We simply crumbled, admits Sharks coach Du Preez

Like a shaky construction built on sand, the Sharks crumbled under the pressure exerted on them by Western Province in the Currie Cup final at Kings Park in Durban on Saturday, according to coach Robert du Preez.

“Western Province put a lot of pressure on us, it started early with the scrums, and that took its toll in the second half. But Western Province do have a great front row and we battled to recover from that. In the second half we just couldn’t get our hands on the ball and it became really tough for us,” Du Preez said after his team had surrendered a 21-15 halftime lead to lose 33-21.

“The other thing Western Province really did well was the momentum they got, they kept getting over the gain-line, and when you keep on losing it, it becomes very difficult to defend. A yellow card in a final always comes with a cost, technically we were still in the game at that stage, but that just created more momentum for them.”

One-on-one tackles was another sector of the game in which the Sharks came off second best, causing great damage to their chances of lifting the trophy for the first time since 2013.

“You’ve got to make those one-on-one tackles, you can’t just grab at the guy, you have to make hits. Western Province were able to get momentum off those half-hearted tackles, which was very costly. And game-management was also a difference between the sides, there’s was a lot better than ours and they controlled the game,” Du Preez admitted.

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