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Plumtree: Sharks will carry on fighting

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:06

We'll keep on fighting: Sharks' coach John Plumtree

Sharks' coach John Plumtree says his team will carry on fighting for their first win of the Super 14 season and he hoped they would get on a roll after that.

After their desperately unlucky loss to the Waratahs on Saturday, the Sharks now have just the game against the Brumbies remaining in Australia before heading back to New Zealand to play the Hurricanes and Highlanders.

The refereeing in the Waratahs' game was controversial and as captain John Smit said afterwards, when you lose three games in a row, the rub of the green goes against you.

Coach John Plumtree told the Sharks website: "There were some big decisions that went against us and they seriously cost us. Everybody has been talking about the slap-down of Stefan’s pass to Ryan which would have been a try but for that act of cynical play from Kurtley Beale. There was also a pass to Bismarck du Plessis that was called forward which on analysis was shown to be legitimate and again we would have scored from."

He added that the Sharks simply have to move on from decisions that don’t go their way and which he said "crop up every now and again and which are a part of the game".

"It happens and we are not focusing on it in our post-match analysis."

Talking about the match, he told the Sharks website he felt that the Sharks were starting to look like the team they want to be, but was disappointed that they didn’t get it all right.

"There were some good signs of us getting our game going again but we are still not accurate enough.

"We need to get all facets of our game working well, all at the same time because when one thing goes right, we tend to undo all the good work that went into it by not performing accurately enough in another area.

"But when we got consistency going, we were able to put 15 phases together and managed to score a really good team try - being helped by the new refereeing interpretations at the breakdowns which allow teams to string together a number of phases. If you can keep hold of the ball and remain accurate with it, enough to take advantage of the quicker ruck ball, you can really put the opposition under immense pressure and eventually tire them out."

However, one area that disappointed him was the lack of discipline at times which could have proved more costly.

"I was very annoyed with our discipline and have been for a while. I read the riot act to the guys in our post-match analysis. I told the guys that the next player to get a yellow card gets a red card from me.

"When you are down on your luck and trying really hard to get out of a hole, you can’t then make it tougher for the team by getting yourself binned. It is just silly and stresses the team unnecessarily.

"This has been creeping into our game now for a while and it has to stop right now. We were always a side that prided itself on discipline both on and off the field."

On the flip side, there were other positives to take out of the game, especially the spirit and commitment demonstrated when the chips were down.

"I was very pleased with the character the team showed when we came back from 25-14 down," said the coach. "We played the better rugby for most of the second half and finished pretty much on top. I was also proud of the guys because after the Crusaders game we made a promise to each other that we would not give up and they are sticking to that promise.

"We will just carry on fighting until we get that first win and hopefully get on a roll."

Plumtree confirmed on the Sharks website that the bad news that flank Keegan Daniel took a knock to the head and will undergo concussion testing in the latter stages of the week to assess the severity and that Odwa Ndungane's hamstring was a concern as well.

"He [Daniel] is certainly doubtful for the Brumbies game. Odwa has a slight hamstring strain and will be monitored during the week."

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