Sharks remain unbeaten in Currie Cup after hard fought win over the Lions

Durban — The Sharks had to sweat in the end to dispose of a plucky Lions team 45-31 at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday evening to maintain their unbeaten status in the Currie Cup, and send out a warning that they are going to take some beating if they can sort out their discipline.

The Sharks should have comfortably cruised home in the second half but they gave away a flurry of yellow cards to bring the Lions back into the game.

With another Sharks squad in Italy to prepare for a URC match against Benetton next Saturday, this Sharks team nevertheless was resplendent with players with URC experience which confirms just how much quality depth is building at the Shark Tank, and they were up against a winless Lions team of mostly youngsters just out of the Under-21 ranks

But it was the Lions that opened the scoring, and in quite sensational fashion too when right wing Boldwin Hansen followed up a touch finder and held onto a favourable bounce, and he had a clear 50m run to the posts.

The Sharks immediately struck back when the Lions could not clear from the restart and the ball was worked out to Marnus Potgieter and the right wing finished neatly.

It took 20 minutes before the Sharks scored again, a dart around the blind side of a scrum by Cameron Wright after a tighthead had been won. Wright fully deserved the score after having got his team deep into the Lions’ 22 thanks to a fine box kick.

And on the half-hour mark, in spite of the Sharks’ heavy domination upfront, Chamberlain kicked a penalty from in front and then on the stroke of half-time he stroked home a monster from inside his half to give the Sharks a comfortable 20-7 lead.

While the Lions would have been pleased to be more or less still in the game, there was a