Debutant Sanele Nohamba scored a try to seal a 23-15 Super Rugby victory for the Coastal Sharks at home over fellow South Africans the Northern Bulls in Durban on Friday.
The 21-year-old scrumhalf, who starred for his club in the domestic Currie Cup last year, struck in the 79th minute with a scrappy match on a knife-edge.
Substitute Nohamba broke from a scrum and exchanged passes with center Andre Esterhuizen before outpacing several Bulls.
Flyhalf Curwin Bosch slotted an easy conversion to earn the Sharks an eight-point win and deprive the Bulls of a losing bonus point.
“Sanele is an exciting prospect,” said Sharks skipper Lukhanyo Am, who was part of the Springbok Rugby World Cup-winning side in Japan in November last year.
“The result was great, but we made too many errors and need to work on our set pieces. The conditions made the ball slippery, resulting in some poor handling,” he said.
Bulls captain Burger Odendaal said he was “gutted” by the result at Kings Park.
“While we let this one slip from our grasp, there were a lot of positives to take out of the match and it was great to have Morne [Steyn] back at flyhalf,” Odendaal said.
Steyn has returned to the Bulls after seven years with French Top 14 outfit Stade Francais and scored all their points from four penalties and a drop goal.
The Sharks outscored the Bulls by two tries to nil in hot, humid conditions with the first coming from Rugby World Cup squad winger Sibusiso Nkosi just after halftime.
Kept out of the Springboks starting line-up by the brilliance of Cheslin Kolbe, Nkosi struck on 44 minutes to give the hosts the lead after they had trailed 9-6 at halftime.
Bulls winger Rosco Specman reacted slowly to a cross kick from Bosch and Nkosi surged forward to dot down with millimeters to spare.
Bosch converted for a 13-9 lead that he extended with his third penalty before Steyn succeeded twice from three penalty attempts to leave just one point between the sides.
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