Everitt targets Sharks’ discipline problems as Currie Cup nears end

Sharks coach Sean Everitt will be a restless sleeper this week as he considers the high penalty count recently against his team as they head for their last two round-robin fixtures of the Currie Cup.

The Sharks are currently second on the Currie Cup log, four points behind the Bulls, and they close their regular season by visiting the Lions on Saturday and then hosting Western Province on August 28.

But the Sharks had a double-figure penalty count against them in the first half of their match against the Bulls and were similarly ill-disciplined at the weekend against the Free State Cheetahs.

Even though the Cheetahs had suffered a red card early in the second half, they stayed in the game thanks to the Sharks’ lack of focus and the KwaZulu-Natalians finished the 38-31 win with 13 men thanks to two yellow cards in the closing minutes.

“We’re very happy with the five points against the Cheetahs, but there are two work-ons we have to get right before playing the Lions in Johannesburg,” Everitt said. “The first is our set-pieces and the second is the number of penalties we are conceding. Those are due to individual errors and not system faults. Up to the Bulls game we had conceded the least penalties in the competition.

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“After the last two games we are probably sitting top of that list now. We can’t defend for the majority of a game due to discipline issues, we need to take the pressure off ourselves if we are gong to play free-flowing rugby.

“We need to rectify the number of penalties we’re conceding because we won’t have enough possession if we keep giving away penalties.”

Nevertheless, the Sharks did score six tries against the Cheetahs, exciting wing Thaakir Abrahams scoring twice, and some of their attacking play would have been enough to make the coach purr with delight.

“Thaakir is always a threat with ball in hand, he poses big problems for the opposition,” Everitt said. “It was unfortunate that we had an injury in the warm-up and Marnus Potgieter (hamstring) was not able to take the field, but we were very fortunate to be able to bring in someone like Yaw Penxe, who has been with the Springboks.

“It was Le Roux Roets’ third game in a row so he’s getting that consistency now and he was massive in his ball-carries and setting the maul, while it was also good to see Cameron Wright back on the field and Boeta Chamberlain get a start. Dylan Richardson is blessed with an engine that can just go and go, he had a big impact defensively and with his ball-carries.”