Disappointed Sharks look at mental build-up after Lions stunner

Sharks head coach John Plumtree said they would need to relook at their mental preparation after their shocking 38–14 loss to the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The Lions, scoring six tries in the United Rugby Championship (URC) local derby, would have walked away with a whitewash if not for the Sharks scoring two consolation tries within the final three minutes.

But even these failed to bring much respectability to such a one-sided game between teams that were fourth and 12th on the URC table before the whistle.

“Obviously, it wasn’t what we expected and we expect better from each other. We’ve let ourselves down and our fans will be disappointed,” Plumtree said.

“We didn’t expect that to happen and it just shows we had a very good week physically [in training] but clearly we didn’t nail it mentally.”

He said Sharks players and coaches would have to question the build-up to the game.

“You’re not going to beat the Lions who are a real opposition when they had the wind today, if we’re not in the right space mentally.”

Lions ‘wanted it more’ than Sharks

The Lions matched the Sharks in scrums and mauls throughout the fixture, and forced errors from the Sharks again and again, seeing prop Ntuthuko Mchunu sent to the bin in the first half for repeated infringements.

Even when the Sharks rung the changes in the second half and started to build rhythm finally, the Lions won turnovers in their 22 to keep the visitors at bay.

Another yellow card going to Sharks centre Jurenzo Julius for a high tackle in the 59th minute also kept the visitors on the back foot at this point.

“We knew it was going to be tough. They wanted it more, they showed that. They won most of the collisions and worked harder around the park.”

Game a possible ‘wake-up call’ for the Sharks

The coach said the game possibly served as a “timely wake-up call” to look at their mental preparation, even though the Sharks must have been confident after bonus-point away wins against the Bulls (final score 29–19) and Cardiff (42–22) in their previous two matches.

“We’ll be expecting a response from everyone with the home game next week.”

He said the Sharks looked forward to playing the Lions for their return URC derby in front of their home fans after three away games.

“We have to pick ourselves up and look forward at next week. We will have to look at our preparation both mentally and physically.”