A brave Hollywoodbets Sharks XV team gave it their all but went down 43-21 to the Toyota Cheetahs after a late flurry from the home side in a competitive Carling Currie Cup match in Bloemfontein on Friday evening.
There was very little to separate the two teams for 65 minutes as the lead changed hands regularly, but two tries in the closing minutes set the Toyota Cheetahs up well for the win.
A second minute try, a deft grubber from Springbok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk who has returned to South Africa to play his rugby out of Bloemfontein, got the scoreboard ticking over, the touchline conversion giving them an early lead.
There was a good counter from the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV who mauled the ball up, but the Toyota Cheetahs’ defence managed to hold out. But the goal-line pressure returned immediately with some creative play on attack with inside centre Janco Purchase closing out a lovely build-up to his team’s first try, with Tim Swiel adding the extras to level matters inside the opening 10 minutes.
The Toyota Cheetahs were back on the scoresheet almost immediately following the restart, de Klerk again showing his experience to direct matters before going over himself for a 14-7 lead just before the quarter hour mark.
10 minutes later the visiting Durban side were once again held up over the tryline, but struck back with venom, a lovely midfield break taking the attack behind the defence and it was only a matter of patience and accuracy before tighthead prop Simphiwe Ngobese took the ball at pace and there was no stopping him.
Swiel converted to once again level matters with just under 15 minutes of the half remaining.
The two sides went hard at each other in the closing minutes of an exciting first half, but there would be no further scoring, with the spoils evenly shared 14-all at the half-time break.
The hosts went ahead for the third time, this in the opening five minutes of the second half, a quick tap penalty catching the defences off-guard and try number three pushed them into a 19-14 lead.
Their joy was short-lived with a yellow card issued following a head-on-head tackle moments later and the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV took advantage immediately, some exciting work on attack leading to Marnus Potgieter smashing his way over, with Swiel putting his team into the lead for the first time in the game with half an hour remaining.
But the see-sawing nature of the game continued with the home side scoring the bonus point try almost directly from the kick-off with a strong attack out wide to take a three-point lead.
They pulled further ahead with a try in the 65th minute to take their lead beyond a converted try but there was still plenty of fight left in the young Hollywoodbets Sharks XV team who chased a late score that would change the entire complexion of the match.
But a try in the 75th minute put the result out of question, a 15-point lead too much to overhaul in the last few minutes and then an intercept try with two minutes remaining gave the scoreboard a one-sided look that didn’t paint a clear picture of how tight the game had been.