Although they secured a bonus-point win over Zebre Parma in Durban on Saturday, Sharks captain Siya Kolisi and head coach John Plumtree were far from happy with their team’s overall display.
The Sharks had to dig deep to clinch a narrow 35-34 triumph against their Italian opponents, who were on course for an upset until a converted Ethan Hooker try in the game’s closing stages spared the home side’s blushes.
Sharks amongst pacesetters in URC standings
The result means the Sharks consolidated fourth position in the United Rugby Championship (URC) standings while Zebre occupy 15th position with five rounds left to play.
The Sharks made a fine start and held a 28-17 lead at half-time but lost their way in the second half as Zebre gained the upper hand and scored 17 unanswered points to take a 34-28 advantage in the final quarter.
Hooker then crossed for his five-pointer in the 75th minute before Jordan Hendrikse slotted a difficult place-kick from close to the touchline to seal his side’s win.
A frustrated Kolisi, who led by example and walked of with the official man-of-the-match award after scoring a brace of tries, did not hold back when assessing his side’s performance after the match.
“We make it so hard for ourselves,” he said after the match. “We get stuck in our 22, not kicking out. They (Zebre Parma) were very good in broken play, they didn’t want structure.
“The coaches told us before the time. We watched clips but we keep on making the same mistakes. It’s unacceptable because we could have lost the game today.”
Despite losing their way midway through the match, the Sharks held their nerve to eventually win the match and Kolisi hailed the character shown by his team to claim the come-from-behind win.
‘Proud of the fight we showed’
“But I’m proud of the fight we showed,” he added. “We are going to need it sometime down the line, but it doesn’t need to be there.”
The Sharks’ next match is at home on Saturday against table-toppers Leinster, who went down 21-20 to the Bulls in Pretoria – their first defeat of the URC campaign.
Plumtree warned his side can ill-afford a similar performance to their Zebre one against the Irish province.
“We’re a little bit Jekyll and Hyde at the moment aren’t we – we are not sure what is going to turn up. We need to fix that,” he said. “They won’t give us those soft moments that Zebre gave us tonight. They’ll punish us.
“We’ll have to play a lot better in every aspect of the game if we’re going to beat a side like Leinster, full strength or not.”
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Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/siya-kolisi-and-john-plumtree-far-from-happy-with-jekyll-and-hyde-sharks-as-leinster-warning-issued
