Durban — This Currie Cup clash in Mbombela took 60 minutes of grim arm wrestling before it exploded into life and it was the Sharks that engineered a sensational comeback to snatch the spoils.
It was former Varsity Cup star Nevaldo Fleurs who cooly kicked two late conversions — one of them after the hooter -- to clinch a 24-22 win for his team when all looked lost when they were losing 22-10 inside the last ten minutes.
It was the Sharks’ substitute flank Dylan Richardson who sparked the comeback from the dead. He scored one try and made the second, for Marco de Witt, and the question has to be asked… Why is Richardson so out of favour at the Sharks?
The Sharks had a dream start to the game. They kept possession for two minutes from the kick-off until a nifty offload by flyhalf Lionel Cronje allowed flanker James Venter to storm through the defence to the tryline.
It would be 60 minutes before they scored again.
The home team was on the board in the seventh minute when they won a scrum penalty for Tinus de Beer to steer though the posts.
De Beer repeated the dose ten minutes later to give his side a 6-5 lead.
The tide was certainly changing and when Cronje was yellow carded for a professional foul as the Pumas attacked the Sharks’ line, De Beer helped himself to three more.
But then came a key moment when the two tighthead props, Njabulo Gumede and Khutha Mchunu, clashed heads in the 30th minute and it was the Pumas’ Gumede who was shown red by the referee. It was a fair call because he had gone into the tackle too high and Mchunu was left with a bleeding mouth and had to be replaced.
Still, the Pumas should have scored next when De Beer fluffed an easy shot at goal. Two minutes before halftime he missed another and then after 12 minutes of tight tussle in the second half he got one over from close range.
Five minutes later he nudged a drop kick over from in front of the posts and in the context of the game, 15-5 was a handy lead.
With 15 minutes to go the Pumas were down to 13 men when lock Shane Kirkwood was binned for pulling the maul down and hooker Dan Jooste went over from the next maul.
The Pumas are made of stern stuff and with two men missing from the pack they managed to get into a position for substitute scrumhalf Giovan Snyman to dart over for what seemed to be the match-clinching try.
This was when Richardson came on to deliver his outstanding cameo and for Fleurs to show he has the temperament to go onto bigger things.
Point-scorers
Pumas 22 — Try: Giovan Snyman. Penalties: Tinus de Beer (4). Drop goal: De Beer. Conversion: De Beer
Sharks 24 — Tries: James Venter, Dan Jooste, Dylan Richardson, Marco de Witt. Conversion: Nevaldo Fleurs (2).
IOL Sport