Sunday, 20th May 2007 at 10:25 pm

Bryan Habana, master thief

You can still hear the disbelief in Durban. One minute, the Sharks had the Super 14 title sewn up, black and white clad fans already mentally placing the champagne orders at the bar. Then Bryan Habana, half superhero, half extravagant belly flop, flung himself over the line, Derick Hougaard lobbed a conversion over a desperate charge, and somehow, 79 minutes of extremely ordinary rugby ended in quite majestic fashion. Hell, you can still hear the disbelief across the whole country.

And it will flicker through the memory of every one of the Sharks players for years to come; rocking back and forth in a chair in an old age home 50 years from now, the rueful astonishment that played across Bob Skinstad’s face at the final whistle on Saturday, will still make the occasional appearance. A moment of magic from Habana, a resurgent figure in recent weeks after a quiet start to the year, was always possible - but who would have predicted it in the form of such a cruel finish for the Sharks?

It made up for a supremely dismal game until then, a curious obsession with the grubber kick doing a disservice to two teams vested of far more creativity than Saturday’s crude tactical display suggested. But to be honest, those opening 79 minutes will be a blur, the Habana late show consigning everything else to the margins of rugby history. All that counts for the Sharks is that a certain victory vanished for the death; and for the Bulls, that a sleight-of-hand burst of inspiration won them a game they’d all but certainly lost.

And for the rest of South Africa? Not much of a final (”typical physical Super 14 rugby,” insisted Kobus Wiese after the game - he clearly hasn’t watched much of a competition founded on the running game), but a hell of a finish - and a South African team champions for 2007. The Sharks will still be hurting, but the South African game has a Super 14 to look back on with considerably more pride than usual.