Sharks: The ripping grubber that may have reignited Jaden

They often say in football that even if the expensive striker has looked decidedly unthreatening for the bulk of the game, being in the right place to poke home the game-breaking goal is all that really matters. 

Although he was creator rather than finisher - that role belonged to the potent Aphelele Fassi – Sharks scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse was arguably the critical rescuing figure for the stuttering home franchise at Kings Park on Friday night. 

Hendrikse’s beautifully executed, subtle grubber roughly midway through the second half was the trigger that powered the hosts into constructive action as they earned a highly flattering, but still manna-from-heaven 17-point triumph with a bonus point over tenacious Scarlets in the United Rugby Championship. 

Siya Kolisi and company were trailing 6-13 at the time, with the Welsh outfit frankly looking fitting value for that status. 

The Sharks have ambitious, cash-backed plans to rule the world ... yet for close to an hour that objective looked a million miles away against severely under-strength opponents who also adapted rather more valiantly than some might have anticipated to the Durban humidity. 

It was almost as if they didn’t know which way to turn to find a route to the try-line: a source of frustration considering their rare strength of weaponry in wider channels. 

Which was why Hendrikse’s flash of initiative and artistry was so essential: he retrieved the ball from a breakdown just in the Scarlets’ half and not far from the centre point of the field, first feigning a short pass to the right. 

But then he clutched back the ball and - in a no-look way which importantly flummoxed the visitors’ hitherto stout, always well fanned-out defence - put through the cheekiest of short