The Cell C Sharks performed admirably in an entertaining Carling Currie Cup win over the Sigma Lions at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday when they ran out well-deserved 56-14 victors to almost certainly wrap up a home semi-final.
In the fiercely contested early parts of the match, it was the Cell C Sharks who were under early pressure, but they were simply too good and composed to fail.
It was the Lions who pushed hard early on but they would take an hour to score their first points of their final match of the competition.
The first score of the game took a full 16 minutes, only for the TMO to rule that Lionel Cronje’s try-making pass was forward and Yaw Penxe’s effort denied.
Both sides were looking to really inject some excitement into their attack, but for the home side, playing in their final game of a disappointing season, their desperation to create some magic often stymied their best efforts.
Instead it was the Cell C Sharks who proved that much more polished and getting the first reward, kicking a penalty to touch and then making good ground with the maul before Grant Williams broke and fed Marius Louw for the opening try of the game, converted by Cronje for a 7-nil lead just shy of the 20thminute.
With their confidence boosted, the Cell C Sharks showed some amazing enterprise as they fought their way from their 22 all the way up-field with Thaakir Abrahams receiving a long pass to canter over untouched for the second try barely a handful of minutes later. Cronje added the extras with a pinpoint conversion from the touchline for a 14-0 lead, while the Lions lost a man to the sin-bin for cynical play on defence.
To their credit, the home side did look to inject some energy into their attack and on numerous occasions put together multiphase efforts, but were consistently denied with some excellent defence and outstanding competing on the ground from the Cell C Sharks that brought regular reward.
The third try was inevitable as the Lions found to their disappointment and frustration just how dangerous the Cell C Sharks can be in loose play, Grant Williams finding a gap and racing away before feeding Louw who then offloaded to captain Phepsi Buthelezi in great support, with Cronje adding the extra two for a 21-0 lead.
Just lacking accuracy in their play, the Lions had the perfect platform to score but weren’t clinical in their lineout or subsequent attack and lost the initiative, while the Cell C Sharks took it, defending their line heroically and then spending three minutes of extra time attacking before Anthony Volmink finished off a great team effort with the Lions again down to 14 men, the conversion closing off a more than satisfactory first half.
At 28-0 up at half-time and the bonus point secured, the trick in the second half would be to maintain the high tempo and not let their foot off the pedal, but to maintain their absolute dominance on the scoreboard.
The second half started like a house on fire, the Lions doing well to get millimetres short of the tryline, but then the ball was stolen on the ground, Marius Louw bust out and a few seconds later Abrahams was over for his second try and the Cell C Sharks’ fifth for a 35-nil and what must have been unassailable lead.
It took just short of 60 minutes and three quarters of the way through this pulsating game before the home side finally made good on a sustained effort, scoring their first try of the game after the forwards kept the momentum going through endless phases.
But there was no stopping the Cell C Sharks with Sanele Nohamba showing a clean pair of heels with a 50m effort to score the sixth try, thanks to a lovely pass in the tackle fromMurray Koster to set him up.
With the game opening up, the third try in under 10 minutes was scored, the Lions playing the momentum game from close-quarters to make it 42-14 with just over 10 minutes remaining.
Moments later it was time for a hat-trick, Abrahams dancing his way through the defence to score his third and the Cell C Sharks’ seventh as they threatened the half century with Boeta Chamberlain adding his second conversion.
Abrahams should have had his fourth but he unselfishly fed Volmink to bring up 50 points as a stolen lineout in our 22 saw the ball sent wide and the eighth try to close out a thoroughly entertaining, if not spectacular win.