Joey Mongalo proud of Sharks’ fighting sprit despite Challenge Cup exit

Defence coach Joey Mongalo has praised a second-string Sharks team for the grit they showed during their 34–21 defeat against Lyon Olympique Universitaire in the Challenge Cup round of 16.

The loss in France on Sunday saw the title holders exit the Challenge Cup after just that one match, having dropped into the second-tier tournament after their disastrous Champions Cup campaign.

Head coach John Plumtree’s decision to rest his top players for the game proved costly as the ‘B’ side failed to muster a decent defence against a powerful Lyon.

Understrength Sharks inconsistent in defence

“I thought in the first half, Lyon played with the wind. There was quite a strong wind that gave them territory and possession,” Mongalo said.

The coach said despite this, the side missing available first-choice players Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Vincent Koch, Siya Kolisi, Vincent Tshituka, Phepsi Buthelezi, Jordan and Jaden Hendrikse, Makazole Mapimpi and Ethan Hooker, executed their game plan well especially in the opening 15 minutes of the game, that saw them score the first try of the day.

“But then the next 20 minutes, I thought we just lost a bit of the territory battle.

“We defended quite well, forced them to kick onto us but when they kicked onto us we weren’t able to handle the ball so they got a lot of bounce balls that gave them 22m entries and they were quite clinical when they got into the 22.”

Mongalo said they could have defended better for much of the first half, as Lyon compounded pressure with four tries in the first half.

“I felt that in the first half, if we had turned around the score, just one score less… with such a strong wind, we could have definitely made an impact.”

Mongalo said he was again proud of how the Sharks started the second half, controlling territory and possession.

“We had one or two opportunities that we could have finished. If we finished one or two of those early we might have made a shout of it.”

Coach takes positives from Challenge Cup exit

“The two things we spoke about as a team was we want people watching us to see two things: that we had a clear plan and we stuck to the plan irrespective of the scoreboard and secondly, that fought for each other, showed people how much we care about each other, how much we care about the badge and the province.

“I thought we did those two things pretty decently. Even though we didn’t get the result that we wanted, I thought that we really fought hard.”

The coach said it was “very impressive” for a young team like that to fight back at an away game in France.