Sharks not far off a winning formula

KEEGAN DANIEL is one of those irrepressible characters that are key to happy rugby teams and his sense of humour was in rude health, as always, when he spoke to the press yesterday after his team’s training session ahead of their Super Rugby match against the Sunwolves at Kings Park on Saturday.

Daniel would have taken some ribbing from his mates after a quick lineout throw-in to himself went awry against the Waratahs last week, but he has shrugged it off with a wry smile. Daniel, now 33, has characteristically been a lively flank with an attitude of “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Before the Waratahs match he tweeted that the game would be his first at Super Rugby level since 2016.

Yesterday he grinned when asked about that tweet: “Maybe I have played my last in 2018!”

Daniel missed the 2017 season because of a broken arm.

“Then before the round one game against the Lions, I got sick and had to withdraw, so that was another inauspicious start to a Super Rugby season,” he laughed. “So it was with some relief that (I) Iaced up the boots last week and got on to the field against the Waratahs.”

It was game of much frustration for the Sharks players and their fans alike. A 24-24 draw would have had the Australians cheering all the way back to their hotel.

“In any situation, when you have the opposition on the ropes and you don’t put them away it is frustrating, and then when you watch the replay of the game and you see the opportunities you created but did not convert, it is very annoying,” Daniel said. “But what the replay did confirm for us is that we are not far off a winning formula.”

He said it was not a case of over-eagerness, but more a case of marginal errors that could so easily have gone the other way and resulted in tries.

“You do not want to curb enthusiasm, and creativity,” Daniel said. “Margins are small when you are intent on attacking — you are either going to be a hero or a villain.

“As long as the guys stick to trying something new and exciting, the approach will eventually pay off. We are not far away. It is not like we going on to the field and don’t know what we are doing.”