Hollywoodbets Sharks coach John Plumtree lamented a bad start and finish to their 40-10 defeat to the Lions at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday, the result of which sees them remain stranded at the bottom of the overall URC standings.
The men in black and white are still searching for their second win of the URC campaign following their thumping of Dragons in November but were unable to stitch together a full 80-minute showing on the weekend.
“[It was a] frustrating performance again from us,” Plumtree said. “We were in it for 60 minutes and the last 20 minutes wasn’t good enough.
“Again, up front, we struggled a bit in the scrum and allowed them access into our 22m and then their forwards got on top of us with their drive.”
With so many frontline players rested due to a combination of Springbok resting protocols and injuries, the team on display in Johannesburg was far from full strength. Still, the Sharks boss was pleased at the response his side showed after going behind early on.
“I’m really proud of the boys around the effort. We started badly, 19-3 down and then to come back 19-10 at halftime and to have two or three tries disallowed in the first half was pretty frustrating. So poor start and poor finish.”
That said, Plum remains optimistic that things will fall into place, with home clashes against Ulster and Edinburgh to look forward to.
“We’ve got to just keep working hard and keep believing. We know that we will get it right, but clearly we weren’t good enough in the weekend.”
