Travelling Lions fall short in spite of charity from the Sharks
THE moods of the respective coaches of the Sharks and the Lions could not have been more contrasting at the end of their game at the weekend, with the Durban team now top of the Rainbow Cup SA table with 10 points, and the Lions in last place with a solitary point.
From the vantage point of having won two matches in a row, Sharks coach Sean Everitt had the luxury of bemoaning his team’s poor discipline, while opposite number Ivan van Rooyen was gutted that his team had again fought hard – they gave the Bulls a tough time in round one – but to no avail.
Everitt said: “Giving away 18 penalties and three yellow cards is no way to play 80 minutes of rugby.
“The positive is how the guys defended after giving away all of that possession, especially the line-out mauls – we are giving ourselves a lot of practice at that.
“Other than that, it was generally a better performance that the week before against the Stormers,” Everitt said on the bright side.
“At times the guys were really good and we played some entertaining rugby, and that is what we want to do.”
It is unquestionable that the Sharks’ charity in gifting the Lions so much possession by way of penalties helped the visitors get back into the game after they had been 24-5 down after 30 minutes.
“We were good enough to win the game and we had enough opportunities to do so, and I think that is why it hurts so much,” Van Rooyen said after his team had scored four tries, the same number as the Sharks.
“The guys really got stuck in for 80 minutes and I really felt we improved in the second half. We looked desperate and our execution improved and that adds to the frustration.”
For the Sharks, it goes without saying that they have to sort out their discipline this week if they hope to beat the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria this Saturday in the final game of the first half of this short, six-week competition.
The Lions this week host the Stormers, with both teams searching for their first win, and if it is to be the Lions, they know they have to start much better than they have in their two losses.
“We started off against the Sharks looking quite flat,” Van Rooyen said.
“But once we got hold of the ball and started playing our game, we looked and felt a lot better.”