02/03/2008 22:43

Morris Gilbert

Pretoria - One moment of madness equals 19 points, a third successive Super 14 victory for the Sharks and a second home defeat for the Bulls.

That is what happened here at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday when, with the Bulls leading 15-10 only 11 minutes from full time, JP Nel turned the match on its head.

Nel was sent to the sin bin for a spear tackle and during the next ten minutes the Sharks ran rampant, scoring two goals and a try to win 29-15.

Bulls coach Frans Ludeke on Sunday refused to comment on Nel's infringement. But he warned against reading too much into his team's second consecutive defeat at home.

'We created many more opportunities'

Ludeke said: "We have to focus on the process rather than individual results.

"We played much better against the Sharks than we had done against the Crusaders. We created many more opportunities, which came undone largely because of poor finishing."

The first half an hour of the game on Saturday was a copy of the same period of the match against the Crusaders, when the Bulls played almost all the rugby but failed to convert it into tries.

This time they crossed the line twice, but tries were not awarded to Danwel Demas and Rayno Gerber.

Demas knocked on when he dived on the ball in the in-goal area and a forward pass denied Gerber a score.

The Sharks, with a lot less possession, scored the only first-half try to show up the home team's lack of finishing power.

Officials failed to spot Engels

And then, with the 2007 champions reduced to 14 men, the Sharks sealed the victory in the last ten minutes, capitalising on panic among the Bulls.

Nel and his teammate Jaco Engels face a disciplinary hearing on Monday night after being cited for illegal tactics.

Nel was also cited after the match against the Crusaders, but was found not guilty.

Engels got away when the match officials failed to spot him hitting Sharks captain Johan Muller, but the incident was shown on television and he was cited afterwards.