Chiefs 15 Sharks 22
There comes a point when familiarity really does breed contempt. This whole blow the season in one spectacular blast in the first three weeks is wearing a little thin.
Land ahoy - here come the Chiefs on a mission to beach themselves mid-table.
And don't underestimate their determination to play their way out of the competition in these early rounds. They had their chances to win this game. They really had their chances to win this game. They can't be faulted for their determination, for their bravery, for their perseverance, for the ball retention.
All that was there in spades. They deserved a draw at the very least. They really deserved to win and they deserved a break from the match officials who let them down.
Liam Messam appeared to score a legal try but he was ruled to have been held up in the dying minutes. A minute later Mike Delany was over, the Chiefs were celebrating but the ruling came back that his elbow hit touch as he grounded the ball.
These are the calls that really hurt; the type of calls that can break a whole season.
But the Chiefs have to hold their hands up. In the final minute they held possession through 20 phases. They never took the blinkers off, never thought of a way to use their collective rather than individual power.
It was all one runner out stuff. In he would go, on his own and back he would come, smashed by a brilliant Sharks defensive effort.
The situation was crying out for something clever, some devious ploy that would pull the Sharks into the middle of the field and leave big spaces out wide.
The Chiefs didn't have the vision for that, though and they paid the ultimate price. They also made some horrid mistakes well before that thrilling finale.
Kevin O'Neill might never recover from the shame of failing to catch a Stephen Donald cross-kick just after half-time. The big lock just needed to stick his giant mitts out and fall over. He managed the falling over bit.
Even the otherwise lively Brendon Leonard had the yips. There he was making his merry way towards the corner in a foot race he looked likely to win when he dropped the ball.
When things like that happen - inexplicable mistakes that allude to a team being hounded by bad luck and their lack of attention to detail - you know they are not going to win.
The Sharks certainly knew it. They played like a team that knew their opportunities would come. That if they just hung in there, the Chiefs were going to implode and hand it to them on a plate.
That's not to take away from the contribution the South Africans made. Ruan Pienaar was magnificent at first five, running in that carefree way of his and stretching the Chiefs this way and that.
He was the architect of the Sharks' two second half tries when he dandered along and then nudged the ball beautifully to the left flank of JP Pietersen.
How the Chiefs wished they had such class and composure in their midst. How they must have wished they had the same composed presence of Stefan Terblanche at fullback who hoovered everything that came his way.
If there was a positive for the Chiefs it was the vast improvements they made on their set-piece work. They had called in the scrum doctor, Mike Cron, during the week to try to cure the worst of their Sydney ailments.
The All Black scrum coach prescribed the right medicine and the Chiefs were steady if still someway short of where they would like to be. Their lineout, too, was effective and that will boost their confidence after such an appalling performance in Sydney.
But for all the effort put in, for all their honest endeavour, the facts are these - the Chiefs have played three, lost three. The hard luck stories can rage away. They can feel the injustice of those tough calls but there is no escaping from the fact that they have once again gotten off to a rotten start.
The pressure is once again on them. The same old accusation will be made. The same calls will come for changes to be made in their coaching team, in their selections. That's what happens when the tiny things go against you. When you don't take your chances.
Chiefs 15 (A. de Malmanche, B. Leonard tries; S. Donald pen, con) Sharks 22 (F. Steyn, JP Pietersen 2, tries; R. Kockott 2 cons, pen).
