting players.
Apart from scoring the first try, Du Plessis was influential in taking the ball up for the Sharks, and he was prominent as the Sharks turned around the big deficit they had faced in the first half in the battle for territory and possession.
Let it be said too that the Sharks do look a more potent attacking force when Ruan Pienaar is at flyhalf, which was for the last half hour. Maybe it is time someone at the Sharks informed the talented but enigmatic player, who in this match also produced a faultless goalkicking performance, that his future with the Durban franchise is at pivot.
They have two excellent scrumhalves on their books in the form of Rory Kockott and Charl McLeod, but with Andy Goode heading back to the northern hemisphere after the overseas tour, they don’t have a flyhalf. And the team need should dictate where Pienaar plays.
While Pienaar was landing his kicks, with his first-half penalty being added to by two more in the second half, Israel Dagg of the Highlanders struggled to land his attempts.
The two penalties that put the Sharks ahead 16-9 after 55 minutes seemed to inspire confidence in Smit’s men, and for the first time this season they started to put together multi-phase attacks with some regularity.
From one of these wing Stefan Terblanche was sent in for the second Sharks try which Pienaar converted from a wide angle. At this stage of the game it did appear the Highlanders were suffering from travel fatigue after their long flight home from Africa, but they were to regroup for one last assault which only just fell short before Jacobs’s break-away wrapped up the result.
Terblanche was on the wing to accommodate talented former Sharks age-group star Patrick Lambie, who turned in an assured debut and thoroughly justified all the hype on his status as a big player of the future.
Scores:
Sharks 30 – Tries: Bismarck du Plessis, Stefan Terblanche and Adrian Jacobs; Conversions: Ruan Pienaar 3; Penalties: Ruan Pienaar 3.
Highlanders 16 – Try: Ben Smith; Conversion: Israel Dagg; Penalties: Israel Dagg 3.
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