Sharks sneak a win at the death

The Sharks scored a try, by prop forward Danie Saayman, after the hooter for full-time had already sounded to steal a 28-25 win over Western Province in their Currie Cup Round Two match at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday.

Province had held the lead for more than 20 minutes in the second half, but the Sharks not only clawed their way back, they actually scored the try that really mattered.

The Natal victory was building up as the Sharks attacked again and again. It was not always pretty but it was pretty relentless. Even when Butch James was in the sin bin, they kept throttling Western Province. Eventually the pressure told and Western Province made three telling errors in the last minute or so and lost the match.

The score was 25-21 to Western Province after a try by Luke Watson had produced their only points of the second half. With 17 minutes left Ruan Pienaar came off the bench and onto the field.

Natal moved from right to far left and AJ Venter was had a simple run-in for a "try". Try it was not because the touch judge reported that on the other side of the field some 40 metres back from the Western Province goal-line Butch James of Natal had punched Gio Aplon in the face. The try was cancelled, James was sent in a huff to the sin bin and Natal were penalised.

James-less Natal continued to put the pressure on.  Pienaar missed a penalty kick at goal that looked simple enough. Western Province tried to pry the grip loose and Robbie Diack, 20 years of age, had a second great run, but really it was all Natal.

Aplon was writhing on the ground with cramp but prised himself up in time to tackle Pienaar when a Natal try threatened. Then Pienaar missed a kick from in front when it hit the upright and bounced out.

Then came the fatal, unholy trinity of errors - perhaps a quartet iof them.

Natal were attacking and had all their backs up but Western Province won a turn-over at a tackle/ruck near touch on their right. Natal had nobody back as they were all-out on attack, and all replacement scrumhalf Neil de Kock needed to do was lob a kick over behind the tackle/ruck. He could have passed left where his backs mostly were. He chose a third option, and it was the wrong one. He passed to his right where replacement Ryan Knows intercepted and the next thing Dusty Noble was speeding for the line. He was over, but his foot was out.

Whew! Western Province blood pressure subsided. They had a line-pout with 22 seconds to play. Kick that out and the game was won, bonus point and all. But at this stage they were down to 14 men, for De Kock had been injured in the ear;lier action, was off the field and, through some communication failure, was not replaced at this desperate time when Western Province needed 15 defenders.

For some reason Huia Edmonds had replaced Schalk Brits at hooker. It was his throw-in with 22 seconds to play. The throw was skew -towards Natal. Rob Linde, also a replacement, manged to stick out a long arm to get a hand to the ball but succeeded only in knocking it back erratically to the scrumhalf-less Western Province side where the perverse ball landed on its point and bounced backwards into Kankowski's possession as he came through the line-out. Natal won the ball and went right. James goofed with a grubber but was on hand to throw a long pass to Brett Hennessey who looked to be about to score till speedy Aplon mowed him down. This produced a tackle/ruck in which Western Province used hands illegally. As the final siren sounded the referee penalised the illegal use of a hand.

There was no time to kick it out and in any case Natal had tried that twice and Western Province had shunted them back. A kick at goal, however successful, would have left them with defeat on their faces.

AJ Venter tapped and charged with his men behind him. They battered and bashed till burly Danie Saayman plunged through Edmonds and over for a try, which the television match official had little difficulty confirming. While Natal rejoiced with hug and high five, Western Province made a bowed-head circle as James kicked the immaterial conversion.

It was a thrilling finish.

In fact it was an exciting match more deserving of a good crowd than the threadbare attendance at the great ground, surely the worst attendance at this fixture ever. At one stage, when Natal scored the first try, the cheering made it sound like a Natal home match as leaves of banana plants were brandished on high.

Before the match kicked off there was a minute's silence to make the death on a Boland rugby field last weekend of young Rian Loots of Rawsonville.

Both sides showed that they wanted to run, though Western Province's first passing movement came to grief when the pass went ion an erratic path over Chumani Booi's head and into touch. In the early part if the match Western Province's best  running and passing came from Brits and Watson.

