Marius Louw and Jeremy Ward both scored a brace of tries as the Sharks secured a bonus-point 40-22 win over Griquas in Kimberley on Friday. CRAIG LEWIS reports.
While this wasn’t a vintage performance from the Sharks, they did more than enough to claim an eighth successive win of the season and take another significant step towards securing top spot on the Currie Cup standings.
Coming into this clash, the Sharks already enjoyed a nine-point advantage at the top of the standings, while they now head into remaining round-robin games against the Blue Bulls, Golden Lions and Western Province in a position of real ascendancy.
This clash started at a frantic pace when Griquas centre Kyle Steyn and Louw traded tries early on, but the contest degenerated into a scrappy, error-riddled affair for the remainder of the half.
It took until the 26th minute before the Sharks finally strung an accurate sequence of play together as Ward finished off a well-worked try, while prop Ross Geldenhuys dotted down just before the break to ensure the visitors could take a handy 19-7 lead into half-time.
Considering that the Sharks had enjoyed as much as 80% of territory and 67% of possession in the opening half, they were always likely to continue wearing Griquas down in the second stanza, and so it proved to be.
Louw wrapped up his double soon after the restart, while stalwart Keegan Daniel went over for the Sharks’ fifth try just before the hour mark as the visitors powered into an unassailable 33-10 lead.
Although Enver Brandt and Wilmar Arnoldi would score late tries for Griquas, the Sharks had the final say when Ward claimed his second try with the final play of the game.
Sharks – Tries: Marius Louw (2), Jeremy Ward (2), Ross Geldenhuys, Keegan Daniel. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (5).
Griquas – Tries: Kyle Steyn, Enver Brandt, Wilmar Arnoldi. Conversions: George Whitehead (2). Penalty: Whitehead.
Sharks – 15 Garth April, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Jeremy Ward, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Sibusiso Nkosi, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Tera Mtembu, 7 Tyler Paul, 6 Keegan Daniel, 5 Ruan Botha (c), 4 Jean Droste, 3 Ross Geldenhuys, 2 Franco Marais, 1 Juan Schoeman.
Subs: 16 Akker van der Merwe, 17 Thomas du Toit, 18 Hyron Andrews, 19 Wian Vosloo, 20 Michael Claassens, 21 Tristan Blewett, 22 Inny Radebe.
Griquas – 15 AJ Coertzen (c), 14 Ederies Arendse, 13 Kyle Steyn, 12 Johnathan Francke, 11 Enver Brandt, 10 George Whitehead, 9 Renier Botha, 8 DeWet Kruger, 7 Sias Koen, 6 Wendal Wehr, 5 Pieter Janse van Vuren, 4 Jonathan Adendorf, 3 Stephan Kotze, 2 AJ le Roux, 1 Nicolaas Oosthuizen.
Subs: 16 Wilmar Arnoldi, 17 Liam Hendricks, 18 Sintu Manjezi, 19 Shaun McDonald, 20 Tiaan Dorfling, 21 André Swarts, 22 Eric Zana.
Photo: Louis Botha/Gallo Images
