Following a victory for the Sharks over Munster in a rare penalty shootout, here are our five takeaways from the United Rugby Championship quarter-final at Kings Park Stadium on Saturday.
The top line
There will be an all-South African semi-final in the URC after the Sharks overcame Munster 6-4 in a penalty shootout after the game ended 24-24.
In a match that the Sharks pretty much controlled from start to finish, a combination of the hosts’ profligacy and the visitors’ sheer bloody-mindedness meant this epic clash needed a place-kicking competition to determine the winner.
The hosts’ forwards dominated most facets of the contest and had particular ascendency in the scrum as they continually set up attacking opportunities in the opposition 22, but they remained scoreless in the first half.
Munster, by contrast, took their only try-scoring chance in the opening period as Diarmuid Kilgallen’s brilliant break ended in Calvin Nash touching down for a 7-0 advantage at the interval. That was wiped out minutes into the second half, however, as Ethan Hooker crossed the whitewash in superb fashion.
Jaden Hendrikse’s penalty then took the South Africans ahead, but they should have been further in front. With 25 minutes remaining, the Irishmen were still in the game and their belief grew as a fine move eventually resulted in Josh Wycherley crossing the whitewash. The clinical nature of Munster’s attack was in stark contrast to their opponents and the visitors’ next foray into the Sharks’ half saw Kilgallen score.
It left John Plumtree’s men 21-10 behind with 15 minutes remaining, but they would mount an excellent response. Finally, their pressure yielded some points as the away side began to wilt with quick-fire tries via Aphelele Fassi and Fezokuhle Mbatha put them ahead.
Munster would not go away, though, and Conor Murray’s three-pointer took the match into extra time. No score would separate them in the 20 added minutes and, as a result, a penalty shootout would determine the semi-finalists. The Sharks were the ones who kept their composure, kicking all six of their efforts as Rory Scannell’s miss proved decisive in a heartbreaking loss for the gallant Irish province.
The scrum
It has not been a weapon for the Sharks for a lot of this season but Ox Nche and co. stepped up in this quarter-final encounter. While their team-mates, by and large, failed to take advantage of the platform offered, the front-row did all they could to put them in a winning position.
Nche was absolutely magnificent in the set-piece and he was ably support for almost an hour by Bongi Mbonambi and Vincent Koch before Ntuthuko Mchunu, Mbatha and Hanro Jacobs took over to absolutely pummel the Munster set-piece.
Mchunu was arguably even more destructive than the starting loosehead, while the talented prop also made a number of dents with his work in the loose. They always say no scrum, no win and that proved the case here, but only just.
Sharks’ issue all season
Everything should really be in place for the Durban outfit to be a title-winning side, and they do remain in the hunt, but they need a vast improvement in attack. The Sharks are stacked with Springboks throughout the squad, the fundamentals are strong and they have international half-backs who should know how to control the game, but you still need to offer a threat.
It helps having a bunch of big blokes in your side but, when they are running into brick walls time and time again, that will, more often than not, not result in tries. Munster spent much of the game on the back foot with the hosts controlling possession and territory through their set-piece and sheer power at close quarters but, when it came to actually creating anything of note, they lacked ideas.
The problem is not new for the Sharks, whose attacking issues have been a feature of the campaign, but if they are to beat the Bulls, they simply have to find a cutting edge. While they improved in the second period, most of their good moments came through individual brilliance rather than well thought out attack.
It must be infuriating for the supporters, as well as slightly embarrassing for the Sharks players and coaches themselves, that they cannot seem to find the answer with ball in hand.
Resisting unrelenting pressure
While we have criticised the Sharks’ attack, you have to give credit to the Munstermen, who were bettered in the scrum and had to continually scythe down some monstrous humans for 100 minutes but managed to stay in the contest – and almost win it.
They endured a terrible first part of the season but since the start of 2025 they have summoned the spirit of old and have had some memorable moments, including that remarkable Champions Cup victory over La Rochelle. This performance, against a side as stacked as the Sharks, was just as resilient, even if the result was not the same.
The defence was remarkable, with their front five putting in a tremendous shift, while the back-row were unrelenting in their work at the breakdown. It was a heroic effort from the whole 23 despite the loss.
Penalties and classless Sharks
It is a very rare occurrence in a rugby match but the last two times this has happened Munster have been involved, and once again they suffered penalty agony as their opponents managed to kick all their attempts to reach the next round.
Ironically, that match between the Irish side and Toulouse in 2022 also ended in a 24-24 draw as history really did repeat itself for the province. It is a brutal way to decide any match and unfortunately for the visitors they were on the wrong side of it. The Sharks’ kickers – the Hendrikse brothers, Jaden and Jordan, and Bradley Davids – were unerring in their accuracy, with Scannell’s first effort the only miss of the shootout.
When the final kick went over, they quite rightly celebrated wildly, but the antics before that from the Sharks were utterly classless as the players and coaches did all they could to put off the Munster kickers. It was a football-style response during a football-style scenario but, while there’s always a place in sport for gamesmanship, that was poor form from the South African outfit. Karma tends to come back to bite in such situations.
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/sharks-v-munster-five-takeaways-as-south-african-outfit-claim-brutal-penalty-shootout-win-with-history-repeating-itself-for-gallant-irish-side
