Sharks stunned by Brumbies
The Brumbies snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a stunning 27-21 victory over the Sharks at Bruce Stadium.
Last Updated: 19/04/08 1:55pm
The Brumbies snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and kept their Super 14 play-off hopes alive with a stunning 27-21 victory over the Sharks.
Brumbies centre Adam Ashley-Cooper helped himself to two tries as the Sharks relinquished a 18-7 half-time lead to lose their proud unbeaten start to the Super 14 campaign.
The opening exchanges were often patchy and error-ridden, a sign of how important this game was to both sides.
The Sharks, having seen the Crusaders beaten on Friday, knew they had a chance to close the gap at the top of the table, whilst the Brumbies had to win to maintain any realistic hope of making the play-offs.
Once the nerves had settled it was the Sharks who took control of the game, by far the better side with the ball in hand and with Francois Steyn's calming boot as a back-up plan.
It was Steyn's drop goal, coupled with Rory Kockott's earlier penalty that eased the visitors into a deserved 6-0 lead.
Flowing play
The Sharks continued to show greater adventure and their ability to offload the ball in contact caused the Brumbies endless problems in the first half.
In fact the game's opening try, scored by Ryan Kankowski, came from one such flowing passage of play.
Playing with an advantage for an offside the Sharks inter-play sent them deep into the Brumbies' 22. It was Bismarck du Plessis who took the attack to within inches of the try-line before Kankowski arrived at pace to finish off a fine move.
Kockott's kick took the score out to 13-0 as the visitors threatened to run riot.
However, just minutes later Steyn gifted the Brumbies a route back into the game as his blind pass was intercepted by opposing No.13 Ashley-Cooper who raced away under the posts.
Mark Gerrard slotted the extras to make it 13-7, and with half-time approaching the Sharks were in danger of not capitalising on their early dominance.
Made amends
As can often be the case, though,the Brumbies were most vulnerable from the re-start, and when Patrick Phibbs fumbled the kick the Sharks sensed one last chance before the break.
Having moved it wide, with no luck, the ball came back to Kankowski standing at centre and the rangy No.8 burst through the first tackle before gifting Steyn the opportunity to make amends for his earlier blunder.
The Sharks were dealt a decisive blow eight minutes into the second-half as Kankowski was sent to the sin-bin for persistent infringements.
Spurred on by their one-man advantage the hosts roared back into the game. No sooner had Kankowski sat himself in the sin-bin than his opposite number, Julian Salvi, had crashed over in the corner. Gerrard's conversion made the score 18-14 and all of a sudden the Sharks looked vulnerable.
It was Gerrard's brace of penalties that then gave the Brumbies the lead, the second of which came as a result of Steyn's sin-binning for hands on the floor.
Cruised over
Again referee Bryce Lawrence lost patience with the Sharks, who infringed regularly, and Steyn had to watch his side let the game slip away.
Once in the lead the Brumbies turned the screw and the Sharks had no answer.
Christian Lealiifano stretched the Sharks from one side of the pitch to the other, and finally the pressure told as Ashley-Cooper cruised over for his second try of the night.
Gerrard, who had a fine night with the boot, put the extras over and the game was as good as over at 27-18.
Ruan Pienaar struck over a late penalty to earn the Sharks a losing bonus point.
