Masuku, Mapimpi the Sharks saviours

Siya Masuku plus Makazole Mapimpi equals rugby happiness. 

The duo’s pass and catch clutch moment did not have the significance of the iconic Am x Mapimpi 2019 memory for South Africa’s first try in a World Cup final, but for Sharks supporters the Masuku long pass and Mapimpi cool gather, dive and score, was big in their ambitions for a home United Rugby Championship (URC) quarterfinal.

Mapimpi scored 21 seconds into the 81st minute.

If you missed the match, just go back and watch from 80 minutes and 15 seconds. What transpired in normal time, before the clock went into the red zone, was not easy on the eye if you’re a Sharks supporter.

The Springboks-heavy Sharks run-on XV, with 12 having played Test rugby for South Africa, were turgid as a collective. Individually, Andre Esterhuizen was the exception. He was powerful and largely accurate in his actions.

Not so his teammates, who have far greater rugby pedigree than they produced for the first 80 minutes.

The Biltong Series

Edinburgh, in the Challenge Cup play-offs, had sunk the Lions and Bulls in successive weekends. Edinburgh’s coach and former Sharks coach Sean Everitt labelled Friday night’s Sharks visit as the completion of the “Biltong Series”.

It was no coincidence that Esterhuizen was the one mighty Bok who made the trip to Lyon, and he was the one Bok who looked like he had played a bit of rugby in the past fortnight.

When the clock screamed 80 minutes, Everitt and the host players were winners. Less than 30 seconds later, replacement flyhalf Masuku’s creativity, a pause and a spiralled beauty of a long pass had found Mapimpi, and the veteran left-winger gobbled up the pass and the dive was as instinctive as it was necessary to win the match for the Sharks.

Edinburgh, who trailed 13-10 at half-time, had denied the Sharks a point for 40 second-half minutes, and their battle-hardened efforts of the past three weekends were proving more influential than that of the Sharks superstars, who were wrapped in cotton wool and excused the trip to Lyon for a EPCR last 16 play-off.

It was no coincidence that Esterhuizen was the one mighty Bok who made the trip to Lyon, and he was the one Bok who looked like he had played a bit of rugby in the past fortnight.

Eben Etzebeth, playing his first match for the Sharks in five months, captained the visitors and remarkably played the 81 minutes. Ongoing concussion issues had derailed his season, but his 81 minutes was as big as the Sharks getting the win.

The next few days will be anxious ones for Etzebeth and Sharks coach John Plumtree because if there’s to be a recurrence of any after-match head trauma, it will play out in the early part of the week.

Hopefully, Etzebeth will feel great and give his coach the thumbs up.

Golden kicking boot

The Sharks, with so much individual quality, were poor and, for the second time this season, we saw Jordan Hendrikse’s golden kicking boot lose its splendour.

Hendrikse, whose accuracy pre-Friday night, was 91% in the URC, missed two regulation efforts in the final quarter of the game. However, he has nailed several clutch match-winning kicks in his relatively short career, which is what made the two misses so uncharacteristic. 

The wind is never kind in Edinburgh, especially to visiting goalkickers, and even Masuku — who is averaging in the mid 1990s — failed with his only kick of the match, which was the conversion attempt in the 81st minute.

The Sharks, who surrendered their Challenge Cup title in sending a second-string team to Lyon, have targeted the URC as their primary focus, but on the evidence of their home defeat to Leinster and their late escape against Edinburgh, the Challenge Cup would have been an easier goal.

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus would have been delighted with Etzebeth’s return, Siya Kolisi’s desire to play through and Andre the Giant’s big steps.

But there are many Springboks in the Sharks set-up who need a big next two months if they are to make the July internationals on form.