Rebels gutted by Sharks defeat

 

In a tight affair that saw penalties being traded in the first half the Rebels were broken by the big boot of Frans Steyn as silly errors gifted the men from Durban the game.

 

Coach Tony McGahan was pleased with the Rebels' effort, however rued missed opportunities and poor mistakes for the loss.

 

"That was hugely frustrating. I thought we showed a tremendous effort and tremendous grit; the boys really worked hard for each other but we weren't able to get there in the end," said McGahan.

 

"The Sharks are an experienced group and I thought we really challenged them, but ultimately you need some execution and we couldn't back that up. We killed ourselves"

 

"It was a fantastic opportunity to knock off the top team and there's no-one else to blame but ourselves," Higginbotham said.

 

The Rebels dominated the game stats but were left ruing poor execution with the ball going to ground on many attacking raids.

 

"We lost that game, I don't think they won it so it's disappointing," the captain added.

 

McGahan said the disappointment was testimony to the team's new-found self-belief.

 

"You see the disappointment with myself and Scott [Higginbotham] and the group about where we are now, to be disappointed to not beat the top side," he said.

 

"We're in the fight now but we need to start turning these in."

 

Higginbotham said that the Rebels weren't far off becoming contenders themselves. 

 

"We're obviously playing some good football and we're doing a lot of hard work to get into good positions," he said.

 

Bismarck du Plessis said afterwards: “I’m very happy winning the first game on tour. We were happy with some of the areas we played in, but not with the one-on-one tackles.”