Neil Powell. (Photo Mandatory Credit Steve Haag/Gallo Images)
- Neill Powell called the Sharks’ 47-20 win over the Bulls at Kings Park a “great win”.
- The bonus points win propelled the Sharks to fifth in the URC standings.
- The Sharks are now just five points behind the fourth-place Bulls.
Sharks director of rugby Neil Powell said the 47-20 win over the Bulls at Kings Park on Saturday was a “big win” and an “important win” relative to the United Rugby Championship league table ( URC).
The Sharks blew the Bulls out of the water with a 10-minute burst before halftime before closing out the game with a flurry of tries from Rohan Janse van Rensburg.
In all, the hosts scored four touchdowns to two of the visitors in a game where the Bulls’ defense and discipline disintegrated.
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The win moved Powell’s charges to fifth in the URC standings, just five points behind the fourth-place Bulls, with two games in hand.
“This is a big win for us, especially if you look at the URC record; we needed these five points,” said Powell, whose team suffered a 40-27 loss to the Bulls at Loftus in late October.
“It’s going to help us a lot, so it’s a really important win. You’d like to win all your home games, so that was really good.”
“I think that’s the sign of a confident team, when we take one or two quick penalties and play and we’re not so predictable.”
“The guys have done well. We could have managed the game a lot better in the first 25 minutes and been a lot more disciplined.”
“But when we got into the Bulls half, especially in the last 10 minutes of the first half, the guys really played well.”
Powell’s happiness grew after the match, which was his fifth win in a row in all competitions.
He, however, quickly tried to restrain his own smirk to remind his charges that they needed to show their quality for 80 minutes after being defensive in the first half hour.
“Hopefully, as the season gets longer, we can get a performance like that for 80 minutes and not just for part of the game. I felt like it was the same for the Lions last weekend,” Powell said.
“We’ll look to get more consistency throughout the 80 minutes, and not at certain times.”
