Hollywoodbets Sharks assistant coach Joey Mongalo says the side couldn’t capitalise on a fast start in their eventual 34-21 defeat to Lyon at the Matmut Stadium in Sunday’s EPCR Challenge Cup round of 16 encounter.
The defending champions had opted to rest a number of first choice players for the trip to France, and that lack of experience ultimately showed despite their managing to take a 7-0 lead early on.
Said Mongalo: “I thought in the first-half Lyon played with the wind, it was quite a strong wind that gave them territory and possession. But I thought the first 10-minutes of the game showed the plan that we wanted to play, and that was really well executed.
“So I was proud of the boys for getting together for three days and executing a plan so well for that first 10/ 15-minutes. But then the next 20-minutes I thought we just lost a bit of the territory battle.”
Mongalo said he believed the Durbanites were closer to victory than the scoreline suggests, but that he was proud of the effort of his youngsters.
“I felt that in the first-half that if we had turned around the score, just one score less, with such a strong wind, we could definitely have made an impact.
“Even though we didn’t get the result we wanted, I thought we really fought hard. For these young guys, I think the average age of this team is 20 or just close to 20.
“So for these guys to come out to France, everyone who understands rugby knows rugby in France away from home is never easy, you don’t get many calls your way either. So for them to stay in the fight til the end was very impressive.”
The side will next be in action at Edinburgh in the URC next weekend.
