Buzzapp Master A young, inexperienced Sharks XV filled with personnel from this year’s Junior Springboks beat Griquas 40-21 in their Currie Cup match at Kings Park Stadium in Durban on Sunday.
The home side outscored Griquas by six tries to three to clinch the bonus-point victory, meaning that JP Pietersen’s charges moved to fifth place in the standings with 17 points.
The Sharks starved the men from Kimberley of the ball in the opening stages and made them chase ghosts.
They camped in Griquas’ territory from the start, with scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse shaking things up with quick ball from the base.
Hendrikse, returning to the KwaZulu-Natal side after recovering from a shoulder injury sustained four months ago, had the honour of scoring the first try after only five minutes.
From the back of a ruck close to the line, Hendrikse sniped through Griquas’ pack to sneak over
The Sharks continued to pile on relentless pressure in attack leading to fullback Hakeem Kunene finishing off a brilliant set play down the right side.
Winger Eduan Keyter then added another telling blow to Griquas’ misery.
Veteran Lionel Cronje showed no signs of missing with the boot as he slotted the third two-pointer for the Sharks.
Loose forward Marco de Witt struck back for the dumbfounded visitors, slicing through the Sharks’ defensive line to score.
Despite Griquas picking up the tempo and stringing together a few phases after De Witt’s try, Jannes Potgieter immediately responded for the Sharks with another try converted by Cronje.
Things turned from bad to worse for the visitors close to half time as Jurenzo Julius intercepted a Griquas attack to sprint home from the halfway line to give the Sharks a 35-7 lead into the break.
Griquas came out from the dressing room rejuvenated.
They were able to get ball possession, which led to captain Sango Xamlashe crossing over for the visitors’ second five-pointer.
Handling errors were rare from both sides but whenever there were scrums, Griquas had the upper hand winning two penalties in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Griquas continued causing the Sharks problems in defence despite losing playmaker Lubabalo Dobela.
They kept knocking the Shark tank and it eventually cracked with winger Dylan Maart scoring a winger’s dream try with a brilliant in-out five-pointer to close the gap.
While Griquas got their groove back, they were set back by a continuous penalty count. Hooker Ethan Bester made use of such ill-discipline for another Sharks try from the back of a maul.
Griquas threw their last dice for a losing bonus point in the final 10 minutes but could not penetrate the Sharks’ defence.
They ended the game with 14 men after Hanru Sirgel was sent off for a dangerous clean-out.
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