Mike Greenaway
The Sharks have engineered some heroic victories over the Bulls over the years but this 20-17 win ranks right up at the top because they had little right to victory given how underpowered they were up front.
From a Bulls point of view, they are increasingly becoming an over-rated bunch of flops.
When it became apparent late in the week that the Sharks would field an emasculated pack, the result of this United Rugby Championship match in Durban on Saturday, should have been guaranteed. Surely no amount of Sharks bravery could overcome the raw muscle of the Bulls set piece but the Sharks did not get the memo.
They delivered a performance of incredible bravery, and the result suggests once more that the Bulls are not as good as they think.
How could they not put away a Sharks team underpowered by a second-string pack?
In his worst dreams, John Plumtree could not have been terrorised by a more difficult week of preparation as a pack already debilitated by injuries to Eben Etzebeth, Bongi Mbonambi, Vincent Tshituka, and James Venter was further weakened by illness and drama involving talisman captain Siya Kolisi.
The squad returned from Leicester with flu in the ranks and that meant Dylan Richardson and Emile van Heerden were late withdrawals but the big omission was Kolisi.
He started the week picked at No 8 and finished as a defector back to the Stormers. This should be especially strange to Sharks supporters because it was the Durban team that bailed him out of his unhappy contract with Racing 92 in Paris only for him to bail after a handful of games.
The injury and sickness list meant the Sharks fielded a pack of players that are normally on the bench and the knock-on effect was a bench that was seriously inexperienced compared to the hard-nosed campaigners amongst the Bulls’ replacements.
Nevertheless, it was the Sharks who took the early lead, a Jordan Hendrikse penalty after ten minutes.
After 20 minutes, the Sharks lost hooker Ethan Bester and that brought on a Westville Boys High old boy Bryce Calvert for his debut at the top level. The way this 21-year-old stood up to Springbok opposition showed that he is a star of the future.
The Sharks refused to believe they were out-gunned and after a strong surge toward the line by Manu Tshituka, Jaden Hendrikse darted over for a try under the crossbar and the Sharks were 10-0 up, against many predictions.
The Bulls rallied when a penalty was kicked to the corner, and excellent phase play ensued from the line-out, with Cobus Wiese crashing over for a seven-pointer that would have settled them down.
It did, and soon after further well-crafted phase play from a set piece propelled centre Harold Vorster over and the Bulls were in the lead at 14-10 after half an hour. That would be the half-time score.
The Bulls’ growing set piece pressure resulted in a scrum penalty for Goosen to boot over for the first points of the second half and it seemed that they would stretch away with the game but a bizarre episode resulted in a penalty try for the Sharks to draw level at 17-17.
A Hendrikse kick from deep was chased down by another Westville Old Boy, Ethan Hooker, and after he and Bulls wing Sebastian de Klerk had jousted for possession in the in-goal area, De Klerk was ruled to have prevented Hooker from scoring.
The Sharks should have taken the lead with 15 minutes to go when Hendrikse missed a sitter, by his standards but he fixed it a minute later when the Sharks won a rare scrum penalty.
Could the Sharks hold on to their 20-17 lead with ten minutes to go?
They certainly could and it was an admission of defeat from the Bulls when they chose to go for goal and not the corner for a succession of penalties. The white flag had gone up. Whenever does this happen? And Goosen missed the kicks to give the Sharks a famous win.
Scorers
Sharks (10) 20
Tries: Jaden Hendrikse, Penalty tries; Conversions: Jordan Hendrikse; Penalties: Jordan Hendrikse (2)
Bulls (14) 17
Tries: Cobus Wiese, Harold Vorster; Conversions: Johan Goosen (2); Penalty: Goosen.