Sharks coach John Plumtree. (Photo by Steve Haag Sports/Gallo Images)
- Sharks coach John Plumtree is looking to the Challenge Cup for some solace after an extremely underwhelming United Rugby Championship opening stanza that was capped by a 44-10 loss to the Bulls.
- The Sharks will be opening their account against France’s Section Paloise on Saturday, with the French side enjoying an excellent start to their Top 14 campaign.
- Plumtree said they let themselves down in the Bulls defeat, especially with their set-pieces.
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Sharks coach John Plumtree is looking to the Challenge Cup to find some solace after an extremely trying United Rugby Championship portion of the season for his charges.
They fell to a miserable 44-10 hammering against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, leaving them with an inexplicable six losses from seven starts this season, despite having more Springbok star quality at their disposal than most.
They will be hosting Section Paloise, better known as Pau, on Saturday, who are having a wonderful start to their French Top 14 season, with a fourth place to show for their efforts.
Plumtree said his players are going to have to find a way to pick themselves up from a chastening defeat if they are to find answers before Pau come to town.
“Pau are top of the French Top 14, so, we’re going to have to improve our set-pieces and then we can build after that,” Plumtree said.
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“We also need to do some mental soul searching. The review isn’t going to be pretty on Monday and the players need to look at how they’re going to respond.
“When you take 40 points like that, you’ve let a lot of people down, so the players need to look at how we’re going to respond.
“You also let yourselves down as players when you take 40 points like that, so the mirror may be a good place for the boys to start.
“From there, we’ll see what we do on Monday.”
Plumtree morbidly explained how their set-pieces fell apart in the face of the Bulls’ structure and discipline.
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The Sharks lost Emile van Heerden before kick-off and were forced to deploy Jeandre ‘Lappies’ Labuschagne at lock.
They struggled in the lineouts, so badly that they substituted starting hooker Fez Mbatha after half an hour following his 21st minute yellow card with Dan Jooste for the rest of the game.
Plumtree also hinted that the rustiness of his returning Springboks also played a role in the meltdown.
“We’re struggling in key positions, and we missed Emile van Heerden,” he said.
“We were missing a bit of height and Lappies Labuschagne is more of a loose forward than a lock.
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“We’ve got Corne Rahl, who is probably more of a four in the mould of Eben Etzebeth, and we missed a middle-of-the-lineout jumper.
“Our lineout suffered a little bit because of that, because we did win ball, but it was bobbly and didn’t help us launch.
“I don’t know what happened to our scrum, but it seemed to be multiple collapses and our set-pieces didn’t function.
“When they don’t function, they affect the attacking game, which we saw function very well at the start.
“We also conceded some soft tries and it looked like we had rusty rugby players and not just the ones I’ve had, but the ones that have come back from France.”