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Late Makazole Mapimpi try earns the Sharks win away to Edinburgh
By PA
Makazole Mapimpi scored a try in the closing seconds to earn the Sharks an 18-17 United Rugby Championship win away to Edinburgh.
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Sean Everitt’s side looked on course for a fourth successive home win only to be stunned right at the death by their South African visitors.
The result improves the Sharks’ prospects of securing home advantage in the play-offs, while Edinburgh remain in eighth ahead of the weekend fixtures.
The home side were forced into a late reshuffle when Wes Goosen, previously ever-present this season, withdrew with a back injury. Mosese Tuipulotu came into the starting line-up, with Jack Brown taking his place among the replacements.
The Sharks, with 12 Springboks internationals in their starting line-up, got on the board first when Emile van Heerden won the turnover and Jordan Hendrikse knocked over the penalty from just inside the Edinburgh half.
The fly-half then tried again from the tee from even further out after Edinburgh had been pinged for coming in at the side but this time his effort was short and wide.
It was the home side, though, who landed the opening try with a spectacular move started by a Jamie Ritchie offload.
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The ball went wide through hands before arriving at James Lang who finished with a flourish in the corner.
Edinburgh were in the ascendancy at this point and only a tap tackle from Lukhanyo Am denied Ross McCann a score down the opposite wing.
The home team, though, continued to press for another opening and got their reward midway through the opening period.
Ritchie was the scorer, rounding off another flowing move started by Ross Thompson and crossing the line after swapping passes with Matt Currie.
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Edinburgh were looking in control as half-time approached but another Jordan Hendrikse penalty kept the Sharks within touching distance.
The visitors then moved into the lead with their first try just two minutes into the second half. Am was the creator, throwing a dummy before bursting through a gap and teeing up Aphelele Fassi to score. Jordan Hendrikse made the extras.
Am was then one of three players to be shown a yellow card in quick succession, with Eben Etzebeth and Sam Skinner also sent to the sin bin for sparking a brawl.
Edinburgh took full advantage of the resulting penalty, with Ali Price finding Ewan Ashman who dived over from close range.
Jordan Hendrikse then missed two makeable penalties to leave Edinburgh with a four-point lead heading into the last 20 minutes.
The home side then thought they had landed their fourth try only for some brilliant defence from Siya Kolisi to deny Magnus Bradbury who was held up.
That proved costly when Siya Masuku fed a pass wide for Mapimpi to score in the corner with the clock in the red.
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Jake White described this as the strongest Sharks lineup ever. There is no doubt that it is at least an impressive roster. They did win, which is obviously an achievement against a good Edinburgh side. However …
For much of the first half Edinburgh seemed easily able to create 2 on 1 opportunities on both wings, with the defensive wingers biting in on the inside runner and cover defence being AWOL. Conversely the Sharks showed little ability to get behind the Edinburgh defensive line, with the sole exception of a nicely-exploited Am mismatch against a second row (which led to the Fassi try).
In general the Sharks, with their full complement of Bok firepower, do not look that dangerous in attack, and while tackling was good on the whole and goal line defence was impressive at times, they were exhibiting surprising breakdowns in open play defensive structures.
Also, the Sharks continue to be inaccurate, with material impact on the scoreboard. Missing two very kickable penalties is not the way to be the best. It looked to me like the Sharks contestable kicks were not well enough executed, and were too hard to recover.
Not sure what the running attack was trying to do, but my guess is that they were trying to pull off a Harlequins-style bash-and-offload game off of 12 (Esterhuizen). That’s not a terrible idea with the personnel available, but it would require creativity and a precision on second phase that was not in evidence.
Lastly, you have to have better discipline. It’s great that the team can cope with a 13 vs 14 period (of almost 10 minutes), but smart teams a avoid cards.
Having said that it was great to see the win. I thought that Edinburgh were cynical and niggly. Always hanging around on the wrong side of the breakdown, lots of intentional obstruction, illegal dummying at the base of the ruck, etc. They played a dirty game and the ref tolerated it. Always good to see that not succeed.
Overall the “best Sharks lineup ever” scraped the win, but under-performed their Bok-laden potential. Again.
I watched the Saders Blues game and then the Edinburgh Sharks game in quick succession. They were both thrillers decided in the last seconds of the game and interestingly a scrum was what put both winners into the pound seats. Eben Etzebeth played all 80 minutes as dis Siya Kolisi. The Blues scrum was woeful. Edinburgh and the Sharks were much more evenly matched but I thought Crusaders could have done more with ball from a very dominant pack. The backline didn’t seem to be firing consistently. Sparks of promise that failed to really ignite.