{"id":1655,"date":"2023-11-26T23:27:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T23:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/united-rugby-championship-sharks-69-14-dragons-world-cup-stars-inspire-record-win\/"},"modified":"2023-11-26T23:27:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T23:27:23","slug":"united-rugby-championship-sharks-69-14-dragons-world-cup-stars-inspire-record-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/united-rugby-championship-sharks-69-14-dragons-world-cup-stars-inspire-record-win\/","title":{"rendered":"United Rugby Championship: Sharks 69-14 Dragons – World Cup stars inspire record win"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/span>
The defeat surpassed the 64 points Dragons conceded to Munster in March 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<\/thead>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Sharks (20) 69<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tries:<\/strong> Fasi 2, Mapimpi, Kok, Etzebeth, Williams 2, Buthelezi, Labuschagne, Am <\/span>Cons:<\/strong> Bosch 5, Chamberlain 3 <\/span>Pen:<\/strong> Bosch<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dragons (7) 14<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tries:<\/strong> Blacker, Dyer <\/span>Cons:<\/strong> Evans, Williams<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Sharks’ World Cup winners made a triumphant return in Durban to inflict a record defeat for Dragons in the United Rugby Championship (URC).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Makazole Mapimpi and Eben Etzebeth scored to inspire the surprise bottom team to a first win of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Dane Blacker and Rio Dyer scored in either half for an under-strength Dragons who were further weakened by a series of early injuries.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Welsh region are now without an away league win in 19 months.<\/span><\/p>\n

The result completed a remarkable afternoon for the South African sides with Lions, Bulls and Sharks all scoring more than 50 points.<\/span><\/p>\n

Basement battle<\/h3>\n

These two sides had managed just a solitary victory between them in 10 games so far this season, Dragons’ win over Ospreys in the previous round.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the contrast in the strength of depth was laid bare by the respective team sheets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dragons travelled to South Africa without Wales forwards Dan Lydiate, Leon Brown, Ben Carter, Elliot Dee and the suspended Taine Basham.<\/span><\/p>\n

Added to that, head of performance Dan Baugh <\/span>served a one-match ban<\/span><\/a> for his altercation with referee Ben Whitehouse last week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sharks, meanwhile, welcomed back world champions Etzebeth, Mapimpi, Jaden Hendrikse, Ox Nche and Grant Williams. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dragons were further hurt by the loss of playmakers Will Reed and Cai Evans as well as Ollie Griffiths, all in the first half, as well as a yellow card for prop Chris Coleman as pressure at the scrum told.<\/span><\/p>\n

By then Dragons were 15-7 down to tries from Aphelele Fassi and Mapimpi, though Dragons had scored the best team try of the half when Reed, Evans and Aneurin Owen combined for scrum-half Blacker to score.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Werner Kok touched down from Hendrikse’ audacious reverse pass in first-half injury time to break Dragons’ resistance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Etzebeth clinched the bonus-point and Grant Williams added a fifth only for Dyer to score directly from the restart when Sharks’ forwards misjudged the kick-off.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, it was a brief respite as Dyer and Hewitt had tries disallowed and Phepsi Buthelezi, Lappies Labuschagne, Williams, Fassi and Lukhanyo Am completed the rout in the final quarter.<\/span><\/p>\n

The result was the most points Dragons have conceded in the league, surpassing the 64 shipped to Munster in March 2022, and a record victory for Sharks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dragons head coach Dai Flanagan said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The boys worked hard, showed real energy and enthusiasm, but did so as individuals. We need to curb that and work on how to do all those things collectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

“When you face a team with this quality of players then they are going to punish you.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Rugby is a game of momentum and it takes a lot to stop it when it’s against you.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Sharks: <\/strong>Aphelele Fassi; Werner Kok, Lukhanyo Am (capt), Francois Venter, Makazole Mapimpi; Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse; Ntuthuko Mchunu, Fez Mbatha, Coenie Oosthuizen, Eben Etzebeth, Emile van Heerden, James Venter, Phepsi Buthelezi, Sikhumbuzo Notshe<\/span><\/p>\n

Replacements: <\/em>Daniel Jooste, Ox Nche, Hanro Jacobs, Corne’ Rahl, Lappies Labuschagne, Grant Williams, Boeta Chamberlain, Rohan Janse van Rensburg.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dragons: <\/strong>Cai Evans; Rio Dyer, Sio Tomkinson, Aneurin Owen, Ewan Rosser; Will Reed, Dane Blacker; Aki Seiuli, Bradley Roberts, Chris Coleman, Matthew Screech, George Nott, Sean Lonsdale, Ollie Griffiths (capt), Aaron Wainwright<\/span><\/p>\n

Replacements: <\/em>James Benjamin, Rhodri Jones, Lloyd Fairbrother, Joe Davies, Harri Keddie, Rhodri Williams, Steff Hughes, Ashton Hewitt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Referee:<\/strong> Frank Murphy (IRFU)<\/span><\/p>\n

Assistant referees:<\/strong> Christopher Allison & Stephan Geldenhuys (SARU)<\/span><\/p>\n

TMO:<\/strong> Eoghan Cross (IRFU)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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The defeat surpassed the 64 points Dragons conceded to Munster in March 2022 Sharks (20) 69 Tries: Fasi 2, Mapimpi, Kok, Etzebeth, Williams 2, Buthelezi, Labuschagne, Am Cons: Bosch 5, Chamberlain 3 Pen: Bosch Dragons (7) 14 Tries: Blacker, Dyer Cons: Evans, Williams Sharks’ World Cup winners made a triumphant return in Durban to inflict […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport-africa","category-world-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1657,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions\/1657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}