Two late, against-the-run-of-play tries — one of them an intercept — spared the Sharks a damaging result at home as they edged defending URC champions Leinster 26-20 in Durban on Saturday night to move top of the log with back-to-back bonus-point wins.
The margin flatters JP Pietersen's side. Leinster finished the match with 65 per cent possession and 70 per cent territory, and only a yellow card to tighthead Thomas Clarkson — the product of a sustained mauling by Thomas du Toit at scrum time — and their own first-half indiscipline, which yielded 10 penalties in the opening half-hour, prevented them from leaving Durban with more than a losing bonus point.
The losing bonus point itself was telling. With the clock inside the final 90 seconds and the game won, the Sharks failed to secure their own ball, conceded a penalty, and allowed Andrew Osborne to score in the opposite corner. It mirrored Leinster's result against the Lions the previous weekend — a young touring side extracting late consolation from a game they had dominated territorially.
Beyond the scoreline, the Sharks' standout performance came up front. Du Toit, operating at loosehead rather than his Springbok tighthead role, systematically dismantled Clarkson through a series of scrum penalties that culminated in the yellow card. It was a continuation of the misery Irish props have become accustomed to against South African front rows, and it was the platform from which the Sharks built what little control they managed.
Elsewhere, the picture was less convincing. Leinster — not their first-choice squad — dictated large portions of the contest through Jacques Nienaber's well-drilled defensive system and their capacity to retain the ball for extended sequences. The Sharks conceded 15 penalties in total to Leinster's 13, reversing the discipline advantage they held early on, and rarely threatened to pull clear on the scoreboard despite having the game's most recognisable individual talent on the park.
The Sharks sit top of the URC log, their unbeaten record intact, but the manner of this win underlines that Pietersen's side is still a work in progress.