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Second half Sharks attack leaves Edinburgh beaten at home

By PA
(Photo by Mark Scates/SNS Group via Getty Images)

Edinburgh slipped out of the BKT United Rugby Championship playoff places after going down 22-19 to the Sharks – their first defeat of 2023. Grant Williams and Marnus Potgieter scored tries with both converted by Curwin Bosch converting both to put the Sharks 14-0 up after 19 minutes before Edinburgh rallied.

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Adam McBurney scored a pair of tries and Henry Immelman also crossed with Charlie Savala adding two conversions to send the hosts into the break 19-14 ahead. But the South Africans had the better of the second half and Kerron van Vuuren’s try and a penalty from Bosch secured victory.

The visitors took the lead after five minutes when scrum-half Williams picked off a high pass in midfield by Edinburgh stand-off Savala and sprinted in from 40 metres, leaving an easy conversion for Bosch. Edinburgh’s worries deepened after a quarter of an hour when Wes Goosen was shown a yellow card for illegally halting an attack close to his own line.

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The Sharks took advantage of the extra man within minutes, as a simple move down the line from a scrum ended in Potgieter scoring in the right corner. Bosch nailed the conversion from the touchline to put his team 14-0 up. With nearly half an hour played, Edinburgh patiently made their way downfield and after good work by Ben Vellacott and Savala, McBurney finished off after a one-two with Boan Venter. Savala converted.

Five minutes later, a brilliant 50/22 kick from Immelman turned defence into attack and gave the home side a lineout five metres from the Sharks line. McBurney grabbed his second from the maul, and Savala added the extras to level the scores.

They barely stayed that way for a minute. When a Sharks attack broke down, Goosen hacked ahead, Edinburgh seized hold of the ball and Immelman eventually finished off in the corner. Savala’s kick was wide of the mark, but it was still a remarkable turnaround from 14-0 down to 19-14 down at the break.

The Sharks closed the gap to two points with a Bosch penalty a couple of minutes after the restart. Then in the 60th minute, Bosch was just short with another penalty attempt from just inside his own 10-metre line.

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Two minutes later, however, the visitors did regain the lead, with a close-range try by van Vuuren after they had steadily exerted more and more pressure. The conversion was missed, but in the end, and despite some frenzied Edinburgh pressure deep into time added on, that score was enough to give the South Africans the win.

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GrahamVF 2 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

"has SA actually EVER helped to develop another union to maturity like NZ has with Japan," yes - Argentina. You obviously don't know the history of Argentinian rugby. SA were touring there on long development tours in the 1950's

We continued the Junior Bok tours to the Argentine through to the early 70's

My coach at Grey High was Giepie Wentzel who toured Argentine as a fly half. He told me about how every Argentinian rugby club has pictures of Van Heerden and Danie Craven on prominent display. Yes we have developed a nation far more than NZ has done for Japan. And BTW Sa players were playing and coaching in Japan long before the Kiwis arrived. Fourie du Preez and many others were playing there 15 years ago.


"Isaac Van Heerden's reputation as an innovative coach had spread to Argentina, and he was invited to Buenos Aires to help the Pumas prepare for their first visit to South Africa in 1965.[1][2] Despite Argentina faring badly in this tour,[2] it was the start of a long and happy relationship between Van Heerden and the Pumas. Izak van Heerden took leave from his teaching post in Durban, relocated to Argentina, learnt fluent Spanish, and would revolutionise Argentine play in the late 1960s, laying the way open for great players such as Hugo Porta.[1][2] Van Heerden virtually invented the "tight loose" form of play, an area in which the Argentines would come to excel, and which would become a hallmark of their playing style. The Pumas repaid the initial debt, by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park, and emerged as one of the better modern rugby nations, thanks largely to the talents of this Durban schoolmaster.[1]"


After the promise made by Junior Springbok manager JF Louw at the end of a 12-game tour to Argentina in 1959 – ‘I will do everything to ensure we invite you to tour our country’ – there were concerns about the strength of Argentinian rugby. South African Rugby Board president Danie Craven sent coach Izak van Heerden to help the Pumas prepare and they repaid the favour by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park.

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