Mercurial Chamberlain inspires Sharks to victory in Wales

A flawed but at times brilliant game from Boeta Chamberlain inspired the Sharks to a 27-13 win over Ospreys oin Swansea on Friday.

Ospreys 13-27 Sharks: Match report

Chamberlain kicked three drop goals, two of them from goal-line drop outs, and had a hand in the Sharks first try as they achieved their first win of the United Rugby Championship.

The Sharks flyhalf made a few errors, especially in the first half when the Sharks were under pressure early.

However the Ospreys might rue their failure to make the Sharks pay and with the score 6-6 at half time with Chamberlain’s first two drop goals cancelling out a pair of penalty goals from Gareth Anscombe.

The Sharks started the second half with a bang as a clever little grubber from Chamberlain allowing Hyron Andrews to burst into the Ospreys 22 and offload to Jeremy Ward who went in under the sticks.

A second try for the Sharks, finished off by Marnus Potgieter gave them control of the game and allowed them to keep the Ospreys pegged back into their half for much of the second period.

The Sharks edged the kicking battle in the second half and it was a great kick from Chamberlain and energetic chase from Anthony Volmink forced another goal-line drop out and in the 62nd minute the man of the match slotted his third drop goal to make it 21-6.

Ruan Pienaar’s penalty goal in the 68th minute took the game right away from the Ospreys and despite a consolation try from Gareth Thomas, another penalty goal from the Sharks number 9 settled the contest.

Teams

Ospreys: 15. Dan Evans 14. Mat Protheroe 13. Tiaan Thomas Wheeler 12. Owen Watkin 11. Luke Morgan 10. Gareth Anscombe 9. Rhys Webb; 1.Nicky Smith 2. Sam Parry 3. Tom Botha 4. Adam Beard 5. Alun Wyn Jones 6. Will Griffiths 7. Jac Morgan 8. Morgan Morris 

Replacements: 16. Elvis Taione 17. Gareth Thomas 18. Tom Botha 19. Rhys Davies 20. Ethan Roots 21. Reuben Morgan-Williams 22. Stephen Myler 23. Joe Hawkins

Sharks: 15 Anthony Volmink, 14 Marnus Potgieter, 13 Jeremy Ward, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Thaakir Abrahams, 10 Boeta Chamberlain, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Henco Venter, 7 Gerbrandt Grobler, 6 James Venter, 5 Hyron Andrews, 4 Ruben van Heerden, 3 Thomas du Toit (captain), 2 Kerron van Vuuren, 1 Ntuthuko Mchunu 

Substitutes: 16 Dan Jooste, 17 Khwezi Mona, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Le Roux Roets, 20 Phepsi Buthelezi, 21 Dylan Richardson, 22 Sanele Nohamba, 23 Werner Kok

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