Sharks record first Super14 victory
Ruan Pienaar
Centre Adrian Jacobs scored a late intercept try to help South Africa’s Sharks to a 30-16 victory over the Otago Highlanders in Dunedin on Saturday and their first Super 14 victory this season.
Jacobs’ intercept, when the Highlanders were attacking from inside their territory, came 90 seconds after the home side had a potential levelling try by replacement winger Fetu’u Vainikolo ruled out by the television match official (TMO) Colin Hawke.
“I don’t think any other victory I’ve had here (in Dunedin) means as much as this one does. It has been a long road for us,” said Sharks captain John Smit, who was a late addition to the starting lineup after Tendai Mtawarira was ruled out with flu.
“Our boys needed this win, but they have stuck together for a long time, now we need to capitalise on this.”
The Sharks, who had been tipped as potential semi-finalists before the competition began, had lost their previous five games.
The Highlanders dominated territory and possession but were only able to convert their first-half pressure with two Israel Dagg penalties. Dagg also missed two other shots at goal.
Ruan Pienaar slotted an early penalty for the Sharks while hooker Bismarck du Plessis grounded the ball against the goalpost and was awarded the try by referee Jonathan White after consultation with Hawke.
Pienaar converted to give his side a 10-6 halftime lead.
After the break, Dagg added his third penalty before Pienaar replied twice to give the visitors a 16-9 lead that was stretched to 23-9 when Stefan Terblanche scored a 64th minute try and Pienaar converted.
Otago winger Ben Smith immediately brought his side back into the match with a try that was converted by Dagg.
Smith then put Vainikolo into space from a well worked backline move from an attacking scrum and while the replacement winger appeared to have scored a try, Hawke ruled he had been tackled into touch in goal by number eight Ryan Kankowski.
If the try had been awarded and Dagg made the difficult sideline conversion the score would have been locked at 23-23 with less than five minutes remaining, but Jacobs then put the game beyond doubt with his intercept.
“We played with a lot of territory but didn’t get a lot of reward for it and we only have ourselves to blame,” Highlanders captain Jimmy Cowan said.
“We made a lot of silly errors in our own half and if you look at the Sharks tries they came from our mistakes.”
[Reuters]
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