Not a happy homecoming as Ulster edge out Sharks in Durban

The jubilation of the Ulster players told the story of the magnitude of their triumph as they overcame a marquee laden but disjointed Hollywoodbets Sharks team 34-26 in Durban to record only their third Vodacom United Rugby Championship win on the road in the past year.

What made the Ulster win so impressive was that it was achieved against a Sharks team that had their star Springboks, with the exception of the still injured Aphelele Fassi, back in tow.

By contrast with the Sharks, Ulster didn’t have nearly as many international or decorated star players.

They were though the far more organised team in the first half an hour, which was effectively when they won the match, and there’s good reason for that - they have played together over three rounds and had a proper pre-season together.

A strong showing from @UlsterRugby 🔴⚪

Great skill and collective effort on display from the men in white and red 🙌

📺 Watch every VURC match live on SuperSport 🏉@Vodacom #URC | #SHAvULS pic.twitter.com/O3PAghYq31

— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) October 18, 2025

The Sharks by contrast might have actually paid for having too many Boks - certainly in terms of them all returning at once for while they may have seen each other at the Boks they came into this game without any pre-season.

The same thing happened to the Vodacom Bulls against exactly these same opponents in Belfast last week - Johan Ackermann also had several star current Boks back in his team and they lost 28-7 on a night where the Bulls just didn’t gel as a team.

LOOKED LIKE A TEAM THAT HASN’T PLAYED TOGETHER

It was a similar story at Hollywoodbets Kings Park, with the Sharks looking like what they were in an opening quarter where they conceded 17 points - a team that hasn’t played together since June, when they lost the 2024/2025 semifinal to the Bulls in Pretoria.

The Sharks dominated the scrums, and let it be said that referee Ben Whitehouse should have shown Ulster a yellow card far sooner than he did and should also have followed up with a second when, a minute after the first, Ulster produced the cynical infringement that saw the referee award the Sharks a penalty try.

By then the Sharks had been down to 13 men themselves due to two poor disciplinary indiscretions that saw first Vincent Koch yellow carded and then minutes later Makazole Mapimpi.

Both were for taking an opposition player through the horizontal in the tackle, but Koch’s was mitigated by him putting the Ulster player down gently once he knew what he was doing.

So his card stayed yellow, but Mapimpi’s was upgraded to a red, which meant the Sharks were down to 14 men until there were just four minutes left.

The Sharks had been coming back into the game when the cards were shown so it was costly, and that was why it was a bit of a horror show evening for them.

FOURTH ULSTER TRY WAS CONTROVERSIAL DECISION

Indeed, there was more, for it was hard to fathom how Whitehouse stuck with his onfield decision when the replay clearly showed Ulster prop Callum Reid appearing to ground the ball short of the line for Ulster’s fourth try.

But that the Sharks were in position to concede that try in the first place summed up their night, for there was a pattern that was repeated throughout the game of the Sharks scoring points and then giving it away with soft moments and conceding points in return.

This time it was a penalty conceded at the restart, with the Ulster lead having been cut to eight points due to the penalty try, that set Ulster up in the attacking position from which they launched the attack that netted the try that took their lead back to 15 points.

Andre Esterhuizen did score a good try off a tap penalty with eight minutes to go to cut the deficit back to eight, but the Sharks’ attacking game just wasn’t synched enough for them to come back and win the game.

ERRORS AND LACK OF ATTACKING SHAPE

While Ulster were efficient and clinical even though they were smashed in the scrums, and at one stage were conceding a penalty every time a scrum was set, the Sharks were error-ridden, which was symptomatic of a team that had not played together and which was only fully reintroduced to each other on Wednesday of this week.

There were also though symptoms of one of last year’s problems, which was lack of attacking shape, and it is difficult to equate the Siya Masuku we saw in this game with the one that lined up so close to the gainline and was such a revelation when he first replaced Curwin Bosch two years ago.

The Sharks simply played way too much behind the gain line, and given their advantage at forward, should really have made the decision to just keep the ball under a forward blanket and not try to engage the backs too often given the damp conditions and also the fact that there wasn’t much synching happening at the back.

That said, the Sharks made a noose for themselves when they conceded a try to fullback Mike Lowry after just five minutes before Ulster added a penalty from Nathan Doak and then an excellent try from their slippery former Sharks wing Werner Kok to make it 17-0 to the visitors.

That meant the Durban team had to play catch-up for two thirds of the game and instead of the calmness you might have expected from a team so loaded with stars they were frenetic and made mistakes.

The Sharks were awarded 17 penalties against seven and really should have got more out of the game than the bonus point they netted for scoring four tries.

They head into next Saturday’s fifth round game against Scarlets still looking for their first win in the competition.

SCORES

Ulster 34 - Tries: Mike Lowry, Werner Kok, Tom Stewart and Callum Reid; Conversions: Nathan Doak 4; Penalties: Nathan Doak 2.

Hollywoodbets Sharks 26 - Tries: Siya Kolisi, Makazole Mapimpi and Andre Esterhuizen; Penalty try; Conversions: Siya Masuku and Jordan Hendrikse.