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THE Hollywoodbets Sharks ended their Vodacom United Rugby Championship drought against the DHL Stormers with a 21-15 win at Hollywoodbets Kings Park that could not have been more dramatic if it was dreamed up by a scriptwriter.
The Stormers, as a winning sequence that goes back to early 2021 will tell you, have long been the Sharks’ bogey team, and they so nearly were again. The Sharks looked like they had the game in hand against a team that butchered a lot of scoring chances when they led 21-8 with just two minutes to go. However, the Stormers were rightly awarded a penalty try with just a few seconds left, and then, trailing by six points, they attacked in a brilliant multi-phase counterattack that started at their own tryline in what they knew would be the last move of the game.
The Stormers had been error-ridden up to then against a team that had to rely on their defence to win, something that may not have been expected beforehand, but in that last move, they showed their brilliance as well as their character.
Manie Libbok, on the field after Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was concussed in the first half, featured prominently, not least with the pinpoint cross kick that nearly sent scrumhalf Hershel Jantjies in under the posts. A desperate Sharks scramble tackle prevented him from running through on his own, but the ball was swung this way and that and eventually it was Libbok who scythed through a gap as wide as the Tugela River that opened in front of him in the Sharks 22.
Libbok crossed over and dotted down beneath the posts to the jubilation of his teammates and, no doubt, Stormers supporters everywhere. Libbok had missed a few kicks earlier in the game, but he could not miss from there – it was reasonable to assume the Stormers had scored a great come-from-behind victory.
Meanwhile, Irish side Munster held their nerve to score two unanswered second-half tries to win a slugfest 17-10 against the Emirates Lions in a difficult Vodacom United Rugby Championship game at Thomond Park on Saturday night.
With the Lions fighting hard to go into the halftime break 10-7 up, the home side upped their game on a night which both sides showed enterprise, but also were thwarted by their own handling errors, with the home side holding their nerve in the end.
It was a disappointing second half for the Lions, who you felt had missed a chance here to break South Africa’s duck in Limerick in the URC, as no SA team has ever beaten Munster at home. —Reuters.
Online Reporter