Pieter Jordaan

Johannesburg – The refereeing trio that handled Saturday’s Currie Cup thriller between the Lions and Sharks can count themselves fortunate that the coaches of these two teams have an agreement between them not to complain afterwards.

Controversial refereeing decisions overshadowed the match in which the Lions beat the Sharks with the last movement of the game.

There is doubt whether the winning try by Lions captain Franco van der Merwe really was a try and footage appears to show a defender possibly holding the ball up.

Referee Jason Jaftha awarded the try without consulting the television match official.

The Lions were trailing 15-20 before the try and the conversion by Elton Jantjies made them 22-20 winners.

However, in the first half the Sharks got a try after assistant referee Christie du Preez failed to spot Sharks wing Lwazi Mvovo stepping on the touchline.

In this instance a referral was also necessary, but Du Preez told Jaftha that he could award the try.

Coaches John Mitchell (Lions) and John Plumtree (Sharks) managed to stop themselves from complaining about the incidents.

“We will look at it again. We have an agreement that we don’t complain afterwards, even though it’s difficult to do that today,” said Plumtree.

The two New Zealanders, who were both born in the town Hawera, were full of praise for each other’s teams.

Plumtree now has to hand over the Hawera Cup to Mitchell. It is a beer mug for which they compete among one another.

“I forgot it at home because I did not think I was going to lose. Mitch wants me to engrave it. My wife will do it, after which I will courier it to Johannesburg,” said the Sharks coach.

Plumtree said he was not surprised that the Lions are doing so well under Mitchell.

“We know one another as coaches and I was not surprised by the manner in which they played. He’s doing incredible work at the Lions. The Lions have talent. It just needed to be organised.”

The Lions are still strongly in the Currie Cup running and a huge clash is in the offing against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Saturday, with the teams effectively in a knockout battle.

For the Sharks the loss was not a disaster as they are still in the first place on the log.

They also played well and could easily have won. Mvovo was their star with his two tries.

Van der Merwe again led the Lions by example, but George Earle, Josh Strauss, centres Doppies la Grange and Waylon Murray, and Jannie Boshoff were also among the team’s heroes.