Sharks scramble to victory over Saracens in precious start to JP Pietersen era

It was not easy on the eye, but Sharks supporters won’t care as their team laboured over the finish line at Kings Park on Saturday evening to beat Saracens 28-23, in the process reviving their ambitions in the Champions Cup.

The match ended with the Sharks fighting for their lives as they defended their line, but a Saracens error gave new head coach JP Pietersen a victory in his first outing.

Before kick-off, Pietersen would have looked to the thunder clouds and wondered what the rugby gods had in store for his team.

It had been tortuously humid in Durban almost all week. Moisture was thick in the air, and by kick-off, at 5.15pm, the skies had had enough and emptied their load on Kings Park.

There was a strong wind, too, so with rain sweeping across the miserable stadium, the ambitions of either side to play an adventurous game were left in the change room.

The Sharks started positively and were rewarded when they twice turned down easy kicks for goal in favour of the corner — from the second lineout maul, the pack drove Siya Kolisi over for a try.

The Springbok captain got up gingerly, perhaps winded, but continued.

The Sharks’ scrum looked as comfortable as their lineout, with tighthead Hanro Jacobs winning an early penalty.

But it was the Englishmen who scored next, with a maul try of their own. It was hooker Theo Dan who scored the try.

And the Londoners went ahead — a grubber through the defence saw outside centre Sam Spink benefit from Aphelele Fassi’s inability to deal with the skidding ball. Spink picked up and scored.

The conditions relegated the contests to small battles, and the Saracens were winning them at that point.

One of them was a scrum penalty won on the Sharks’ put-in on the half-hour mark, and flyhalf Fergus Burke turned it into three points.

The response from the Sharks was to smash their opposition in the next scrum. Again, the Sharks went to the corner, and once more their ambition was rewarded when a series of surges to the tryline resulted in  Whitehead working the ball out wide for Aphelele Fassi to go over unmarked.

Whitehead’s conversion narrowed the Saracens’ lead to 15-14.

That should have been the half-time score, but for silly play by Saracens flank Andy Onyeama. Time was up on the clock when he late tackled Grant Williams. Whitehead kicked an excellent touch-finder, and several phases later, he sent the ball out wide, where Ethan Hooker did exceptionally well to get the ball away in the tackle for Edwill van der Merwe to score in the corner.

Whitehead kicked a brilliant conversion from the touchline to give the Sharks a sudden half-time lead at 21-15.

Sadly, Fassi, who had been growing in confidence in his comeback game from three months of injury, took a heavy and accidental head knock in the 47th minute. That prematurely ended his participation in the game.

No points had been scored in the second half until the 54th minute when Burke kicked a penalty.

The game was on a knife-edge at 21-18, but it changed in favour of the Sharks when hooker Dan slammed into Mapimpi’s head with no attempt to wrap around. He was lucky to go to the bin with a yellow and not a red.

The Sharks cashed in immediately, and spectacularly. Once more, it was Whitehead who saw the space out wide, and he shunted the ball out to Hooker, who broke through a tackle and then released Williams for a dart to the line.

Saracens were not finished and manufactured a try from close quarters when left wing Angus Hall found space to go over on the blindside of a ruck. The conversion was missed to leave the Sharks 28-23 in front.

The match ended with the Sharks defending for their lives, and they did just that to secure a significant win under Pietersen.

Scorers

Sharks — Tries: Siya Kolisi, Edwill van der Merwe, Aphelele Fassi, Grant Williams. Conversions: George Whitehead (4).

Saracens — Tries: Theo Dan, Sam Spink, Angus Hall. Conversion: Fergus Burke, Penalties: Burke (2).