DURBAN – Sharks coach Robert du Preez was delighted that his charges secured a 37-14 home victory over the Waratahs in Durban but admitted his side lost a grip on the match in the second half.
"It is always great to win at home, especially coming back from the Oz tour," Du Preez said afterwards. "The game was a lot tighter in the second half. I think Waratahs had a bit of team talk at halftime because we lost a little bit of our grip on our game in the second half. "We made too many mistakes, too many balls were kicked away, especially after turn-overs."
There was a concern in the Sharks camp after their captain Pat Lambie was forced to leave the field with an injury. "He (Lambie) hurt his back. He got tackled and fell on his back. At this stage, I don't know the extent of the injury but hopefully, it's not too serious," said Du Preez. Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson praised the Sharks for capitalising on errors as their pressure took its toll.
"It has been a tough trip to the Republic (South Africa), having suffered two comprehensive losses," said Gibson. "Tonight the Sharks played with good pressure, capitalised on our errors, and the early damage inflicted on us made it tough for us to come back.
"There are aspects of our game that have improved. I really felt that our defence was much more attacking, with a lot more line speed. "There was a lot more pressure on the Sharks, particularly in the second half when we held them tryless.
"We really came unstuck in those first few minutes, right from the kick-off. We couldn't exit from our own area, we gave away line-out ball and found ourselves seven points down." Michael Hooper, the Waratahs skipper, said his team battled to cope with the Sharks' physicality.
"It's been a tough trip. The Sharks were really physical," said Hooper. "I thought in our defence we brought that but we couldn't deal with them particularly in the first half when they were on top of us and kept pushing.
"It was a difficult game and was probably pleasing to see the fight in the team in our second week over here. "There is a lot to work with in this group, there is a bunch of guys willing to work hard. "So far we weren't able to cope with South African teams, so when we do face them again, we'll have a better knowledge on how to play."