WATCH: Former Sharks captain Smit remembers the ‘horrible’ 2007 Super 14 final defeat
A missed conversion by the Sharks and late try by Bulls wing Bryan Habana saw the Pretoria-based team home - and winning the first of their three titles.
Bryan Habana talks to the shocked Sharks players after the 2007 Super 14 final in Durban. Picture: Getty Images
With Super Rugby as we know it – or have known it for 25 years – now something of the past, major sponsors Vodacom are celebrating a quarter of a century of memories with this country’s rugby fans.
Titled “25 years of Vodacom Super Rugby Memories”, this week the cellphone giant returned to one of the most epic finals in the history of the competition – the 2007 match in Durban when the Bulls won the first of their three titles after a last-gasp Bryan Habana try and conversion saw the Pretoria team edge the Sharks.
While it was heartbreak for the Sharks, it was ecstasy and joy for the Bulls, who won 20-19.
The Sharks looked to be headed for a famous win when veteran lock Albert van den Berg scored a try minutes from the end, but the missed conversion by a young Frans Steyn meant a converted try by the Bulls in the dying minutes would see them across the line.
And, that’s exactly what happened; Habana finding acres of space to score what would prove to be a match-defining try.
In the clip, Sharks captain John Smit recalls that the whole experience as being “horrible”. He adds it was “very difficult for us, but the start of something special for the Bulls.”
Victor Matfield and Co of the Bulls would go on to win two more titles to be this country’s most successful Super Rugby team. They remain the only South African side to have won the title. Several of those Bulls players in 2007 also added the World Cup title to their list of achievements that year.
Watch the clip here:
Rugby legend John Smit shares what went through his mind after that heart-breaking moment when the Vodacom Bulls snatched the win from the Cell C Sharks in the final moments of the 2007 Vodacom Super 14 Final. pic.twitter.com/hoBPaMuLvY
— vodacomrugby (@VodacomRugga) November 10, 2020
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