Stormers feed victory to Sharks

In contrast the Sharks, who really played most of the rugby, especially in the frenetic closing stages as they grimly held on to their two-point advantage.

And perhaps the biggest culprit of all was probably a very angry Stormers flank Schalk Burger.

He was one of two Cape men sent to the sin bin by referee Kelvin Deaker and was at the forefront of another penalty decision against them when the Stormers were staging a last second rally in a bid to secure a late score.

The other Stormers ban sent off for 10 minutes was Dylan Des Fountain after a series of borderline professional fouls.

As rugby games go, the Sharks had the better of the exchanges but they had to work hard to get the ball from setpieces as the Stormers defenders threw everything into their task.

They were the better at the breakdowns by far while the Sharks, when given the chance to run the ball, were full of endeavour.

Such was the pace that Sharks captain Johann Muller said afterwards that the pace of the game was a real test of stamina – far more indeed than in a whole week of practice.

Now what of Schalk Burger? He could be in hot Water for showing dissent to the touch judge who had first attracted referee Deaker’s attention to what was considered unfair tactics to say the least.

He left the field showing clear signs of annoyance and indicated to the lines man that he had not seen what had exactly transpired and challenged his intelligence.

Although the crowd of 29000 was below expectation, probably because of threatened road closures around the ground because of the South African AI Grand Prix, they were loud of voice as they encouraged the try-less Sharks to as tough a victory as one could imagine.

And as good as the Stormers defence was on the day, so too was that of the Sharks when it really mattered even though they conceded the only try to scrumhalf Ricky Januarie as well as a conversion and a penalty by flyhalf Peter Grant.

There was one moment of pure genius on the part of French flyhalf Frederic Michalak has he chased down Peter Grant to tackle him from behind as he streaked towards the Sharks try line.

The new Sharks flyhalf also showed some clever touches with shrewd kicks into the open zones and swift sidesteps that caused a few jitters for the Stormers at times.

Sharks:
Francois Steyn, Odwa Ndungane, Waylon Murray, Brad Barritt, JP Pietersen, Frederic Michalak, Ruan Pienaar, Ryan Kankowski, AJ Venter, Jacques Botes, Johann Muller, Johan Ackermann, BJ Botha, Bismarck du Plessis, Tendai Mtwarira.
Bench: Craig Burden, Jannie du Plessis, Albert van den Ber, Keegan Daniel, Rory Kockot