The Sharks succumbed to a disappointing loss as they went down to a classy Glasgow Warriors side at Scotstoun Stadium.
Nienaber: Bomb Squad difference between victory, defeat for Boks
An inconsistent Sharks outfit proved easy pickings for a clinical Warriors side and despite a laudable second-half fight-back, Sean Everitt’s men suffered a 35-24 defeat.
A dominant first-half performance opened up a 28-10 lead at the break for Warriors, with the bonus point already in the bag.
However, Danny Wilson’s men will be frustrated that they went off the boil in the final half-hour instead of really putting the Sharks to the sword.
Warriors started with a bang, opening the scoring within two minutes through a try and conversion by stand-off Ross Thompson, after good vision and ambition from number eight Jack Dempsey and winger Rufus McLean.
The Sharks had an opportunity to get off the mark from an offside penalty a few minutes later, but full-back Curwin Bosch miscued his shot at goal and Warriors bounced right back, battling their way into range for co-captain Ryan Wilson to bustle over.
Thompson slotted the easy conversion to make it 14-0 with as many minutes played.
To add to the Sharks’ misery, they also lost Dylan Richardson to a yellow card at this point, with the blindside flanker paying the price for persistent infringement by his team.
Jamie Bhatti marked his first start in Warriors colours after two years in exile with Edinburgh and Bath by scoring his first ever try in professional rugby on 21 minutes, with Thompson once again adding the extras.
The visitors rallied briefly, and they got on the scoreboard through a close-range try from second-row Le Roux Roets.
But Warriors had the bonus point wrapped up before half-time when a long passage of continuity play culminated in McLean sending full-back Forbes in for the try.
When Bosch opted to kick three points from a scrum penalty just before the break, instead of kick to the corner and chase seven points from a try, it was an indication that the Sharks were already in damage-limitation mode.
The second half started brightly for Warriors with Forbes claiming his second try of the match – his team’s fifth – just three minutes after the restart.
But they then seemed to lose their way after centre Sione Tuipulotu had a try chalked off for an obstruction on 50 minutes.
Thomas Du Toit and Ntuthuko Mchunu scored consolation tries as the Sharks dominated the final half-hour.
