The Hollywoodbets Sharks came out on top in their Carling Currie Cup clash with the Vodacom Bulls, closing out the pool stages before next week’s semi-finals with a hard-earned 24-18 victory at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Sunday.
Wet weather conditions didn’t help matters, with the Bulls making almost twice as many handling errors as the home team which stymied many of the promising attacks they put together. Ultimately rugby is about game management and it was the Hollywoodbets Sharks who must take the plaudits for the way they constructed the victory.
The game took a full quarter of an hour before the teams broke the deadlock, the Bulls using an attacking lineout in the Hollywoodbets Sharks’ 22 to maul the ball up and over the tryline for the opening score to take a 5-nil lead.
The visitors had to settle for a penalty after hammering away at the line following a well-executed 50-22, but being thwarted on defence and feeling the pressure, but they had an 8-nil lead by the 23rd minute, having dominated possession up to that point.
But a strong period of sustained attack from the home team went somewhere towards levelling the possession and territory stats and following a number of penalties and a warning, the Bulls’ indiscipline cost them a yellow card for repeated infringements in their 22 and Dylan Richardson smashed his way over, too much speed and strength for the defence and was over for his team’s opening try.
In the build-up, the Bulls were also found guilty of a head clash in the tackle, deemed dangerous and another man was sent to the bin. Siya Masuku added the extras and there was just one point separating the two teams with less than 10 minutes of the half remaining.
The Hollywoodbets Sharks went into the lead for the first time, early in the second half capitalising off some mishandling leading to a scrum which resulted in a penalty off a mammoth effort from the home team forwards at the set-piece, with Masuku adding the three.
With the Bulls restored back to the full complement of 15 players, a strong break led to a penalty that they slotted to restore their lead five minutes into the half.
But another 45m penalty from Masuku saw the Hollywoodbets Sharks retake the lead, 13-11 just shy of the 50 minute mark after the Bulls were penalised for some pushing and shoving unnecessarily.
The see-saw nature of the scoring continued when the Bulls went over for their second try, a strong scrum and then a kick over the top to chase for the successful touchdown, with the conversion taking them 18-13 ahead.
The next 10 minutes proved too stop-start for either team to mount a serious launch on the opposition, the conditions hampering progress with ball-handling made tough and both sides opting to keep the ball in the air to force the errors.
With just over 10 minutes of the game remaining, Masuku continued with his 100% success rate kicking for posts as he cut the lead to two points with a penalty for playing the ball illegally.
Then all action broke out as an educated kick downfield was chased, the Bulls panicked under pressure and were forced to dot down, having taken the ball over the tryline. From the ensuing scrum, the Bulls were pulverised, penalty advantage was give but not required as the retreating Bulls’ defence could not contain Jordan Hendrikse who powered his way over to score in the corner to take a 21-18 lead into the remaining five minutes.
The Bulls conceded a last gasp penalty which was slotted by Masuku to close out a tough but satisfying victory.
