Hugo urges Sharks to improve their discipline against Lions
THE Sharks’ disappointment at losing narrowly to the Stormers in their last Rainbow Cup SA outing was tempered by the news of the Lions’ surprise defeat of the log-leading Bulls, says lock Reniel Hugo.
If the Bulls had continued their unbeaten run in the competition by beating the Lions, they would have been certainties to win through to the big final against the winners of the northern version of the Rainbow Cup.
“The Lions beating the Bulls has opened up the Rainbow Cup massively,” the former Cheetah said after the Sharks had trained yesterday.
“We know if we win both our remaining games, we are in with a shout of finishing top. We believe we can beat the Lions this week and the Bulls next week (at Jonsson Kings Park), and go on to play that final in Italy.
“The Rainbow Cup SA has four very good teams, and we have seen that anybody can beat anybody on the day. It is very even — the quality of rugby every weekend shows that there are no easy games.”
The 30-year-old Hugo has come to the Sharks via the Cheetahs, but has previously played for Toyota Verblitz (in Japan) as well as the Bulls and Western Province in a muchtravelled career. He cut his teeth in the Varsity Cup with Maties and then with Tuks.
Hugo has played in all four of the Sharks’ Rainbow Cup matches — including a Man-ofthe-Match performance in Cape Town against the Stormers, which saw him score a hat-trick of tries — so he is in a good position to know what the Sharks need to fix ahead of Saturday’s clash against the Lions at Ellis Park (4pm kickoff).
“Our discipline is really costing us … That is why we are falling away towards the end of games,” he said.
“We are conceding so many penalties, and invariably the result is the opposition kicking the ball out to set up rolling mauls … and stopping them takes a lot of energy, and eventually the legs just give in.”
It went better for the Sharks against the Stormers, and they dominated the set piece for 50 minutes of the game, but then their line-out fell apart.
“Our line-outs were poor,” Hugo admitted. “But I must give credit to the Stormers for how they contested — they have some tall guys there in Marvin Orie and JD Schickerling, and they put us under pressure.
“But no excuses, some of our calling was wrong, and we have to be better than that.”