Sharks very pleased with their set-piece improvement

THE Sharks’ 36-24 victory over the Rebels at the weekend was mostly due to a turnaround in fortunes at the set piece after the Hurricanes had destroyed the Sharks in this regard the week before.

“We are very pleased with how we improved in our set pieces,” Sharks coach Sean Everitt said from Brisbane where the Sharks are preparing for Saturday’s tour finale against the Reds.

“We were hugely better in our scrumming and our lineout work was way better than the previous week,” Everitt said.

“Full credit to the forwards for the enormous amount of work they put in and while it is still some way from being perfect – we did lose a few lineouts in the second half – we were so much better than we were against the Hurricanes.”

The Sharks were also better on defence in what was a highly physical battle.

“The boys defended well against a very difficult team,” Everitt said.

“The guys said it was the most physical game they have played this season, so credit to the Rebels for the fight they put up.”

Everitt said he was thrilled with the five tries his team scored.

“It is very pleasing that we are continually scoring multiple tries in our games,” Everitt said.

“I thought it was really cool of Makazole Mapimpi to give the ball over the tryline to Curwin Bosch to dot down in his 50th game for the Sharks – that shows the spirit in this team.”

But as good as the Sharks generally were, their performance was far from flawless.

The lineouts, while much better in the first half than they were against the Hurricanes, faltered in the second and overall Sharks fans watched their team’s lineout delivery with foreboding – the Durban-based team continue to lack confidence in this vital aspect of the game.

Defence, too, was wonky at times, and quite often it was the Sharks’ back three that were at fault. There quite rightly has been much talk about Aphelele Fassi being the next Springbok fullback, but this shouldn’t happen until he shines up on defence. He is only 22 and understandably is not yet the finished article.

And when Rebels flank Michael Wells bounced Bosch just about into oblivion, commentator Phil Kearns (the former Wallaby) aptly remarked: “Bosch is one of those old-fashioned flyhalves that don’t like tackling!”

The Sharks are now two from three on their tour, which concludes on Saturday against the Reds in Brisbane.