SUPER 14: Sharks hold out Canes, stay unbeaten

Touch judge Kelvin Deaker, left, leaves the field with referee Paul Marks after the Super 14 match at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Saturday. PHOTO: AP

Wellington Hurricanes coach Colin Cooper hopes to talk with Australian referee Paul Marks about rulings which may have cost his team a win over the Sharks in the eighth round of rugby’s Super 14.

The Sharks and Wellington drew 13-13 on Saturday in a controversial match which left the South African team unbeaten through eight rounds and the Hurricanes, who started the round in fourth place, two points out of the top four.

In heavy rain, the first half produced only two penalty goals, a 3-3 deadlock at halftime, and by three-quarter time, the teams were locked at 6-6.

A tedious match became controversial in the last quarter as Marks reduced both teams to 14 men, handed out the first red card of this season’s competition, awarded one penalty try and denied another, and then blew for fulltime without consulting the TV referee about the final movements of the game.

Marks sin-binned Hurricanes and All Blacks prop Neemia Tialata for an off the ball bodycheck on Sharks fullback Stefan Terblanche. While the Hurricanes were laboring with 14 men, he evened the teams by sending off Sharks replacement and former Tongan international Epi Taione for a head butt on Wellington lock Jeremy Thrush.

Taione face a judicial hearing in Wellington today.

Nine before fulltime, Marks awarded the Sharks a penalty try when their forward drive from an attacking lineout collapsed over the Hurricanes’ line. The referee immediately determined the Hurricanes had brought down the maul and ran under the goalposts to signal a try which, converted, gave the Sharks a 13-6 lead.

Television showed no clear evidence the Hurricanes collapsed the maul, rather that they were trying to hold up the drive to prevent the Sharks from grounding the ball.

The Hurricanes fought back to tie the scores with a 74th minute try to All Blacks hooker Andrew Hore and made one last attempt to snatch a win with a surge into Sharks territory in injury time.

The ball was carried back over the Sharks line and All Blacks center Conrad Smith was clearly tackled without the ball as he attempted to score the winning try. The offense would have warranted a penalty try, though the Hurricanes still seemed to have scored when replacement Thomas Waldrom won the race to the ball in the in-goal area.

Marks to submit either play to the scrutiny of the video referee and immediately blew for fulltime.

Cooper Marks should at least have asked the television official to scrutinize the final plays.

“You’d have to ask why he wouldn’t look at it,’’ Cooper said. “I guess we have to move on from it.”

Cooper he would still seek to talk to Marks about his rulings and it is possible tournament authorities will review the conduct of the game.

Meanwhile, the Cheetahs claimed their first Super 14 win of the season and moved off the bottom of the table by defeating the Queensland Reds 29-14 on Saturday.

The Bloemfontein-based franchise also snatched a bonus point when center JW Jonker scored a breakaway stoppage-time try at sparsely populated Absa Stadium in the central city.

It completed a joyful weekend for the basement dwellers as the other team without a win ahead of the eighth round, the Otago Highlanders of New Zealand, also broke their duck.

Winning the Cheetahs, whose campaign has been dogged by ill luck, three places to 11th, one point behind the Reds on the southern hemisphere inter-provincial championship standings.

After suffering seven consecutive losses in a competition won by fellow South Africans the Northern Bulls last year, the Cheetahs laid the victory foundations with 17 unanswered early points.

They retained that advantage until halftime in perfect conditions and added another converted try soon after the break to lead 24-0 before the Reds cut the gap to 10 points.

But the Australians could not pierce a tiring Cheetahs defence again and finished their South Africa tour without a win after drawing with the Golden Lions and losing to the Coastal Sharks.

The Reds suffered a huge double blow midway through the first half when key players fullback Chris Latham and scrumhalf and captain Sam Cordingley retired injured within 60 seconds of each other.

“This result has been a long time coming and a huge relief after some narrow defeats. The team played with heart and defended superbly,” Cheetahs captain and lock Rory Duncan said.

Cordingley was, understandably, less happy.

“I am very disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm in the early stages when the damage was done. Maybe we underestimated the Cheetahs after a good showing against the Sharks last weekend,” he said.

Duncan his first Super 14 try on four minutes, barging over after strong, straight running put the Reds under pressure from the kick-off and flyhalf Jacques-Louis Potgieter converted.

Center Meyer Bosman evaded the clutches of Latham to dot down six minutes later, Potgieter converted again and dropped a goal to give the Cheetahs a 17-0 advantage midway through the half.

Man-of-the-match No. 8 Duanne Vermeulen held off Reds lock Brad Humphries to score the third South African try five minutes into the second half and Potgieter again added the extra two points.

World Cup-winning Springbok forward Juan Smith, who missed the Australasia tour through injury, came on but could not prevent the resurgent Reds crossing the line twice through Charlie Fetoai, who replaced Latham.

The second of the tries, both of which wing Clinton Schifcofske converted, came while the Cheetahs CJ van der Linde was in the sin bin.