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Hodge rescues Rebels at Sharks, Bulls beat Cheetahs
By Peter Thompson
Reece Hodge scored a penalty with the last kick of the game to salvage a 9-9 draw for the Rebels at the Sharks in a Super Rugby contest which saw two red cards dished out, while the Bulls added to the Cheetahs' woes.
The Sharks were a man down with only 19 minutes played after Andre Esterhuizen was given his marching orders for a dangerous tackle on Sefa Naivalu at Kings Park on Saturday.
The Rebels, buoyed by winning their first game of the season against the Brumbies last time out, led 6-3 at half-time courtesy of two Hodge penalties either side of one from Curwin Bosch.
Bosch missed a chance to level from the tee but made no mistake 16 minutes from time and the Rebels' chances of going on to claim a shock win took a huge blow when Nic Stirzaker was shown a second yellow card for a deliberate knock down.
A third Bosch penalty a minute from time looked to have given the Sharks a sixth win out of eight, but they were thwarted when Hodge - scorer of the winning penalty against the Brumbies - split the posts right at the end.
The Bulls have now won two in a row after seeing off the Cheetahs 20-14 at Loftus Versfeld courtesy of a late Jesse Kriel try.
South Africa outside centre Kriel nipped back inside before darting over for the decisive score six minutes from time and Jacques Potgieter also went over as the Bulls rallied from 11-3 down at the break to consign the Cheetahs to a fifth loss in a row.
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Latest Comments
I didn't mean to sound down on Dmac. Just looking hard at the bench sub's role of providing impact. I don't think he can do that at 15, and the bench is not really about injury cover anymore (you need to maximise it's use more than that).
He's my first choice of any New Zealander for the 10 jersey with the All Blacks.
Go to commentsAgreed. And I don't have much more to say on it, but I had been having one thought that sprang to mind at the tail of this discussion, and that is that it's not all about Razor.
It's not about any coach being "right". I think a lot of selections can become defense and while it doesn't really apply here I really enjoyed that Andy Farrell just gave into the public demands and changed out his team for the change that had been asked for. Like why not? This is the countries team, keep them engaged. The whole reason i've only just finished watching the game was because I wasn't interested in watching any of the selected players against a team like Italy (still actually enjoyed the first half with the contest Italy made of it).
Faz leap frogs a younger half back into start. He hands the golden child the game over July's golden child. He gives an old winger a go, a new flanker and hooker. None of them really did any good, certainly not enough to suggest they should have been promoted above others, but who cares? You won, and you gave the country what they wanted, that's all that matters after all. It's for the country, not the one in charge who thinks they have to have their own pied piper tune playing.
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