It was the kind of stuff not even a Hollywood scriptwriter would have been able to conjure up as Jordan Hendrikse kicked a last gasp 59 metre penalty to clinch the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV a 16-14 win in a dramatic Carling Currie Cup final against the Fidelity ADT Lions.
Just a few months ago Hendrikse was an Emirates Lions player and the venue for the final, Emirates Airlines Park, was his home ground and the people in the stands were supporting him.
This time he was a member of the opposition, on the day that his former team were playing their first final in five years, and it was he who pointed at the posts when a penalty was awarded near the Sharks 10 metre line with the clock having already been in the red for three minutes.
It was going to be the last act of the game, his new team were trailing 14-13, and had he been short or wide, the Lions were going to be the winners and the Sharks the losers.
Not many players can kick one metre short of 60 metres, but apparently Hendrikse had been kicking them in the pre-match warmup.
That was no guarantee he would succeed under the acute pressure he was facing down, but he did – the ball just snuck over the cross bar, the flags were raised, and the Lions, who lost only one league game this season, and that was to the Sharks, were beaten at the death.
They should maybe be kicking themselves for their game management in the final play that led to the penalty. They won the lineout after the hooter had sounded and just needed to take the ball out, but instead played it and the ball ended up in Sharks hands and it was from the final desperate attempt to run from their own half that the Sharks’ penalty and winning opportunity came.
It looked five minutes before that the Lions had stolen the game when big Siba Qoma drove over near the posts and Sanele Nohamba kicked the conversion as the Lions turned a 13-7 deficit into a one-point lead.
A Siya Masuku penalty had edged the Sharks ahead with 15 minutes to go with a penalty kick and then there was a long-range effort from Hendrikse, not quite as long as the long one that won the game, to put the Sharks six points ahead. In a game played in wet conditions, six points was a bigger lead than on a dry day, but the Lions still had something left in the tank and full marks to them for the way they hung in during a game that the Sharks dominated in most aspects of play.
One of the famous anecdotal memories of Natal winning the Currie Cup for the first time in their 100th year In Pretoria in 1990 was what happened the next day – some fans of what were then known as the Banana Boys erected a sign near the Free State/Natal border that welcomed visitors to “Currie Cup country”.
By all accounts, if someone was to do that today, the words might be inscribed on a snowman, for the N3 was reportedly blocked by snow on the day of a game that was played in chilly 5-degree conditions made to feel colder no doubt by the light rain that fell.
Just how many Durbanites were intending to get to Emirates Airlines Park for this repeat of the tight 1992 final is hard to tell, but those who did miss it missed quite a game despite the conditions. Supersport