Sharks edge dour arm-wrestle

The Sharks recorded a dramatic 19-16 win over the Free State Cheetahs in Durban on Saturday to go to second place on the Currie Cup standings.

For 75 minutes the game was a dour arm-wrestle, with lots of kicking and only the occasional burst of energy.

And then, after the home team took the lead for the first time in the 76th minute, the Cheetahs burst back into life and almost stole a late winner.

However, they were denied by the TMO - who, to his credit, did his best to find clear evidence of a grounding by Cheetahs prop Kevin Stevens.

It was not to be and as Sharks captain Lubabalo Mtembu  said in his post-match reaction - they used their get-out-of-jail-free card.

But they will take the four points, regardless of how they got them.

In the first half, with the Cheetahs dominating possession, the Sharks caused themselves further harm with an enormous error count - 10 handling errors and a number of other turnovers.

The game became even more of an arm-wrestle in the second half, with the half-time instructions - for both teams - having been to play a territorial game.

After Willie du Plessis kicked two penalties in quick succession (22nd and 24th minutes), it was a moment of genius that brought the first try - Sarel Pretorius sniped, offloaded to Clayton Blommetjies, who chipped and chased to get the first five-pointer. Du Plessis kicked the conversion for a 13-0 lead.

Fred Zeilinga eventually got the Sharks on the board with a penalty on the half-hour mark, and that is how it stayed to the half-time break.

And early second-half penalty by Zeilinga, for a ruck/tackle offence, saw the gap  narrow to 6-13. However, Du Plessis restored the Cheetahs' 10-point lead almost immediately, after Marco Wentzel was penalised at a maul.

As the final quarter approaches Zeilinga narrowed the gap to seven points (9-16), following a scrum penalty just outside the Cheetahs 22.

With 15 minutes left on the clock, the Sharks won a penalty when a bunch of Cheetahs players failed to retire outside the 10-metres area - in the wake of a poorly executed high bomb - but Zeilinga hooked it past the left upright.

The Sharks eventually drew level with just over 10 minutes remaining, a try by Tonderai Chavhanga - who came on a sublime angle, after some interplay around the flyhalf channel. Zeilinga slotted the conversion.

With four minutes remaining Zeilinga had a chance to go ahead for the first time, another breakdown penalty, and Zeilinga made no mistake - 19-16.

The Cheetahs bashed, relentlessly, and with time virtually up Kevin Stevens charged at the line and appeared to plant it near the whitewash. The TMO took his time, lots of it, and had many looks at several angles. However, he failed to find conclusive evidence of a touch-down and in conjunction with the referee ruled that there was a knock-on.

There was just enough time for the Cheetahs to win a dramatic heel against the head and the ball was swung wide to the left, where Raymond Rhule was tackled into touch as the Sharks held on for a fortuitous come-from-behind win - 19-16.

Man of the match: Clayton Blommetjies and Sarel Pretorius posed plenty of questions to the Sharks' defence, while Blommetjies was also more than just decent with his out-of-hand kicking. Jacques Botes is always good value, even at the wrong side of 30. However, our award goes to Sharks No.8 Lubabalo Mtembu, who continues to grow as a player - showing the captaincy role certainly agrees with him.

The scorers:

For the Sharks:

Try: Chavhanga

Con: Zeilinga

Pens: Zeilinga 4

For the Free State Cheetahs:

Try: Blommetjies

Con: Du Plessis

Pens: Du Plessis 3

Teams:

Sharks: 15 SP Marais, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Sibusiso Sithole, 12 Paul Jordaan, 11 Tonderai Chavhanga, 10 Fred Zeilinga, 9 Cameron Wright, 8 Lubabalo Mtembu (captain), 7 Francois Kleinhans, 6 Jacques Botes, 5 Marco Wentzel, 4 Etienne Oosthuizen, 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Kyle Cooper, 1 Dale Chadwick.

Replacements: 16 Franco Marais, 17 Thomas du Toit, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Stephan Lewies/Johan Meyer, 20 Conrad Hoffmann, 21 Heimar Williams, 22 Lionel Cronjé.

Free State Cheetahs: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Rayno Benjamin, 13 Francois Venter, 12 Joubert Engelbrecht, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Willie du Plessis, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Jean Cook, 7 Neil Claassen, 6 Tienie Burger, 5 Francois Uys, 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Dolph Botha, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld (captain), 1 Kevin Stevens.

Replacements: 16 Abraham le Roux, 17 George Marich, 18 Henco Venter, 19 Vincent Jobo, 20 Shaun Venter, 21 Pieter-Steyn de Wet, 22 Phillipus du Plessis.

Referee: Rasta Rasivhenge

Assistant referees: Marius Jonker, Stefan Breytenbach

TMO: Jason Jaftha