Sharks snap up late win

Lambie scroed a try and 16 point with the boot

The Sharks kept their Super Rugby play-off chances alive with a thrilling 26-21 victory over the Waratahs in Durban on Saturday.

Young fly-half Patrick Lambie played a starring role for the hosts scoring a try and booting four penalties and two conversions for a tally of 21 points.

The win saw Sharks leapfrog the Warathas to secure fifth position in the standings on 47 points, one point ahead of their New South Wales opponents with both sides having played 13 matches.

Waratahs full-back Kurtley Beale put his side in front with a fourth minute penalty.

The hosts reply came five minutes later thanks to a moment of brilliance by Lambie after he received the ball from a scrum on the Waratahs' 22.

The young playmaker slipped past Halangahu and inside centre Tom Carter to touch down under the posts.

Lambie and Beale traded penalties to take the scores to 13-6 in favour of the hosts after half an hour.

Rewarded

But with five minutes to the break Halangahu won a turnover on his own tryline and ran a full 80 metres before offloading to Lachlan Turner who crossed in the corner to leave the hosts with a slender 13-11 lead at half time.

It was the Waratahs who struck first in the second half when fly-half Daniel Halangahu, a late replacement in the starting line-up for Berrick Barnes, crossed over after a well-worked move from a scrum inside the Sharks' 22.

Five minutes later the visitors extended their lead to 21-13 with a penalty from Beale in the 52nd minute resulting from the sin-binning of Sharks' flanker Jean Deysel.

The Waratahs however, failed to push home their advantage and began to kick away most of their possession, a tactic that played right into the Sharks' hands who stuck with their initial game-plan.

Their efforts were rewarded in the 56th minute when JP Pietersen pounced on a loose pass from Beale close to the halfway line and raced away for a well-deserved try.

Lambie converted and struck penalties on 69 minutes to take the lead and then again with just two minutes left on the clock to close the game out.