The Hollywoodbets Sharks XV closed out the pool stages of this year’s Carling Currie Cup with a spectacular and thoroughly entertaining 53-22 victory over the Vodacom Bulls XV at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Friday evening.
This was a match the visitors would want to forget in a hurry, heaping misery following a winless season. For the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV, in sublime form, playing attacking rugby, bringing the energy to everything they did, showing composure and delivering the goods beautifully, it was a wonderful way to close out the regular season.
There isn’t much that stops the irrepressible Tino Mavesere, the eventual Carling Player of the Match, and while he was prominent in an earlier scintillating attack, he was the try-scorer off a rolling maul that was going in only one direction and the Hollywoodbets Sharks were leading 5-nil inside the opening five minutes.
Mavesere was rewarded with a second try seven minutes later, powerful, simply too powerful for the visiting defence as he was helped over the tryline after the Vodacom Bulls had conceded at least seven or eight penalties, their discipline failing them terribly. Luan Giliomee added the extras for a well-deserved 12-nil lead.
By the end of the first quarter, there was really only one side in it, the Hollywoodbets Sharks had come to play and they were relishing the conditions, playing at home and revelling in the sheer delight of playing the sport they love.
The visitors finally made good, having to fight their way for a full five minutes against some brave and determined defence to finally score a forward-dominated, converted try, to cut the deficit back to five points.
Their joy would have been short-lived as a mesmerising run from fullback Luan Gilliomee turned matters around completely before he fed captain Ross Braude and there was no stopping the scrumhalf from 10m out.
Again, the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV were ruthless with ball in hand as they managed to dispossess their opponents before Tim Swiel showed a clean pair of heels as he sliced through the defence to score the bonus point try within half an hour of stunning play. The conversion stretched the lead to 17 points and the Vodacom Bulls were in serious trouble.
There was no stopping the rampant Hollywoodbets Sharks XV forwards as they once again tested the defence off a rolling maul, finding it wanting and it was that man Tino Mavesere who pumped his legs through the would-be, defenceless tackling efforts to score his hat-trick.
Two minutes before half-time, another Bulls mistake was punished, a scrum penalty was kicked to touch, the lineout maul effective and a couple of phases later, Braude dived over for his second try and his team’s sixth try, heaping misery on the visitors for a 36-7 half-time lead.
The Vodacom Bulls had a TMO confirmation of a try in the 45th minute to cut the lead to 24 points and then as the game hit the final quarter, they were forced to fight hard and through countless phases before scoring their third try for a 36-17 scoreline.
But if the visitors thought the tide was turning in their favour, Mavesere once again showed why he is so dangerous as he emerged from a ruck and sped 25m to the tryline for his fourth try, with Gilliomee.
A quite frenetic passage of play led to the next try, an attack, an intercept, a charge-down, a counter, eventually closed out by the Bulls for their fourth try with 10 minutes remaining.
Jacques Marais, the replacement hooker, came on in the latter stages of the game and his impact was immediate as it was devastating, breaking out of a maul and sprinting 25m, breaking through three would-be tacklers to score the eighth try as the Hollywoodbets Sharks approached the half century mark.
Marais went over for his second with two minutes remaining, the maul convincing in its execution and effective in its delivery.
It closed out a game that ticked all the boxes ahead of the semi-finals, with an anxious wait to see the results of the two other matches that still have an influence on the final log standings, with the Hollywoodbets Sharks having finished the evening in fourth place.
