THE Cell C Sharks gained their first win of the United Rugby Championship (URC) on Friday night (Oct 8) as they beat Ospreys 27-13 in Swansea.
It was level at half time at 6-6 but the Sharks pulled away in the second half with two tries.
The Ospreys scored a late try but too many mistakes allowed the Sharks to kick at goal and they saw the game out for a great win.
Alun Wyn Jones made his return for the Opsreys but it was Gareth Anscombe who opened the scoring with a penalty as he continued his 100% kicking record in the URC.
With eleven minutes gone the Sharks opted to kick at goal from just inside the Ospreys’ half but Ruan Pienaar sent the ball wide of the posts.
After a brief visit to the TMO for some handbags following a late tackle, which the Sharks were penalised for, the Ospreys kicked to touch. From that the Sharks were penalised again for being offside and this time the Ospreys were within kicking distance.
Anscombe made no mistake again, for his thirteenth successful kick in the URC, to give the home side a 6-0 lead.
The Sharks then got their first points with a drop goal from Boeta Chamberlain. He then got a second five minutes later as a drop out from behind the posts fell to him and he had time to shape for the drop goal.
That levelled the game at 6-6 and the Sharks could have gone ahead moments later after the Ospreys were penalised at the scrum. This time though, Chamberlain couldn’t find his range and the score stayed level.
It remained level at half time but the second half was barely two minutes old when Chamberlain’s kick ahead was gathered well by Hyron Andrews who offloaded for Jeremy Ward who finished well.
Ruan Pienaar made no mistake with the conversion for a 6-13 scoreline.
The sides battled away with a mini kicking game but after an Ospreys knock-on, the ball was worked wide to the right for Marnus Potgieter who ran in for the Sharks’ second try of the game. Pienaar missed the conversion but the Sharks held an 18-6 lead with twenty minutes left to play.
From the restart the ball was kicked ahead into the Sharks’ try zone and Ospreys touched down for another drop out.
However, Anscombe’s restart fell to the hands of Chamberlain again who made it a hat trick of drop goals to increase the Sharks lead to fifteen points.
It meant that the Ospreys would need three scores in the remaining 18 minutes to get their third win in a row.
Pienaar added a penalty before the Ospreys finally got their first try of the game through Gareth Thomas and Stephen Myler added the extras to make it 13-24.
They would still need at least two scores in the remaining five minutes but an offside just a minute after the restart saw Pienaar add another penalty to all but end any hopes of a comeback.
The Sharks saw the game out and they celebrated a first win in the United Rugby Championship.
