Sharks look to solid home record after last week’s ‘lack of effort’

Sharks head coach John Plumtree said he was upset with his side’s “lack of effort” in their first United Rugby Championship (URC) local derby against the Lions last weekend, and they would need to “earn” the right to hold the tournament’s SA shield by righting their wrongs against the same opponents on Saturday.

The Lions smashed the Sharks six tries to two in Johannesburg last weekend (final score 38–14).

But the Durban side will have a rare second chance to put things right immediately afterwards at Kings Park, where they have won five of their six home matches this season.

Doing so will allow the Sharks to leapfrog the Bulls on points and the Stormers on number of wins, to secure their first-ever SA shield since SA teams joined the competition in the 2021/22 season.

However, if the Lions secure a bonus-point win against the Sharks they could overtake them at third on the shield and prevent a third last-place finish.

Plumtree was speaking to media on Friday after announcing his squad for the game. Prop Ox Nche returns from injury while centre Lukhanyo Am sits out due to injury.

Siya Kolisi gets his first start since his Springbok mandated break, and will also captain the side.

Sharks get second chance at home stronghold

The final URC local derby will be the decider, and Plumtree said they knew how difficult their task was despite their excellent home record.

“If the Lions hadn’t captured our attention before the game they’ve captured it now,” he said.

“It’s not often in life you get second chance. But there are 80 minutes to get through against a side that is playing with a lot of confidence.

“Clearly they are not scared of us at any distance. We know we are going to have to earn it.”

The Sharks coach said defeat happens in sport and this can be accepted, but the way a team loses is important.

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Sharks look at defence and poor discipline

“As much as the Lions played really well and they stuck to their plan through the game – just putting the ball behind us and keeping us under pressure once they had that scoreboard pressure – the manner of how we lost upset us the most.

“It was the lack of effort that we showed.”

Plumtree said his team had entered the match with confidence after their wins against Cardiff and the Bulls but were still not in the right frame of mind.

“We have to make sure we are in the right space mentally, physically, to earn the right to hold that shield up. Otherwise, the Stormers will do it.”

“We allowed them easy territory gain and that was through poor discipline. That’s the first part we have to get right.

“Secondly, we can’t allow them momentum after momentum. They crossed the gain line 56% or 57% of the time against us.”

He said the Lions would score tries again if this was the case on Saturday.

“That’s how they built their scoreboard pressure. Then it was the case of them keeping their foot on our throats and not letting us off and they did that with their kicking game. That was really clever as well.”