Scrumhalf Rory Kockott was the toast of Durban after he kicked a last-minute penalty to give the Sharks a nailbiting 28-25 (halftime 11-19) victory over Vodacom Western Province in their opening Absa Currie Cup match played at Absa Stadium in Durban on Friday night.Kockott, who was unlucky to miss out on Springbok selection after an excellent Vodacom Super 14 season, scored 23 points, made up of six penalties and a superb solo try, as the home team had to dig deep against a spirited WP side that had inexplicably been widely written off before the start of the match.

Indeed, for the opening half hour, coach John Plumtree’s troops looked to have the measure of their more inexperienced opponents, notwithstanding the unusual presence in the streeptrui of one AJ Venter, who just a few weeks ago was still playing in the black and white jersey.

The Sharks raced into an 11-3 lead after 15 minutes, with the men from Durban stronger in the scrums, more physical in the front-on tackle situation, and more incisive in the backs.

Their ascendancy was also reflected on the scoreboard after Kockott kicked two early penalties before a mix-up in the opposition defence allowed him to scoot unopposed down the blindside from a scrum on WP’s 22-metre line to give the Sharks an eight-point cushion.

But those who criticised WP coaching boss Rassie Erasmus for luring his old matchwinner Willem de Waal down to Cape Town will surely be eating huge helpings of humble pie after last year’s Currie Cup player of the year produced a faultless kicking performance in his WP debut to help his team go within a whisker of sinking a side fielding four World Cup Springboks.

De Waal, the top points-scorer in the Currie Cup for the past four years, had already shown in the seventh minute that he’d brought his kicking boots to Durban, and before the half was over he had slotted another three penalties as well as a conversion of wing Wylie Human’s 50-metre breakaway try in the 31st minute to give WP a shock 19-11 lead.

The former Boland Landbou schoolboy then kicked his fifth penalty after 45 minutes to open the gap to 11 points and you could sense that there was a whiff of panic in the Sharks’ ranks.

But the men from Durban kept their heads and responded in style, fashioning a try in the corner for flying No 8 Keegan Daniel to make it 22-16 with half an hour to play.

De Waal kicked his sixth penalty from an acute angle to extend the lead once again, but Kockott, showing great composure, levelled matters with three penalties in the space of five minutes to send the match into a nerve-wracking final ten minutes during which the heavens opening up over Durban.

With time ticking away and the steady downpour making both sides think of settling for a draw rather than risk a wayward pass, the visitors found themselves the first victims of an experiment that allows the referee to refer matters other than try-scoring to the television match official.

The TMO adjudged that a WP player had stamped on an opponent at a ruck and Kockott, ice-cool in the cold and wet, slotted the kick from 40 metres to ensure that the braai fires would be burning long into the night on the Kings Park outer fields.

Scorers:

Sharks 28 – Tries: Rory Kockott, Keegan Daniel. Penalties: Kockott (6).

Vodacom Western Province 25 – Try: Wylie Human. Conversion: Willem de Waal. Penalties: De Waal (6).

Source: sarugby.com