Cape Town - The Sharks showed promise on Saturday ahead of their Super Rugby season opener, easily overcoming France's Racing 92 31-14 in their Natixis Cup clash in Hong Kong.
The first South African Super Rugby side to play in the city, the Sharks scored five tries against Racing's two as they prepare to take on the Lions on February 17.
Racing, in the middle of their French Top 14 season, were without All Blacks legend Dan Carter who sat out with a calf strain, as well as captain Dimitri Szarzewski, selected 83 times for France, who was also injured.
The Sharks got off to a strong start with wing Makazola Mapimpi crashing over eight and a half minutes in.
Centre Marius Louw bumped up the score after an off-load by Stephan Lewies, before Robert du Preez converted to give the side a 12-0 lead by the end of the first half.
The South Africans continued to dominate as the second half got underway, with Louw touching down again after just four minutes.
Racing looked like they could make a comeback as So'otala Fa'aso'o landed their first try of the match before the Sharks' Cameron Wright took the scores to 24-7.
Racing managed a second try from Xavier Chauveau but in the end it was the Sharks who triumphed, with fullback Lwazi Mvovo making a dash for the line and setting up a final try by Curwin Bosch.
Scorers:
Sharks
Tries: Makazole Mapimpi, Marius Louw (2), Cameron Wright, Curwin Bosch
Conversions: Rob du Preez (2), Bosch
Racing 92
Tries: So’otala Fa’as’o, Xavier Chauveau
Conversions: Antoine Gibert (2)
Teams:
Sharks
15 Lwazi Mvovo, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Cameron Wright, 8 Keegan Daniel, 7 Jacques Vermeulen, 6 Philip van der Walt, 5 Stephan Lewies, 4 Ruan Botha (captain), 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Franco Marais, 1 Juan Schoeman
Subs: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 Mzamo Majola, 18 John-Hubert Meyer, 19 Hyron Andrews, 20 Tyler Paul, 21 Tera Mtembu, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Curwin Bosch, 24 Jeremy Ward, 25 Sbusiso Nkosi, 26 Garth April
Racing
15 Matthew Worley, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Leonard Paris, 12 Albert Vulivulu, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Antoine Gibert, 9 Teddy Iribaren (captain), 8 Antonie Claassen, 7 Baptiste Chouzenoux, 6 So’otala Fa’as’o, 5 Manuel Carizza, 4 Patricio Albacete, 3 Luc Ducalcon, 2 Ole Avei, 1 Vasil Kakovin
Substitutes: 16 Viliamu Afatia, 17 Luka Goginava, 18 Edwin Maka, 19 Boris Palu, 20 Xavier Chauveau, 21 Franck Porteau, 22 Anthony Tuitavake, 23 Census Johnstone, 24 Marc Andreu, 25 Benjamin Dembielle, 26 Louis Dupichot, 27 Esteban Abadie