Luke Watson had a great game, certainly every centimetre the committed captain. Right from the start he showed how he wanted his young side to play - running and passing regardless of where they were on the field, and as the match wore on their confidence surged and they did it better and better.

Natal on the other hand started crisper and more direct, running sharp angles.

On ten minutes James goaled a penalty after a period of sustained Natal attack. Western Province had a good run from Diack and then on a turn-over they broke out of their 22 on prosing attack, but Natal were next to score as they raced down the left to give Dusty Noble an easy run-in for a try which James converted. 10-0.

But Western Province were soon back in business when they attacked left and right and then left again where centre Corné Uys chipped, gathered and scored. 10-5.

After natal had won a Western Province line-out on Natal's 22, they attacked through speedy Adi Jacobs and racing Odwa Ndungane. Then Western Province came roaring back with a great try.

They won a turn-over on their own 22 and sent Booi racing down the right on an overlap. He got the ball inside to Aplon who freed himself from, a grasping hand and then dawdled the 50 metres to score. Dawdling kept him away from the posts and Naas Olivier missed the conversion. That was not bright.

Noble ran and Uys snuffed out the movement with a cover tackle. James chipped and Bolla Conradie with great cunning turned defence into attack. Natal broke  but Jacobs hung on too long.

Western Province attacked down the right with a hairless Egon Seconds over from the left wing. He gave the pass to flying Aplon who went over in the corner for a try which the television match official was quick to confirm. Three minutes into the second half Western Province led 15-10/

When Seconds was tackled late, Peter Grant took over the goal-kicking and smacked it over. 18-10 for Western Province, leading for the first time in the match.

Coming in from the left wing Noble cut clean through the thin Western Province defence and gave busy Hennessey a run to the line for a try in the corner.

From the kick-off Jacobs broke clean through and Natal were at it again, rewarded by a penalty which James goaled to make the score 18-all.

James stabbed a chip through which Aplon raced onto and used to counter. He chipped but James saved when he ran the ball into touch.

Western Province won an attacking line-out and mauled. They shunted the maul quickly over the line for a try by Watson, concerted by Grant and the score qwas 25-18. A penalty by James made it 25-21 - and then came that fateful minute.

There were just 72 stoppages in the match, with the ball in hand for a lot of the time. Much of the positive play was thanks to the two enterprising fullbacks - Gio Aplon of Western Province and, our Man of the Match, Brett Hennessey of Natal.

Natal had heavies at the match. Apart from coaches Dick Muir and Theo Oosthuizen, Springboks on the 1996 tour, they had David Campese and Rudolf Straeuli. There was some relief in the rattled shark cage after the match!

The scorers:

For Western Province:
Tries: Uys, Aplon 2, Watson
Con: Grant
Pen: Grant

For the Sharks:
Tries: Noble, Hennessey, Saayman
Cons: James 2
Pens: James 3

Teams:

Vodacom Western Province: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Chumani Booi, 13 Corné Uys, 12 Peter Grant, 11 Joe Pietersen, 10 Naas Olivier, 9 Bolla Conradie, 8 Robbie Diack, 7 Justin Melck, 6 Luke Watson (captain), 5 Gerrie Britz, 4 Francois van der Merwe, 3 Attie Winter, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 JD Moller.
Replacements: 16 Huia Edmonds, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Schalk Ferreira, 19 Rob Linde, 20 Peter Myburgh, 21 Neil de Kock, 22 Sarel Potgieter.

Sharks: 15 Brett Hennessey, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Grant Rees, 12 Adrian Jacobs, 11 Dusty Noble, 10 Butch James, 9 Scott Mathie, 8 AJ Venter (captain), 7 Jacques Botes, 6 Warren Britz, 5 Johann Muller, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Danie Saayman, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 A N Other.
Replacements: 16 Jody Jenneker, 17 Sangoni Mxoli, 18 Ryan Kankowski, 19 Keegan Daniel, 20 Ruan Pienaar, 21 Andries Strauss, 22 Gcobani Bobo

Referee: Jonathan Kaplan
Touch judges: Linston Manuels (Boland), Andries Selemela (Leopards)
Television match official: Cobus Wessels (Blue Bulls)