Powerful Sharks bully Cardiff to earn bonus-point win in Wales

The Durban franchise was made to toil, but the powerhouse pack proved too powerful for Cardiff while young upstart Zekhethelo Siyaya enjoyed a superlative match from fullback.

It was all action from the opening whistle as Springbok centre Andre Esterhuizen had to be helped off the field in the first minute of the game after rolling his ankle. He was later seen in a moonboot on the sideline.

But the Sharks opened the scoring two minutes later when Jurenzo Julius sniped through the line and executed a beautiful chicken wing offload to Ethan Hooker.

Despite being starved of the ball, the hosts struck back at almost the first opportunity. The ball went wide, the Sharks missed tackles and Josh Adams finished off a great team try. Jarrod Evans converted from out wide to make it 7-5.

The visitors spent the next 15 minutes knocking on the door and seemed to have broken it down when Siyaya danced past the Cardiff defence to go over under the poles, but the TMO intervened to find a knock-on several phases earlier.

But after winning a breakdown penalty, the Sharks went to the corner, secured the ball, took it through one phase and scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse found Matt Romano on the short side who busted one tackle and strode over in splendid isolation.

Aided by the wind, the Sharks kept playing in the right areas and creating opportunities aplenty. But their hands would often let them down, with one example being Gianni Lombard's drop after another break from Julius essentially costing them a try.

Lock Jason Jenkins finally smashed his way over from close range after the half time hooter to take the score to 17-7.

The arm wrestle continued in the second stanza, and Alex Mann brought Cardiff back into the game with a try off the back of a multiphase attack. Cardiff then turned pressure into points after another period of sustaied attacked as James Botham went over the try-line for another score, pushing them into the lead.

Despite the best efforts of referee Andrea Piardi, the Sharks bounced back. Siyaya was again brilliant in the build-up and Bok Thomas du Toit did the grunt work close in to grab a crucial try. Lombard added the extras and they led 24-21 with 15 minutes to play.

Cardiff scrumhalf Johan Mulder - who was superb all evening - then held up a charging Ethan Bester over the line to keep his team in the match in the 72nd minute. But after a penalty and lineout maul, Bester was not to be denied a second time as he dotted down for the try that sealed the match.

The Sharks then secured a bonus-point in the dying embers after Cardiff failed to guard a ruck and Romano beat two defenders for his brace.

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