Sharks coach John Plumtree did not hold back his disappointment in his charges following their loss to the Bulls in the United Rugby Championship semifinal.
The Durban franchise had the unenviable task of travelling north to face a rampant Bulls side for a place in the URC Grand Final. But it wasn’t to be for the Springbok-laden Sharks XV, who went down 25-13 in front of a boisterous Loftus Versfeld faithful.
Apart from missing 11 points off the kicking tee, the Sharks’ attack was often toothless. They failed to convert pressure into points on many occasions, managing just one try during the 22-minute period when the Bulls were down to 14 and then 13 players after a flurry of yellow cards.
“I felt at times we played too deep when we had momentum and at other times too flat when we didn’t have momentum,” Plumtree told the press after the match.
“We just didn’t quite have quick enough ball and enough players coming onto the ball throughout the match. We did for parts of the game, but we didn’t cash in when we did have enough [players onto the ball].
“When we were close to their line, we got held up – that’s just an absolute disaster just before half-time.
“We were just a little bit off and I’ll have to take another look at the video. We had opportunities to counter-attack, which we had plans for, but didn’t quite complete it.
“It was frustrating. I’ve been here enough with the team to know that if I played that game in my mind during the week it would play out during the game.
“That’s why I felt good at half-time. I felt we were winning the territory battle and we had enough opportunities, but we just didn’t quite finish it off and just had to do that in the second half.
“When we scored [through Ethan Hooker] we got back in the game but then in the last 20 minutes, we didn’t cash in at all. We’ve been good at finishing games the last couple of weeks, which probably has been a strength, but we didn’t manage to do it tonight.”
