The Sharks turbo-charged their Currie Cup campaign with a 47-30 win over the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
The Cheetahs were guilty of poor defending and missed tackles as the Durban side returned to Currie Cup action after their hiatus with a win.
AS IT HAPPENED | Cheetahs 30-47 Sharks
The Free Staters got on the scoresheet through Rosko Specman (2), Brandon Thomson and Duncan Saal, while the Sharks' tries came from Werner Kok, Grant Williams (2), Anthony Volmink and Kerron van Vuuren.
The Cheetahs opened the scoring in the fifth minute. The hosts surged down the middle after a lineout through Masuku, who made good metres. The ball was swung out to the left to Brandon Thomson, who put a clever little through ball for Specman, to finish in the corner.
The Free State side went down to 14 men for 10 minutes after captain Ruan Pienaar made a cynical challenge.
The Sharks scored their first try of the match six minutes later when they broke the Cheetahs' defensive line before Kok picked up from the base of the ruck and went through unopposed as Curwin Bosch added the extras.
Thomson then notched a penalty from 40 metres out after the Sharks were penalised at scrum time.
But then on the half-hour mark, Bosch fed Marnus Potgieter down the right-hand touchline and the Cheetahs winger cut inside, breaking three tackles before popping it to Bhuthelezi, who dotted down and jogged over to dot down.
The home side were once again guilty of some questionable defending when they shirked four tackles to allow Thaakir Abrahams to beat four men and offload to Anthony Volmink for the try five minutes after half-time.
Five minutes after that, the Cheetahs clicked back into gear and moved it to the opposite flank where Specman got it then kicked forward for himself. He won the turnover off Volmink, before the ball was moved to the five as Thomson got himself on the try column.
In the 52nd minute, Cheetahs inside centre Masuku picked up a loose ball at his side's 22 and ran to the Sharks' 22 before he was halted. Blommetjies was the receiver and produced a brilliant cross-field kick for Duncan Saal to score his first Currie Cup try.
Tries were coming thick and fast as the Sharks hit back with Bosch making the offload for Mchunu, who broke through the line and played the final pass on his outside for young scrumhalf Williams to get in on the act.
Specman, keen to impress the Bok selectors after being cut from the initial 47-man squad for the British and Irish Lions series then scored the try of the match, when he showed searing pace from his own half scything through the Sharks defence for a magnificent individual effort.
With ten minutes to go, the Cheetahs gave away yet another penalty at the ruck. The Sharks found touch on their five-metre line and Kerron van Vurren went over at the back of the resulting maul to close out the contest.
The scorers:
Cheetahs - 30
Tries: Specman (2), Thomson, Saal.
Cons: Pienaar, Fortuin.
Pens: Thomson, Pienaar.
Sharks - 47
Tries: Kok, Williams (2), Volmink, Van Vuuren.
Cons: Bosch (5).
Pens: Bosch (3), Cronje.
Teams:
Cheetahs: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Duncan Saal, 13 David Brits, 12 Siya Masuku, 11 Rosko Specman, 10 Brandon Thomson, 9 Ruan Pienaar (captain), 8 Aidon Davis, 7 Jacques Potgieter, 6 Jeandre Rudolph, 5 Jean Droste, 4 Rynier Bernardo, 3 Hencus van Wyk, 2 Marnus van der Merwe, 1 Aluluthu Tshakweni
Replacements: 16 Louis van der Westhuizen, 17 Cameron Dawson, 18 Conraad van Vuuren, 19 Victor Sekekete, 20 Junior Pokomela, 21 Zinedine Booysen, 22 Reinhardt Fortuin, 23 Chris Smit
Sharks: 15 Anthony Volmink, 14 Marnus Potgieter, 13 Werner Kok, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Thaakir Abrahams, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Phepsi Buthelezi (captain), 7 Dylan Richardson, 6 James Venter, 5 Reniel Hugo, 4 Le Roux Roets, 3 Khutha Mchunu, 2 Kerron van Vuuren, 1 Ntuthuko Mchunu
Replacements: 16 Dan Jooste, 17 MJ Majola, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Thembelani Bholi, 20 Mpilo Gumede, 21 Cameron Wright, 22 Lionel Cronje, 23 Jeremy Ward