URC weekend wrap: Sharks fly flag for SA

The Sharks were the only South African team to emerge from a tough weekend of away fixtures in the United Rugby Championship (URC) with a win, after edging Edinburgh 22-19 in a thriller in Scotland on Saturday evening.

The Bulls were disappointingly downed 37-28 by Scarlets in Wales and the Stormers were outgunned 35-5 by Ulster in Ireland on Friday night, while the Lions were outplayed in a high scoring game, 43-24 by Connacht in Ireland.

ALSO READ: Lions crushed by Connacht in URC match in Galway

In a tight encounter at the DAM Heath Stadium the Sharks trailed 19-14 at halftime, before an amazing exhibition of defensive work saw the visitors keep Edinburgh scoreless in the second half, while picking up the eight points they needed to secure a three point win.

It was actually a fast start to the game for the Sharks as tries from scrumhalf Grant Williams and wing Marnus Potgieter, converted by flyhalf Curwin Bosch, gave them a 14-0 lead within the first 20 minutes.

Edinburgh then showed their class to hit back with three unanswered tries over the rest of the half, two to hooker Adam McBurney and one to fullback Henry Immelman, giving them a five point lead at the break.

A 42^nd minute Bosch penalty and an unconverted try to hooker Kerron van Vuuren then saw the Sharks retake the lead in the 61^st minute, with them then producing a stirring defensive effort over the final quarter to seal a good away win.

The Bulls were the most disappointing of SA’s losing sides over the weekend as they fell to a comfortable defeat against a team they should have beaten, as they were missing a number of their key players.

They did take an early 7-3 lead in the game after some smart work from scrumhalf Zak Burger, but went into halftime trailing 27-14 after Scarlets came storming back.

A 54^th minute try to flank Cyle Brink and 61^st minute score to Simphiwe Matanzima, both converted by flyhalf Chris Smith, gave the Bulls hope of stealing a come from behind win as they reduced the deficit to 30-28, but the hosts then calmly saw out the game with a late converted try.

Decimated by injury

For the Stormers, their makeshift side which were already underdogs, were decimated by injury which led to their big loss against Ulster.

Before the game started they had to make two late changes as experienced fullback Clayton Blommetjies and loose forward Junior Pokomela were ruled out, while star eighthman Evan Roos and flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis both suffered first half injuries.

This led to a disjointed performance as Ulster ran in five converted tries, while the Stormers could only respond with a late score to replacement Andre-Hugo Venter.

The Lions put in a poor performance as they were demolished by a fired up Connacht in their URC clash.

Connacht were in charge from start to finish, leading 29-17 at halftime before pulling away to a win that could have been bigger if they hadn’t made so many handling errors in the second half.

The Lions managed to score three converted tries through prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye and centres Henco van Wyk and Marius Louw, while flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse added a penalty, but it did not mask a poor performance that saw them thoroughly outplayed.

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