Habana ‘steals’ trophy from Sharks

DURBAN – Northern Bulls wing Bryan Habana scored an injury-time try to ‘steal’ the Super 14 trophy from the Coastal Sharks in the first all-South African final.

Habana beat a clutch of Sharks defenders to score a superb individual try next to the uprights to put his side within a point of the Sharks’ total in the 82nd minute and the conversion by Derick Hougaard sealed a famous win for the men from Pretoria. It was a fitting final moment of what on Saturday was a thrilling, hard-fought and very evenly matched encounter of this year’s southern hemisphere inter-provincial rugby competition.The 20-19 victory by the Bulls is proof of how evenly matched South Africa’s two leading rugby teams are.The Bulls came back from being 13-19 down after conceding a 78th minute try to replacement lock Albert van den Berg to shock the thousands of Sharks fans who’d packed into the Absa Stadium.”I’m absolutely speechless,” said Habana afterwards.”I thought it was a gutsy performance from the guys to stay in touch and then winning it at the end.”While I finished it off, the whole team, all the players, coaching staff and Bulls family deserve the credit.They’ve all contributed to this moment – it’s been a while coming.”The Bulls played in the semi-finals in 2005 and 2006, but until Saturday had never reached the final match of the competition.The Sharks played in two previous finals, but this was the closest they’d come to winning a tournament which has been dominated by the Canterbury Crusaders from New Zealand.The Bulls knocked the Crusaders out in the semi-finals at Loftus Versfeld, while the Sharks reached the final by defeating the Auckland Blues.The Sharks finished top of the log and went into Saturday’s game in the knowledge they’d beaten the Bulls 17-3 in the first round of action way back at the start of February.”We were just a few second away from winning the Super 14 title – we’re all absolutely shattered,” said Sharks coach Dick Muir.”The way we played, I think we deserved this trophy – but it wasn’t to be and hats off to the Bulls.”Muir wasn’t the only one who thought his side were better on the day.Bulls captain Victor Matfield concurred.”The Sharks outplayed us for 79 minutes and they would have been worthy winners,” he said.The home team were the stronger and more composed unit throughout the match as they disrupted the rhythm of the Bulls pack and generally upset any kind of momentum the visitors tried to generate through some telling defence.At the end it was a moment of sheer and utter brilliance by Habana that separated the teams.Enemies on the field on Saturday, no less than 28 players who were involved in the final will be friends and teammates Sunday as they join up with the rest of the Springbok national training squad in Bloemfontein, ahead of this weekend’s first Test against England in the Free State capital.Nampa-AFPIt was a fitting final moment of what on Saturday was a thrilling, hard-fought and very evenly matched encounter of this year’s southern hemisphere inter-provincial rugby competition.The 20-19 victory by the Bulls is proof of how evenly matched South Africa’s two leading rugby teams are.The Bulls came back from being 13-19 down after conceding a 78th minute try to replacement lock Albert van den Berg to shock the thousands of Sharks fans who’d packed into the Absa Stadium.”I’m absolutely speechless,” said Habana afterwards.”I thought it was a gutsy performance from the guys to stay in touch and then winning it at the end.”While I finished it off, the whole team, all the players, coaching staff and Bulls family deserve the credit.They’ve all contributed to this moment – it’s been a while coming.”The Bulls played in the semi-finals in 2005 and 2006, but until Saturday had never reached the final match of the competition.The Sharks played in two previous finals, but this was the closest they’d come to winning a tournament which has been dominated by the Canterbury Crusaders from New Zealand.The Bulls knocked the Crusaders out in the semi-finals at Loftus Versfeld, while the Sharks reached the final by defeating the Auckland Blues.The Sharks finished top of the log and went into Saturday’s game in the knowledge they’d beaten the Bulls 17-3 in the first round of action way back at the start of February.”We were just a few second away from winning the Super 14 title – we’re all absolutely shattered,” said Sharks coach Dick Muir.”The way we played, I think we deserved this trophy – but it wasn’t to be and hats off to the Bulls.”Muir wasn’t the only one who thought his side were better on the day.Bulls captain Victor Matfield concurred.”The Sharks outplayed us for 79 minutes and they would have been worthy winners,” he said.The home team were the stronger and more composed unit throughout the match as they disrupted the rhythm of the Bulls pack and generally upset any kind of momentum the visitors tried to generate through some telling defence.At the end it was a moment of sheer and utter brilliance by Habana that separated the teams.Enemies on the field on Saturday, no less than 28 players who were involved in the final will be friends and teammates Sunday as they join up with the rest of the Springbok national training squad in Bloemfontein, ahead of this weekend’s first Test against England in the Free State capital.Nampa-AFP