Sharks fail in automatic semifinal bid after brutal victory over Stormers
THE Sharks will head to Kings Park to face the Highlanders in a Super Rugby play-off match next week mentally buoyed, but physically weakened, after a brutal win over the Stormers last night.
If this match were a movie it could have carried an 18 age restriction due to excessive violence. The intensity of the collisions and the barely controlled rage with which both teams set about their task made for compelling viewing if you are a masochist.
There was an accidental, but sickeningly violent, clash of heads between Springbok teammates JP Pietersen and Duane Vermeulen in the first half that ended the former’s night on the spot. Vermeulen didn’t emerge for the second half.
Amazingly, in the midst of all the smashing tackles and wince-inducing clean-outs, the only yellow card was awarded to Sharks flank Willem Alberts for the minor crime of kicking the ball away after the whistle had blown.
An all-in brawl 16 minutes from the end ignited by a spat between Stormers flank Schalk Burger and his opposite number, Marcell Coetzee, was inevitable.
All night, players had been pushing the boundary between legal and illegal and it wasn’t surprising the touch paper was lit between the two openside flankers.
Coetzee enjoyed a whale of a game and it was primarily his outstanding work at the breakdown that gave the Sharks the edge in this wild, but errorstrewn, contest.
Sharks flyhalf and Springbok exile Frans Steyn added 19 points from five penalties and two conversions to keep the scoreboard moving, while the team scored three tries.
Centre Paul Jordaan benefitted from an ill-advised backward kick by Stormers scrumhalf Nic Groom to score the Sharks’ first try two minutes before the break.
There were two further late tries for wing S’Bura Sithole — a 60m intercept — and replacement scrumhalf Stefan Ungerer to add lustre to the score. But the real damage was done by the pack in the first half.
The Stormers simply couldn’t use the bulk of the possession they enjoyed in a meaningful way because the ball seldom emerged from a ruck with any speed.
The Sharks scrum also walked the Stormers pack all over the Newlands turf while the visitors defence was excellent during the second half, when they could hardly escape their own 22m area.
The Sharks could have coasted through the game knowing that winning by 36 points and scoring four tries to secure a home semifinal was near impossible. But they didn’t, rather choosing to build some momentum for next week’s clash in Durban before hopefully heading to Australasia for a semi.
From the outset this was a match the Sharks simply wanted to win to underline their standing as the best South African team this season — and they did by winning their 11th match of the campaign.
The Stormers’ four-match winning streak came to an end as they slumped to their ninth defeat of the season, although their revival remains on course despite last night’s result.