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Not perfect but Sharks get full house in breaking their duck

football25 October 2025 16:36
By:Gavin Rich
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Their fans might not have been expecting it to take a 63rd minute penalty from Jean Smith for them to put daylight between themselves and the Scarlets but the Hollywoodbets Sharks’ 29-19 win in Durban would have breathed some much needed air into their Vodacom URC challenge.

Smith’s kick from a few metres into the Scarlets’ half put to an end a disturbing sequence for the Sharks where they produce a patches of good rugby and score a try only for the visitors to hit back with a score of their own, with the Scarlets’ tries mainly due to defensive sloppiness from the Sharks.

While the defensive malaise of giving away soft scores continues, the attack was at least a bit better in this game, with Smith, who played as a late replacement for Siya Masuku, who withdrew on the eve of the match, at least engaging the opposition defenders with his flat lining approach, ability to pass through the tackle as well as enjoying a good game from a kick out of hand viewpoint.

Of course, the Sharks would have been expected to beat the bottom team on the log when playing at home, albeit that the Scarlets did have some big cattle back for this game after recovering from injury and looked more like the team that finished eighth last season, so any euphoria will be tempered.

But at least it was a start for a Sharks team that hadn’t really left home base in the competition before now.

The game started in sweltering heat, which was why there were water breaks at the end of each quarter, but a strong westerly came through around kick-off time to cool down both the players and the crowd that pitched at Hollywoodbets Kings Park to watch their team.

POSITIVE START

The home support would have been warmed early by their team’s positive start, with the best attacking play from the Sharks coming early on.

The game was just five minutes old when the Sharks created enough space by drawing the man and putting players into little holes to make it an impressive buildup to a try that saw Siya Kolisi go clear on the left before the ball was transferred in the other direction for Vincent Tshituka to score.

Smith missed that conversion so when some sloppy defence saw Scarlets centre Johnny Williams wriggle through to create the space for lock Harvey Cuckson to surge forward before making the try-scoring pass to Springbok hooker Marnus van der Merwe, Sam Costelow’s conversion put the Scarlets into a 7-5 lead.

Straight away the Sharks struck back with Emmanuel Tshituka being played into space off an attacking lineout, and when Smith converted the No 8’s try the game appeared to be going to the anticipated script again as the Sharks went 12-7 up.

Only the script was to be one of tit for tat for a while longer, this time the other Tshituka, Vincent, being either sloppy or lazy in getting down to a ball hoofed forward by Scarlets fullback Blair Murray and the same player ended up scoring the try after it slipped past him.

Costelow’s conversion made it 14-12 but the Sharks were soon back in Scarlets territory and an attacking lineout set up by a penalty saw prop Lee-Marvin Mazibuko barrel over for the third Sharks try after a good take from Marvin Orie, who impressed as the second row partner to Eben Etzebeth and will be knocking on the Bok door again with more performances like this one.

Mazibuko, the former Stormers front-ranker, was playing because of an injury sustained in training by the starting tighthead Vincent Koch.

The Springbok was part of most of the pre-match warmup session so whatever happened to him must have happened late.

DEFENCE LOOKED VULNERABLE

Smith’s conversion of the try made it 19-14 and that was the halftime score.

The Sharks would have wanted to score first in the second half to get the show on the road, and to convert the convincing superiority they had in the forward battle, particularly in the set-scrums, but that did not happen.

Instead there was more lax defence from the Sharks as Scarlets wing Tom Rodgers ghosted through off the flyhalf channel to score another try that the home team should have considered soft.

This time Costelow failed with the conversion attempt so the score stayed 19-all and Scarlets did not score again in the game.

Instead it was the Sharks who netted their fourth and bonus point try through the national captain going over after the Sharks had laid siege to the Scarlets line.

That was in the 48th minute, with Smith’s conversion making it 26-19 to the Sharks.

Some 15 minutes later the Sharks showed their respect to the gritty Scarlets challenge by asking Smith to line up his long range kick and once the Sharks were 10 points clear that was pretty much the match.

A WIN IS A WIN

It was one of those frustrating games from a Sharks viewpoint where it kept looking like they might be creating something promising, and scrumhalf Grant Williams was often the source of that, while Andre Esterhuizen was his customary big presence on the gainline, but it just didn’t come off.

Perhaps more time together will see the Sharks gel better but the next time the Sharks coach will see his full team together is likely to be the Investec Champions Cup game against Saracens here in mid-December.

In the meantime he does have five weeks to build up to a crucial away game against Connacht in Galway and at this point it looks as though he has been helped by the players that will have been made available to him through Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus’s latest selection.

It wasn’t the rousing win many would have hoped for after last week’s upset at the hands of Ulster but at least the Sharks will head into the break with a win.

That is something to build on, but a lot of building is still necessary.

Scores

Hollywoodbets Sharks 29 - Tries: Vincent Tshituka, Emmanuel Tshituka, Lee-Marvin Mazibuku, Siya Kolisi; Conversions: Jean Smith 3; Penalty: Jean Smith.

Scarlets19 - Tries: Marnus van der Merwe, Blair Murray, Tom Rogers; Conversions: Sam Costelow 2.

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