Durban — It was like pulling teeth for long periods but the Sharks eventually had too much muscle for the Griffons and inched wearily over the line in this opening-round Currie Cup fixture.
The final score was 32-16 in a steamy Shark Tank and new coach Joey Mongalo will take the bonus-point win and know he has a foundation to work with, given it was always going to take time for his “melting pot” of players to gel.
Mongalo said pre-game that the newly promoted Griffons — they won the first division last year — would have more cohesion than the Sharks and that is how it proved to be in the first half.
This Sharks side was made up of United Rugby Championship fringe players, Under-20s, and even club players, and they had never played a match together so they could not be expected to hit the ground running.
It would have helped though if they had not kicked away so much possession in the first half. The Sharks’ most senior player was flyhalf Lionel Cronje, but the veteran had a shocker. He kicked too often when he should have passed and when the Sharks did score tries, he missed conversion attempts from in front of the posts.
The result was that the Griffons led 13-10 at half time, but two things would count against the visitors in the second half — they were going to tire in the humid conditions that were foreign to them, while the Sharks forwards’ domination had to eventually bear fruit.
And that is what transpired, with four of the Sharks’ five tries resulting from forward drives from close quarters.
Sharks 32 — Tries: Fez Mbatha (2), Murray Koster, Damon Royal, Khuthu Mchunu. Conversions: Bradley Davids (2). Penalty: Davids
Griffons 16 — Tries: Carel-Jan Coetzee. Conversion: Jaywinn Juries. Penalties: Jaywinn Juries (3)
IOL Sport