South Africa: 'Winkgate' Is Manufactured Social Media Outrage That Will Add More Fuel to the SA-Ireland Rugby Rivalry

The Sharks beat Ireland's Munster in the United Rugby Championship quarterfinals through a penalty shootout -- but the result was almost overshadowed by an on-field wink.

The Sharks beat Ireland's Munster in the United Rugby Championship quarterfinals through a penalty shootout -- but the result was almost overshadowed by an on-field wink.

If you believe social media, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Sharks' dramatic United Rugby Championship (URC) quarterfinal 6-4 penalty shootout win over Munster in Durban on Saturday was because of a wink.

Yes, a wink. In case you don't follow rugby closely, I'll elaborate shortly.

The penalty shootout made this otherwise error-strewn match memorable, and the wink will be part of its story. In a way, that's a good thing because there wasn't much else to redeem it.

At the half-hour mark, if fans had been told that there would be an additional 20 minutes of this game (via extra time), they would have replied: "Haven't we suffered enough?"

The contest did improve slightly in the second half as the Sharks came back from 21-10 down to lead 24-21. Then, veteran Munster and Ireland scrumhalf Conor Murray landed a late penalty from 45m to level the scores at 24-24, sending the game to extra time, and ultimately to the lottery of kicks at goal.

Wink, wink

During the rare penalty shootout...

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