Late charge helps Chiefs overcome Sharks with 29-23 win

Chiefs 29-23 Sharks, FMG Stadium Waikato
Scorecard

A late surge from Chiefs proved decisive as they went on to complete a 29-23 win over Sharks in their Super Rugby encounter at FMG Stadium Waikato on Saturday.

This is Chiefs' fourth win from 12 games as they moved to the fourth position in the New Zealand Conference while Sharks are at the top of the South African Conference.

Marty McKenzie got Chiefs off the mark with an 11th-minute penalty goal and made the scoreline 10-0 when Brad Weber crossed over in the 26th minute. The Chiefs fly-half also kicked the conversion.

The response from Sharks came in the 31st minute when Hyron Andrews dotted down and Curwin Bosch kicked a conversion and a penalty on either side as the scores were levelled 10-10.

The home side stepped up the accelerator with Colin Cooper leading the charge allowing Mitch Karpik to go over the line that was improved by McKenzie before a penalty goal from Bosch which meant the teams went into the break with a 17-13 scoreline.

Chiefs' momentum was pegged back when Nathan Harris was sin-binned in the 56th minute for a cynical offence on the ground in his own 22 and the visitors immediately made full use of the numerical advantage with a try from Ruan Botha followed by a conversion and a penalty from Bosch to make it 17-23.

Nevertheless, the Chiefs were resilient under pressure and seized the momentum back with back to back tries from Anton Lienert-Brown (68') and Weber (70') to complete a thrilling win.