{"id":12424,"date":"2012-07-15T00:44:59","date_gmt":"2012-07-14T22:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/rugby-sharks-qualify-for-super-rugby-playoffs\/"},"modified":"2012-07-15T00:44:59","modified_gmt":"2012-07-14T22:44:59","slug":"rugby-sharks-qualify-for-super-rugby-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-sharks-qualify-for-super-rugby-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Sharks qualify for Super Rugby playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">DURBAN, July 14<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; The Sharks defeated the Cheetahs<br \/>\n34-15 at Kings Park on Sunday to qualify for the Super Rugby<br \/>\nplayoffs at the expense of the Wellington Hurricanes.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The bonus point win moved the Sharks from eighth to fifth<br \/>\nplace, knocking the Hurricanes out of the knockout stages.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>They were forced to work hard for their win after trailing<br \/>\n6-15 at half-time but they then ran in four tries in a superb<br \/>\nsecond-half performance while the visitors failed to add to the<br \/>\nfive first-half penalties from flyhalf Riaan Smit.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Sharks pivot Frederic Michalak ended with 14 points courtesy<br \/>\nof four conversions and two penalties.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201c&#8221;It was a nerve-wracking first 40 minutes but we hung in<br \/>\nthere and didn&#8217;t let them score any tries and we were still in<br \/>\nit at halftime,&#8221; Sharks captain Keegan Daniel said in a<br \/>\ntelevised interview.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Neither team were able to establish an early advantage in a<br \/>\nscrappy first half with Michalak and Smit trading early<br \/>\npenalties.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>But the Sharks made life difficult for themselves when<br \/>\ninside centre Francois Steyn was yellow-carded for a spear<br \/>\ntackle on Cheetahs centre Robert Ebersohn in the 19th minute.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Smit kicked the visitors into the lead from the resulting<br \/>\npenalty before succeeding with his third penalty, in the 24th<br \/>\nminute.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Michalak narrowed the gap with his second penalty but the<br \/>\nCheetahs were punishing the Sharks for their lack of discipline<br \/>\nand Smit kicked his team into what seemed like a commanding<br \/>\nhalftime lead with two more penalties.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DURBAN, July 14 (Reuters) &#8211; The Sharks defeated the Cheetahs 34-15 at Kings Park on Sunday to qualify for the Super Rugby playoffs at the expense of the Wellington Hurricanes. The bonus point win moved the Sharks from eighth to fifth place, knocking the Hurricanes out of the knockout stages. They were forced to work [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}