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| Pat Cilliers. Image © sharksrugby.co.za |
A match of two halves, the first dominated by Province and the second by The Sharks XV, the visitors threatened to consign the home side to their second successive defeat, but sadly could not finish what they had built up.
The first half was a difficult period to negotiate for The Sharks XV who saw little of the ball and would have been disappointed not to do more with the scraps they had. Western Province enjoyed the majority of ball possession, two-thirds in the first half hour of the game and it showed on the scoreboard with a brace of tries and a penalty as they racked up a 17-nil lead with 10 minutes of play remaining.
However, the Sharks XVs scrum started exerting some pressure on the opposition and when they pushed the home side all over the place and subsequently won a penalty, a mini battle was won, and extended into a push-over try to Justin Downey at the back of a driving maul moments later.
With the scrum gaining ascendancy, there was a spring in the step of the hard-working forwards and although de Waal converted another penalty, flyhalf Jacques Venter added one for his side as the teams went into the half-time break with Province leading 20-10.
A good performance from Pat Cilliers saw him earn a couple of penalties off JD Moeller at the scrums where he had the better of his opponent to the extent where the province tighthead was warned for continual infractions at scrum time.
A massive scrumming effort disrupted Province ball at every put in leading to penalties, free kicks and resets in The Sharks XV favour, preventing them from gaining momentum at the setpiece.
The second half was all Sharks XV although they would have been disappointed in a few promising attacking moves that they failed to close out, although they did chip away at the 10-point half time lead, and with a quarter of the game remaining, the deficit was just four points.
Province added another penalty and then Jerome Pretorius glided over and with the successful conversion, the teams were even. But another de Waal penalty, his fourth, with just minutes remaining took Province back into the lead.
While they should be congratulated for their ‘no guts no glory’ approach in electing to go for a lineout to attack off and win the game rather than the penalty which might have earned them a draw, the lost opportunity that came off a Sharks XV over throw was symptomatic of other lost opportunities on attack that sadly cost them the game.
A scrum ensued and the laws over-ruled brute force as Western Province had run out of props and the final scrum was uncontested, leading to the win for the home side. The demolition job the Sharks XV had done on the Province front row would sadly come back to bite them – the cruel hand of fate having the last say.
Tries were scored by Justin Downey and Jerome Pretorius with Flyhalf Jacques Venter kicking a conversion and three penalties with Ross Cronje adding a further conversion.