United Rugby Championship Match Report: Cell C Sharks Work Hard to Defeat Welsh Team the Scarlets

• The Cell Sharks' first ever home United Rugby Championship match against an overseas side ended with a much-need victory
• They defeated Welsh side the Scarlets 37-20 in front of a sparse crowd at the Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Friday night in Durban
• The home team was inspired by the heroics of fullback Aphele Fassi as they turned around what was a dicey situation going into the last half of the encounter

The Cell Sharks won their first ever home match against an overseas opponent in the United Rugby Championship last night at the Hollywoodbets Kings Park Stadium.

The Sharks ran in four tries, one of them a penalty try, against Welsh side the Scarlets in a difficult 37-20 victory; the scoreline belying how tight the contest really was.

As reported by supersport.com, the hosts were chasing the game for most of the first hour, and frankly lucky to be in touch on the scoreboard, against a team that will consider itself unlucky not to have gone well ahead in the first half.

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The win will boost the Sharks’ confidence and will keep them on top of the South African Shield and in the top half of the log for at least another week.

But they might have been looking at a very different scenario were it not for the X-factor of fullback Aphelele Fassi that turned the game in their favour in the second half and hid some glaring deficiencies in a team on paper at least should be capable of much better.

Fassi produced several good moments but the pivotal one was when he pounced on a loose ball and ran half the length of the field to score a try that levelled the scores at 16-all in the second half.

From a morale viewpoint, that score appeared to boost the Sharks and kill off what had until then been a spirited and strong challenge from the visitors from the Welsh town of Llanelli.

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After that it was the Sharks who had the energy and, not surprisingly, it was the visitors from the northern hemisphere that flagged in the sub-tropical heat and humidity.

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As reported on Sports Brief, Russia and Belarus were last week suspended from all international rugby "until further notice" following the invasion of Ukraine.

The award of four match points to each of the three teams set to play Russia -- Georgia, Portugal and the Netherlands -- means that the Lelos are now guaranteed a top-two finish in the region’s overall qualification table.