Curwin Bosch, Sikhumbuzo Notshe star as Sharks beat WP at Kings Park

Durban – The Sharks dug deep in sauna-like conditions at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Wednesday night to engineer a 35-20, bonus-point win over Western Province and remain unbeaten in the Currie Cup.

It used to be only mad dogs and Englishmen who went out in the Durban heat but here were more than 30 young men struggling stoically to make a decent fist of a game of rugby in early February.

For those not living in KZN, it was dangerously hot in Durban and torrents of sweat made the ball as slippery as soap and any hopes of a memorable spectacle were doomed.

Still, the Sharks scored four good tries and Province two good efforts of their own, and there was much significance in the fact that Curwin Bosch had a much-improved game, plus former Springbok No8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe had a strong comeback from a long injury layoff.

Much of the pre-game talk was around the return of Bosch, who has been suffering from a crisis of confidence, and missing an easy shot at goal after just three minutes would not have helped his belief, while five minutes later his opposite number, Tim Swiel, made no mistake from a similar position.

Bosch was well supported, though, by his scrumhalf Cameron Wright, who had an exceptional all-round game.

As the match hit the 20-minute mark, there was visible relief on the face of Bosch when he booted one over from in front to level the scores, and then there was the curious sight of the normally accurate Swiel missing a shot in front.

Sharks fullback Inny Radebe, after a nervous start, finished off a try in the 25th minute to mark his return from the rugby wilderness and five minutes later a strong try-saving tackle by Yaw Penxe saw a reflex reaction from referee Griffin Colby, who harshly yellow-carded the