Plumtree ‘frustrated’ by another poor Sharks showing

Sharks coach John Plumtree bemoaned his side’s poor start and poor finish in their 40-10 loss to the Lions in a United Ruby Championship match this past weekend at Ellis Park.

The loss to the Lions was the Sharks’ 10th of the season out of 11 games played in the URC and the side from Durban remain rooted at the bottom of the points table with only 10 points.

The Sharks leaked six tries at Ellis Park as they only managed a converted try by Eduan Keyter and a penalty kick by Siya Masuku.

Poor display once again

Looking back on their performance, Plumtree lamented his side’s start and finish against the Lions, saying their performance was once again poor.

“Poor start and poor finish,” said Plumtree when reflecting on the game.

“We just have to keep working hard and keep believing. We know that we will get it right but clearly, we weren’t good enough at the weekend.”

The Sharks were first to put points on the board in the early stages through Masuku’s penalty goal but then watched on as the Lions raced to a 19-3 lead before Keyter’s score saw them go into the interval trailing 19-10.

The start of the second stanza was delayed by 40 minutes due to a flash storm that brought heavy rain and lightning to the ground and then the Sharks would be blown away in the final 16 minutes of the game as the Lions registered three more tries without response.

Frustrated Plumtree

How his side let the Lions run riot left Plumtree a frustrated figure.

“Frustrating performance again from us, we were in it for 60 minutes and the last 20 minutes wasn’t good enough,” Plumtree said.

“Again upfront, we struggled in the scrum and allowed them access into our 22, and their forwards got on top of us with their drive.

“Proud of the boys for the effort. Again, we started badly, like against the Stormers, 19-3 down and then come back 19-10 at halftime and have tries disallowed and that was pretty frustrating,” he said.

The Sharks return to URC action on March 23 against Irish side Ulster at Durban’s Kings Park.