The Sharks crumbled under pressure, admits coach Everitt

Denied access to the front-foot ball they thrive on, the Sharks “were not able to fire a shot” in their 27-12 Currie Cup defeat to the Lions at Ellis Park at the weekend, coach Sean Everitt admitted after the game.

The Sharks’ points all came from the boot of flyhalf Curwin Bosch, with two of his four penalties coming from his own half, and the visitors were way behind the Lions in terms of possession and territory. With four of their first-choice tight five unavailable, their problems started in the scrums and the pressure just spread from there to the rest of their game.

“We can’t make excuses for that performance because we prepared well, but all the penalties against us – rightfully so – meant we weren’t able to fire a shot,” Everitt said.

“The Lions put us under tremendous pressure for the full 80 minutes, but we have experienced individuals at Super Rugby level so it is no excuse. We had a penalty count of 14 against us and you’re not going to win many games with so many penalties against you.

“We are performance-driven and we are not happy with that performance because it was way below standard. The territory game is always important and it is affected by the number of penalties you concede.

“We had the Lions under pressure in their half, but then we would make a mistake, there would be a scrum and then we would concede a penalty which would release the pressure.”

The Sharks coach added that this chastening defeat was not due to a lack of effort nor was their game-plan at fault. Under pressure, the Sharks simply failed to execute and made too many mistakes.

“You have to commend and congratulate the Lions for this pressure they put us under and they are probably the form team at the moment,” he said.

“It was not a lack of effort on our part. We just didn’t perform well and our kicking accuracy wasn’t good enough. We want to play according to the momentum and space and if we do have this momentum then we shouldn’t kick.

“I don’t think there were any kicks when we were on attack. But it’s not all doom and gloom, we were still in the game with 20 minutes to go.

“It’s hard to criticise the players for sticking to their structure. It has worked for us in the past when we came back from a nine-point deficit against the Bulls and 15 points against Griquas. If there were incorrect decisions made then we will rectify that.”

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