Sharks(22) 32
Western Province(13) 16
When the Sharks called for a blackout ahead of their meeting with Western Province in Durban last night, the last thing they would have expected was a power failure an hour before kick-off, as the stadium was plunged into darkness.
With only the light beaming from a myriad of cellphones in the smattering of loyal supporters it was quite a sight to behold the luminous blue rays around the ground.
The brief period of darkness though did not dampen this Currie Cup fixture and the Sharks bolted out of the tunnel in determined mood.
Playing like they feared another power failure the Sharks surged forward and it was retreaded flyhalf Brad Barritt who jolted through the Province defence to score under the poles. Rory Kockott converted.
The move had been sparked by No 8 Ryan Kankowski.
This was followed up with three points from a Kockott penalty.
Province, though, struck back midway through the half when Watson spurned a goalable penalty and opted to set up an attacking lineout drive.
The WP pack powered forward and crashed over the whitewash.
When the debris was cleared Justin Melck claimed the try and it was converted by flyhalf Naas Olivier.
The visiting pivot was on song shortly after when he sunk a brace of penalties to push the Capetonians ahead 13-10.
The Sharks recovered from their ebb and on one sortie into their opposition's 22 Terblanche breached the WP tryline.
The five pointer was something out of the normal and actually occurred after a Province breakout, when wing Joe Pietersen couldn't re-gather his chip and Terblanche hacked the ball forward twice with his boot before diving over to rapturous applause.
Seconds before the break the Sharks would get a decisive score, when Ndungane bisected the Province defence and sauntered over to ensure the hosts took a deserved 22-13 lead.
The second half started with a whimper and remained scoreless until the 61st minute when Pietersen slotted a penalty and brought Province within a converted try of snatching the lead.
WP lost the ascendancy when Melck was yellow carded for kicking Sharks hooker Skipper Badenhorst in the groin a few minutes later.
The cowardly act by Melck could have warranted a red card, but referee Jonathan Kaplan was happy just to give the loose forward 10 minutes in the sin bin.
With Melck cooling off the Sharks restored their nine point lead when Kockott kicked his second penalty.
And the victory was sealed after Terblanche strode down the touchline to score under the poles as the Sharks exploited their numerical superiority.
The try was the Sharks fourth in the league table and ensured that they would gain a bonus point win, something that had taken longer than anticipated after they had dotted down with such ease in the first stanza.
While the second forty lacked the electricity of the first, the Sharks will no doubt take solace from their 32-16 win.
For Province it was lights out for the second week in succession after their horrendous 15-10 loss to Boland last Saturday.
It looks like they are in for a long, hard season.
Scorers
Sharks
Tries: Brad Barritt, Stefan Terblanche (2), Odwa Ndungane. Conversions: Rory Kockott (3)
Penalty: Kockott (2).
Western Province
Try: Justin Melck. Conversion: Naas Olivier. Penalties: Olivier (2), Joe Pietersen.