Gold happy with Sharks’ character
Despite suffering their first defeat of the season, Sharks director Gary Gold was happy with the charcter his side displayed against the Crusdaers.
|||Durban - In the final analysis, the record books will credit the Crusaders with victory against the Sharks, but it was a match that highlighted the kind of character in this team who have only lost once in five Super Rugby games.
“Seven games together now, including the two pre-season matches, and this is our first defeat,” said Sharks Director of Rugby Gary Gold.
“But we didn't deserve to win the game, we must be honest about that, we must give credit to the Crusaders as well. I said beforehand, they're probably at a better stage now than we've seen for a number of seasons.”
Unfortunately, in a match where the Crusaders dominated territory, it was always going to be tough for the Sharks to play as much attacking rugby “in the right areas” as they would have liked.
"Seven games together now,including the two pre-season matches,and this is our first defeat" https://t.co/tK5f0w8HxF pic.twitter.com/XlQ6iiBspT
— The Sharks (@TheSharksZA) March 29, 2016
“We need the ball in our hands more, we can't play without the ball for that period of time, you can't expect a team to tackle that much, especially against the likes of the Crusaders, and they're up there with the best attack in the business. The first thing you need is territory because you want to build on your pressure in the right areas of the field. But the early kicks didn't go into touch and that gave them an opportunity to run at us. And then if you get an opportunity to run at them, but you've been defending for the last 25 phases, you're pretty stuffed.”
Although the Super Rugby clash with the Crusaders ended in defeat, there was a common theme to Gold's analysis of the game, and that was the character his team has demonstrated.
“I must give huge credit to our guys for the character they've shown,” he said. “We came out after halftime and gave ourselves the opportunity to win the game. We will learn from this.”
He admitted that there is a need to go back to the drawing board after this match. “I think our basics are pretty good, we've come quite a long way in a short space of time. But they set the bar high and we have to acknowledge that there is some work for us to look after the ball.
The @CellC Sharks played @crusadersrugby this weekend,tune into #Haaitunes for a full update https://t.co/wPQxjSMYHn pic.twitter.com/aShcUZQyjI
— The Sharks (@TheSharksZA) March 29, 2016
“We have great outside backs, we want to get the ball into their hands; we have to be hard on ourselves about that. “It's all about the momentum of the game and wrestling it into your favour, so that when you get the chance, and you're in the right area of the field, you're in the right state of mind. And looking back, particularly in the second half, there were quite a few opportunities and we didn't take them.”
The Sharks now take a well-earned bye this week and will have some work in the medical room before a home match against the Lions and then their overseas tour. Gold confirmed that Philip van der Walt and Etienne Oosthuizen took rather bad knocks, Daniel du Preez sustained a hip pointer injury and Lwazi Mvovo took a knock to his lower back and will all be assessed and treated accordingly.
Next week's match against the Lions is an opportunity to correct their performance against the Crusaders, Gold admitted.
“We'll be really up for it, it will be a huge game for us against a team playing really good rugby at the moment. “Five games down and it's not going to get any easier, so there were big lessons from this game. But I choose to focus on the positives, I have to give this team a lot of credit for the character they showed.” - African News Agency (ANA)