Sharks fans watched this match with one hand over an eye as their team arm-wrestled to a 12-3 victory over the Scarlets in Durban on Saturday night, as they steered themselves to third place on the United Rugby Championship log.
Leinster beat the Glasgow Warriors 13-5 in the last match of the weekend, which saw the Sharks finish third and avoid the uncomfortable proposition of hosting the Stormers in a quarter-final.
The Sharks will now instead host Munster, while the Stormers have to travel to Glasgow to take on the defending champions at Scotstoun Stadium.
Before the match kicked off, there was a wonderful gesture from Sharks captain Eben Etzebeth in respect of last week’s passing of former Springbok Cornal Hendricks.
Today in honour of Cornal Hendricks 🤍
Our Hollywoodbets Sharks players, in an initiative led by our captain Eben Etzebeth, will have the number 14 on their warm-up jerseys. These jerseys will be signed and sold on Monday. All proceeds from the sale of these jerseys will go to… pic.twitter.com/v4KaLr57Iu
— The Sharks (@SharksRugby) May 17, 2025
Etzebeth had arranged for an image of Hendricks in a Springbok jersey to be placed on the team’s warm-up jerseys, and each player autographed them for auction.
The proceeds are to go to Hendricks’ family.
As it turned out, Etzebeth was voted Player of the Match, and that was fitting considering his gesture towards Hendricks.
The Bok No 4 was colossal for the Sharks as they ground out a victory in which no tries were scored by either side.
There was an expectation among many Sharks supporters that victory over the Scarlets was a matter of course, but this was a Welsh team playing a “final” of sorts.
They went into this game in a precarious eighth position and with plenty at stake.
Just like the Sharks, they wanted to finish as high on the log position as possible in the scramble towards the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals.
It meant an arm-wrestle from the first whistle, and while the Sharks had the better of the admittedly tight opportunities in the first half, they could not score because of clumsy finishing.
The Scarlets also had chances to score, but they were cut short by superb cover tackling by the likes of wings Ethan Hooker and Makazole Mapimpi, and centres Jurenzo Julius and André Esterhuizen.
It was a minute before halftime that the Sharks scored the first points of the match, a penalty by Siya Masuku, but as the hooter sounded, Sam Costelow out of nowhere struck a drop goal to call it 3-3.
It was a brilliant strike by the Wales flyhalf, who overall was one of the better players on the night.
Costelow’s drop kick made it all the more telling when his opposite number Masuku went off injured 12 minutes into the second half and had to be replaced at No 10 by Aphelele Fassi, with Yaw Penxe coming on at fullback.
A message from our Vodacom Man of the match 🎖️@vodacom #URC #SHAvSCA pic.twitter.com/tPASyz0D7C
— The Sharks (@SharksRugby) May 17, 2025
The Sharks had no specialist flyhalf on the bench, and Fassi’s first duty at flyhalf was to strike home a penalty to put the Sharks 6-3 ahead 15 minutes into the second half.
It was coolly done by Fassi, and he emulated the job 15 minutes later as the game hit the 60-minute mark.
The Sharks had been relentlessly beating down on the Scarlets’ defence, and the penalty came their way.
It was more of the same for the Sharks as they worked another penalty for Fassi to show he has goal-kicking prowess.
Points-Scorers
Sharks 12 – Penalties: Siya Masuku (1), Aphelele Fassi (3).
Scarlets 3 – Drop Goal: Sam Costelow (1).
URC Quarter-Finals (All South African Times)
Friday May 30
8.35pm – Glasgow Warriors v Stormers, Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow
Saturday May 31
1.30pm – Bulls v Edinburgh, Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
4pm – Leinster v Scarlets, Aviva Stadium, Dublin
6.30pm – Sharks v Munster, Kings Park, Durban
