Intercept try moves Sharks closer to play-offs
An intercept try by substitute Stefan Ungerer sealed a vital 26-10 Super Rugby victory for Coastal Sharks over fellow South African side Central Cheetahs in Durban Saturday.
The scrum-half struck on 63 minutes at Kings Park stadium in the Indian Ocean city, pouncing on a pass from Cheetahs fly-half Fred Zeilinga and racing unchallenged to the try-line.
Sharks fly-half Garth April converted for a 23-10 lead and closed the scoring six minutes later with a penalty for a 16-point personal tally.
Success moved Sharks two points above fellow South African team Northern Bulls with one league round left in the race to finish third in the combined Africa conferences and qualify for the play-offs.
Sharks host struggling Sunwolves of Japan next Friday, a day before Bulls face what should be a tougher task away to Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.
Whoever qualifies will be away, possibly to Johannesburg-based Golden Lions, in the quarter-finals of a competition expanded to 18 franchises this year.
Veteran Springbok winger JP Pietersen was the other Sharks scorer, going over for a try late in an opening half that ended with the outplayed Sharks amazingly 10-7 ahead.
Dominant in the scrums where loosehead Ox Nche tormented former South Africa tighthead Coenie Oosthuizen, Cheetahs failed to build on scoring first through a Raymond Rhule try.
Former Shark Zeilinga converted, but his second-half penalty to level the scores at 10-10 were the only other points scored by the visitors.
Sharks' first-half woes were compounded by the loss for 10 minutes of veteran loosehead prop Tendai 'The Beast' Mtawarira.
The Zimbabwe-born Springbok was sin-binned for giving Cheetahs prop Maks van Dyk a retaliatory slap in the face after a scrum.
Replacing Oosthuizen, who was constantly forced to scrum sideways instead of straight, with Lourens Adriaanse on 47 minutes dramatically improved the Sharks scrum.
"I am proud of my troops," said skipper Mtawarira. "Cheetahs are a nuggety team and always difficult to defeat.
"Garth April ran the game well for us and the other youngsters also put their hands up."
Referring to the yellow card, Mtawarira said: "I was the victim of a few cheap shots and had to deal with them."
Stand-in Cheetahs skipper and lock Francois Uys said: "Everything almost went according to plan until half-time. We outmuscled the Sharks in the scrums.
"I cannot understand how we were behind at the break given our territorial dominance.
"Some soft moments in the second half cost us dearly -- that has been the problem in many of our games this season."