‘Lockdown is no excuse for poor showing’ as Sharks look to bounce back

The Sharks have identified the Bulls’ ability to tie them down in the tight exchanges as the key factor in their heavy defeat at Loftus Versfeld last weekend, and they are confident those problems will be fixed in time for their meeting with a similarly physical pack when they play the Pumas in Nelspruit on Saturday.

“We’ve identified where we fell short and it’s all very fixable, the errors we made were very much controllables, even though the Bulls were very good,” lock Ruben van Heerden said on Tuesday.

“We started well, especially up front – we stopped their mauls, we hit them hard off the line, ball-and-all, and we scrummed well. But then we just lost our way and our momentum slipped. The same thing happened against the Lions.

“So we know we have to keep the same intensity for the full 80 minutes, it’s something we’re working very hard on and it will definitely change this weekend. We can look at the bye or lockdown for stopping our momentum, but those sort of excuses don’t help us. We have to improve every week and build back to where we were in Super Rugby.”

Captain Lukhanyo Am was on the same wave-length. “It was very frustrating because they put us under a lot of pressure at the breakdowns and set-pieces, and then we struggled for momentum and continuity. They capitalised on our mistakes, they took a lot of energy from the set-pieces and it’s something we have to work very hard to shore up,” said the centre.

“It’s unfortunate that we’ve lost Thomas du Toit, who is very experienced and one of our leaders up front.”

While the Sharks were on the wrong side of a 41-14 hammering last weekend, the Pumas really took on the Stormers and were most unfortunate to lose 42-37 after they had the favourites very much on the back foot at 14-37 down.

“The Pumas should have beaten the Stormers, tactically they were outstanding and they identified many flaws in the opposition, but in the end they were unfortunate to let it slip in the last 15 minutes,” Van Heerden said.

“History has proven that you can’t take these smaller unions lightly, they always show up and the Pumas and Griquas have beaten us on occasion. They clearly have good coaches and a good plan.”

Am was impressed by the Pumas’ balance between attack and defence but he said the Sharks will be desperate to bounce back and they are putting in the work to do so.

“Historically our matches against the Pumas have always been close, tough games and they look a pretty balanced side,” said Am.

“They are solid on D(efence) and they have a lot of energy with ball-in-hand, they’ll be very confident and they like running the ball. But we’ve analysed the opportunities and threats they pose, and, coming from a bad loss, we will be geared up, ready and prepared.

“We have been losing momentum early in the season but we have consecutive games now and I think the continuity will be much better as we feed off each other’s energy. Our errors are maybe influenced by rustiness, but it’s the same personnel as in Super Rugby and we should click anytime soon.”

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