Skipper Mtembu laments lack of urgency

– It reminded one of that equally dire 6-5 victory for the Reds over the Sharks at King’s Park in 2004, so bad was the rugby on show between the Durban outfit and the Melbourne Rebels on Saturday night.

Sharks captain Tera Mtembu (right) admitted as much after his side drew 9-9 with the Australians in a Super Rugby encounter, saying that it was “not good enough” for a team with play-off ambitions.

Coach Robert du Preez, known as a tough taskmaster, would’ve given his players the “hairdryer treatment” after an uninspiring performance that left them sec- ond in the Africa Conference 2 on 24 points, a mammoth eight behind leaders Lions.

This was a game the Sharks simply had to win, especially ahead of a daunting trip to face the Jaguares in Buenos Aires next weekend.

“It felt like a loss. We were nowhere today. We set ourselves some goals and didn’t achieve them. Well done to the Rebels, who put us under a lot of pressure,” Mtembu said.

“It doesn’t get any easier. We are going to be honest with ourselves – it wasn’t good enough.”

Of course life was made more difficult following the withdrawal of rightwing Kobus van Wyk during the warm-up with a calf strain, while inside centre André Esterhuizen was red-carded in the first quarter for a dangerous tackle on Rebels wing Sefa Naivalu.

But Mtembu didn’t want to use that as an excuse. “Losing Kobus in the warm-up is never ideal, but that’s no excuse. Everyone in the squad should be able to step up, and unfortunately we didn’t. We let our fans down,” the rangy loose forward said.

“We couldn’t get momentum, and I would like to know the stats of how many balls we coughed up. That was a main focus for us as we want to score tries, as you cannot score tries without the ball.”

To add insult to injury for the Sharks, Rebels captain Nic Stirzaker also spent about 22 minutes off the field after receiving two yellow cards. Yet the home side couldn’t take advantage of that situation.

Scrumhalf Stirzaker was relatively satisfied with the outcome after fullback Reece Hodge slotted a last-gasp penalty to draw the game to add to two other three-pointers, in reply to Curwin Bosch’s three goalkicks for the Sharks. – ANA