Following an 18-17 victory for the Sharks against Edinburgh in the United Rugby Championship (URC), here are our five takeaways from Friday’s clash at Hive Stadium.
The top line
The Sharks will be mightily relieved to escape Edinburgh with four points as a last-ditch Makazole Mapimpi score saw them snatch a crucial victory despite being second best.
John Plumtree’s outfit had been behind since the 11th minute and Edinburgh were inches away from sealing a maximum before the visitors launched one last foray downfield.
Earlier, Edinburgh had scored tries through James Lang, Jamie Ritchie and Ewan Ashman while Ross Thompson could only convert one of those, the latter from the hooker.
The Sharks hung on in there and somehow remained within touching distance thanks to Aphelele Fassi’s try on 41 minutes before Mapimpi sealed a dramatic away success.
Jamie Ritchie shines once again
The Scotland international just keeps on putting in high quality performance after high quality performance for both club and country and this tonight was of the same ilk.
Ritchie was everywhere for his team and it is the all-court game that most impresses us as he mixed the dark arts and breakdown work with attacking link play further wide.
He got his reward when scoring in the 28th minute after a perfect one-two with Matt Currie and seemed to relish facing this Bok-heavy pack in front of him. Lions worthy?
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Andre the giant
A hulking performance from the inside centre as defensively he was excellent, using his considerable size to halt Edinburgh or at worst limit their gainline success in attack.
He pounced for two breakdown penalties in the opening half before in the second he was a brick wall as three Edinburgh players attempted and failed to make the try-line.
In a match when few Sharks covered themselves in glory, especially with ball in hand, Player of the Match Esterhuizen really stood up and was counted in a massive win.
Captain’s example
Eben Etzebeth simply must do better in terms of his discipline as a skipper as his yellow card early in the second half for a scuffle with Sam Skinner was unnecessary.
The whistle had blown when he threw his weight into the Scotland lock and thus followed pushing and shoving that ultimately saw Etzebeth pull Skinner to the ground.
The melee followed of course before the pair were yellow carded but during their walk to the touchline it looked very much as though things could boil over once more.
Etzebeth has to separate this negative part of his game from the physical aspects he brings and also set a better example, as his team-mates were similarly guilty of this.
Unfortunate Edinburgh
Edinburgh will be wondering how they did not win this game as they were the better side for the majority of a pulsating contest and can take plenty from this URC defeat.
That will no doubt mean little to Sean Everitt’s outfit but the shoots are there for a positive run-in, this despite them missing several players due to injury at the moment.
They bested a team that had 12 Springboks in their starting line-up in all but the final scoreboard as a slick attacking game and stoic defence were on show throughout.
Edinburgh have Zebre away next and simply must bounce back with a win and if they do their top eight hopes will be back on track before their Challenge Cup semi.
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/edinburgh-v-sharks-five-takeaways-as-makazole-mapimpi-snatches-unlikely-victory-while-jamie-ritchie-sends-another-lions-message
