The Coastal Sharks of South Africa climbed three places to the top of the Super 14 table after an impressive 35-14 win over the ACT Brumbies of Australia on Saturday.
The Durban franchise led 14-7 at the break and a five-try haul earned them only their second bonus point in seven matches.
It was the Sharks’ first home game after a four-week tour of Australasia, where they won three of four outings.
The Sharks have a three-point advantage over the second-placed New South Wales Waratahs of Australia while the Waikato Chiefs of New Zealand lie third and the Northern Bulls of South Africa in fourth place.
With a string of home matches to come, the Sharks are favored to end the league phase in top place and secure a home semi-final. For the Brumbies, who suffered a surprise defeat at the Golden Lions last weekend, it was another disappointing outing that left them 10th, 13 points adrift of the Sharks.
Victorious captain Johann Muller said it was important to maintain the momentum after their successful tour.
“I was especially happy with our second half showing as we put some phases together, built pressure and from that the tries came. It was a good team effort,” he said.
The Sharks dominated the early phases, with Rory Kockott and JP Pietersen missing opportunities to score before Pietersen opened the scoring on 14 minutes with a well-taken try after a turnover deep in Brumbies territory.
Minutes later Christian Leiliafano exploited a gaping hole in the Sharks’ defense to score next to the posts for a converted try to level the scores, but the visitors would only get on to the scoreboard again late in the second half.
In between it was all Sharks, who scored a further four tries.
Fullback Stefan Terblanche ran in the Sharks’ second try seven minutes from half-time after his forwards had won another turnover and straight after the resumption it was the turn of scrum-half Kockott to score.
He converted his try to give the 2007 runners-up a 21-7 lead.
The home side continued to heap pressure on the Australians and on 55 minutes flanker Jacques Botes went over after a quick free kick by Kockott for the bonus point and No. 8 Ryan Kankowski added a fifth try seven minutes from the final whistle.
The Brumbies’ late consolation try came from replacement hooker Salesi Ma’afu and Mark Gerrard converted again.
■HURRICANES V LIONS
AFP, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Early and late try scoring bursts fashioned a 38-32 Super 14 victory for Wellington Hurricanes of New Zealand over Golden Lions of South Africa on Saturday.
Victory in the opening match of their tour lifted Hurricanes three places to fifth, six points behind the pacesetting Sharks, who they face in Durban next weekend.
Although the troubled Lions collected two bonus points for scoring four tries and losing by less than eight points, they remain second last ahead of an Australasia adventure beginning in New Zealand on Saturday.
Hurricanes captain and All Blacks No. 8 Rodney So’oialo attributed the victory in perfect conditions at Ellis Park to fighting spirit, especially during the closing stages.
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