Durban: Although there may be many supporters baffled by the surprisingly unconvincing start the Sharks have made to their Super Rugby campaign, director of rugby Gary Gold insists there is no doubt or panic in the camp.
The Sharks are aware that their desire to play an attacking brand of rugby is one that comes with risks, but it has still taken longer than expected for the Durban side to match that intent with accurate decision-making and efficient execution.
As a result, the Sharks have failed to find a balance and rhythm to their play, and in recent weeks the Bulls and Stormers have found ways to exploit this lack of cohesion.
In particular, so far this season the Stormers have executed an effective kicking-prolific game plan backed up with a sound set-piece, which has seen them apply pressure on the opposition without necessarily dominating the possession stakes. Four wins from four is the result, though.
It’s an approach that has worked wonders for the competition front-runners, but the Sharks are daring to be different, and are determined to keep the faith in their processes, despite the shaky start to their season.
In the lead-up to today’s crucial clash against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein (5.05pm), Gold emphasised that they weren’t questioning their game plan, but were rather just focusing on executing it better.
“We need to see where we’ve gone wrong. Is it the plan or the execution? At critical times we’re seeing the plan can work because we have got enough reward out of it.
“I think after a tough time you tend to look at things under a microscope. But that’s also exactly the time when you can’t second-guess yourself, and we don’t want to panic or change the game plan.”
Gold insisted the time they had spent at training on implementing an attacking brand of rugby would not go to waste.
“We researched it long and hard. We want to play with more ball-in-hand, we want to play an attacking brand of rugby when we’re in the right areas of the field, and we’re going to stick to that. We have outstanding players, and we want to use them.”
The Sharks also know the players’ skills-set and decision-making is their biggest ally when it comes to attacking well, which is something that comes with time.
“I know when you aren’t winning, everyone wants to intrinsically look at everything that went wrong,” Gold said.
“But there is a lot that has also gone right, and our focus is on trying to make it happen more frequently. The confidence is still high in the group, we know there have been certain factors out of our control that affected us, and we’re going to concentrate on what is in our control and rectify that.”
In this regard, the Sharks will be looking for a vastly improved performance at scrum-time, as well as strong defensive display against the dangerous Cheetahs.
“Our set-piece wasn’t good enough when we faced the Cheetahs in the first round, and so we know what we have to do. The Cheetahs are also a good ball-in-hand team, they play with a lot of width especially up in Bloemfontein, and so we’re going to have to be very wary of their broken field runners.”
Gold said he has faith in his team to finally kick-start their stuttering campaign. “They’re a great bunch of guys and I’ve seen how badly they want to put things right.” - Saturday Star