Sharks coach John Plumtree is hoping that the ‘unexpected’ 38-14 mauling at the hands of the Lions on Saturday will act as a wake-up call for his team.
The Sharks could not cope with the intensity and rollicking start to the United Rugby Championship match by the hosts at a rain-soaked Ellis Park.
The Lions dominated all facets of play, especially the forward exchanges, and their backs were able to profit from the front-foot ball as they ran riot in securing a bonus point. The much-vaunted Sharks backline was starved of quality possession, in contrast.
The score was 19-0 at halftime, and 38-0 with a few minutes left on the clock. A late brace of tries added respectability to the scoreboard for the team from KZN.
The big Kiwi coach was asked what he had made of his team’s set-piece struggles, especially in the scrums.
“I think a lot of the scrums were 50/50 and they went the Lions’ way. But we’ve got to be able to control that,” Plumtree said in his post-match media conference. “It’s not criticism of the referee, we can’t blame him for that performance. So we’ll just look inward at everybody, all the players, management.
“We’ve got to make sure that we learn from this and it never happens again, not in this season.
“We’ve still got high hopes of doing well. That’s a massive wake-up call for us.”
Despite the loss, the Sharks are still in fourth place in the URC table with 34 points after 11 games. A home quarter-final is still firmly in their grasp ahead of the return leg against the Lions on Saturday at Kings Park in Durban.
“A week’s a long time in rugby. Next week we can’t be feeling like this, so it could be a timely wake-up call,” Plumtree said. “The team showed a lot of resilience last week against the Bulls but that week is gone and we’ve got to move past a good performance and be consistent every week.”