John Smit took advantage of his first start as a hooker this season as he led the Coastal Sharks to a 40-24 bonus point win against the Wellington Hurricanes in a Super Rugby clash at King's Park on Saturday.

Smit scored his team's first try and showed that he remains a strong candidate to lead the Springboks in the defence of their World Cup crown in New Zealand later this year.

Sharks coach John Plumtree had picked Bismarck du Plessis ahead of Smit in the team's first eight matches of the season, with Smit having to slot in as a prop, but an injury to Du Plessis opened the way for Smit to return to his specialist position.

The Hurricanes led 13-3 early despite being down to 14 men after lock James Broadhurst was yellow carded.

It was 13-13 at half-time and the New Zealand team regained the lead at 18-13 when replacement flank Faifili Levave scored a try in the first minute of the second half.

But Mvovo scored his first try four minutes later and although flyhalf Dan Kirkpatrick kicked two penalty goals to put the visitors ahead again the Sharks dominated the last 25 minutes of the match with a stiff breeze at their back.

Centre Meyer Bosman burst through two tackles to score a try and Mvovo ran half the length of the field to score an intercept try which gave the Sharks a bonus point.

All Black centre Ma'a Nonu, who set up both his team's tries, scored by fullback Cory Jane and Levave, was yellow carded 11 minutes from time following an illegal steal, effectively killing off the Hurricanes' chances. A late try by Ryan Kankowski sealed the win for the Sharks.

Smit praised his team's second half performance, which enabled them to move one point ahead of the Stormers at the top of the South African conference, although the Stormers have a game in hand.

Smit said the Sharks were now looking forward to a 'massive' game against the Stormers in Cape Town next Saturday.

Hurricanes captain Andrew Hore admitted: "They wore us down."

He said his team needed to improve ahead of their home match against the top- of-the-table Queensland Reds in Wellington next week. "We've got to get the full package right," he said.

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