Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Sharks bite down on European debut as Harlequins fightback falls short

By PA
(Photo by Steve Haag/Gallo Images)

Harlequins opened their Heineken Champions Cup campaign with a 39-31 defeat by Sharks in a thrilling encounter on their first trip to South Africa.

ADVERTISEMENT

The London side did manage to secure a vital bonus point for scoring four tries, but a late rally saw 14-man Sharks score a fifth try and record two vital bonus points as they took the spoils in Durban.

Sharks lost a player when prop Ox Nche was shown a red card midway through the second half for a head-on collision and Harlequins responded with two tries by centre Andre Esterhuizen.

Wing Josh Bassett crossed for his second try as Quins made it 32-31 before full-back Boeta Chamberlain crossed for the vital try for Sharks in the 79th minute to secure a famous victory.

The Sharks crossed for five tries, with hooker Bongi Mbonambi and winger Makazole Mapimpi crossing for two tries and wing Werner Kok joining full-back Chamberlain on the scoresheet.

Quins opened the scoring with an early try after five minutes by wing Bassett, who signed for the club after the demise of Wasps, was found with a superb long pass by fellow wing Cadan Murley after a lineout close to the home side’s line.

Fly-half Tommaso Allan landed the conversion to give the visitors a 7-0 lead before Sharks replied with a try of their own as international hooker Bongi Mbonambi crashed over from a driving lineout.

ADVERTISEMENT

Curwin Bosch landed the extras to make the scores all level before he converted a penalty to give the home side a 10-7 lead and Sharks then extended their lead with a second try.

South Africa winger Mapimpi, back in Sharks colours, took advantage of some sloppy defending to cross for his first try to make it 17-7 to the home side midway through the first half. Curwin added the extras with his second conversion.

Mapimpi crossed for his second try after a dominant scrum by the Sharks five metres out from the Harlequins line saw him dance and step his way past defenders to cross the whitewash and to make it 22-7.

Quins flanker Will Evans crossed for his side’s second try after the visitors showed impressive control at a driving maul, with Allan converting to make it 22-14 at half-time.

ADVERTISEMENT

After the break, Sharks crossed for a fourth try after wing Kok raced on to his kick-and-chase to score in the corner, securing the bonus point for the home side. Bosch landed the conversion.

Sharks then went down to 13 men, with hooker Mbonambi shown yellow for persistent infringing, and a head-on collision with Jack Walker saw prop Nche shown a red card.

Harlequins took full advantage, with centre Esterhuizen crossing for two tries, along with Bassett grabbing his brace before Chamberlain sealed the win for Sharks.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 1 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 10 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 39 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ The joy, spirit and obstacles of the rugby pilgrim The joy, spirit and obstacles of the rugby pilgrim
Search