Durban – Two tricky Currie Cup qualifiers have been seen off by the Sharks in the Pumas and the Griquas, and there is one more to come this week, in the form of the Bolanders, before the Sharks face their first major Currie Cup Challenge of 2016 on August 27, when the Bulls visit Durban.
With these three matches in mind before engaging a Currie Cup big boy, coach Robert du Preez had been hoping for incremental progress, but he is not so sure his team on Friday against Griquas built on the exceptional performance against the Pumas in Nelspruit in the opener.
“In that first match we showed a lot of enterprise with ball in hand; there had been nice intent to play attacking rugby,” Du Preez said.
“I am not so sure we built on that against Griquas. I said last week we wanted to show an improvement, and I am not sure we managed that. We reverted to our old tendency to kick too much, and that is a big concern to me. Nevertheless it was a big win (43-24), and with a nice bonus point."
Du Preez will be whipping his charges back up into full attack mode before the Bulls game, and he is also unhappy at the soft tries that Griquas scored. He said defending around the fringes had to be sorted out this week.
“On defence, at times they had us on the outside, and our spacing was not good. We need to work on that. It is not a train smash, but we can’t be letting in soft tries like that against better teams.”
A pleasing aspect of the game was the Sharks’ scrumming. The week before they had been brilliant, with Lourens Adriaanse in the vanguard, and with Thomas du Toit getting a shot at tighthead, the Sharks scrum continued where it left off in Nelspruit.
“I was pleased that our scrumming was good, Thomas did well. We kept the same scrumming standards we made at the Pumas.”
In returning to the focus of this Currie Cup campaign, Du Preez said: “The Sharks have always been known for attacking rugby, and have to keep ball in hand more often than we have been doing. It just means you make so fewer tackles, while the opportunities to score grow.”
– Sunday Tribune