Sharks director of rugby Neil Powell was critical of the number of missed tackles - like this one by Aphelele Fassi on Cornal Hendricks - his team made in their defeat to the Bulls. Picture: Christiaan Kotze/Gallo Images
Faulty game-management and individual errors were to blame for the Sharks’ 40-27 defeat at the hands of the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend, director of rugby Neil Powell said after the United Rugby Championship derby.
The match was more competitive than the scoreline suggested, but the Bulls were just more clinical and enjoyed the edge up front.
Read more: Bulls clinch impressive win over Sharks
“It was a game of missed opportunities and quite a few individual errors for us,” Powell said. “We wanted to execute better and we had quite a few chances in the first half to put the Bulls under pressure.
“Unfortunately we were not clinical enough in the execution of our individual roles and it showed. Rugby is always a game of momentum and confidence, if you give it away, then good teams like the Bulls will punish you.
“We definitely need to work on our game-management. Especially after we conceded the first try, we dropped our heads a bit. Then the second try also took some energy away.
“We definitely need to address that, we have to keep playing for the full 80 minutes. During the international break, we’ll be looking closely at where we can improve, both as a team and in individual skillsets,” Powell said.
The Sharks led 17-16 going into the final quarter, so they were very much in the contest, but the energy of the Bulls bench and some excellent attacking play from turnover ball saw the home side score three tries to seal the result.
“We always know it’s going to be physical against the Bulls at Loftus and we did well in the first half. We stopped their maul and forced them to kick penalties to poles and not for touch,” Powell said.
“So the guys really did well to step up physically, we just did not manage one or two areas of the game well enough to win. We didn’t really find momentum in the first half.
“And then we scored in the second half and got some momentum, but we couldn’t hang on to it. I think not playing last week did hurt us, it stopped our flow a bit.
Read more: Sharks re-energised in home port, head to Loftus refreshed
“From a defensive perspective, a lot of players missed tackles and we definitely need to address that. We need to invest more time in those players,” Powell said.
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