A “hurting” John Plumtree reiterated that the Sharks were still not clinical enough on Saturday when Connacht handed his team a fifth successive defeat of the season.
It was the Sharks’ first match back in Durban after a disappointing European tour, and Plumtree’s men extended their slump against the Irish provinces to nine losses with a 13-12 reverse at Kings Park to remain bottom of the Vodacom URC log.
The hosts got themselves into good positions on attack, but lacked the composure to finish off their chances despite the return of double World Cup-winning Springbok centre Lukhanyo Am.
Speaking post-match, head coach Plumtree told reporters: “I’m loving the mindset [of the players], they’re doing everything that I’m asking them to do and I’ve got to take some responsibility for that as well.
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“We’re still not quite clinical enough and still not taking those opportunities… just not ruthless inside the 22. We played the most rugby tonight, and I’m quite proud about that because that’s what I’ve come here to do.
“I’m hurting, and I’m hurting mainly for the team because they’re trying really hard and not getting any reward. They’re a young group and it’s really tough for them, and every week they’re working and we’re just not getting over the line. But we’ll get there.
“I don’t think there was anything wrong with our defence, they only scored one try and they normally score a lot more tries than that. Attacking-wise, we’ve just got to be more clinical.
“We’ve lost two games by one point and another by nine points, and lost to two top sides in Ireland at the start of the competition.”
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“I’ve been saying it all week and I’ll probably keep saying it – we’re playing a different style of game to the way the Sharks have been playing for a good number of years, and we’re playing that game with the same players,” the Kiwi said.
“There’s going to be teething problems and some players, with their skill sets, it’s challenging. But, I’m not going back to kicking the ball away and trying to create opportunities through luck. I want to build pressure through us playing good rugby.
“I don’t like losing because I’ve never lost this many games in a row before, it’s new for me too! But understand this: on Monday, we’re our hardest critics … of course the media will go hard at us but it won’t be as hard as we go on ourselves, so we’ll be okay.”
On Am’s performance, Plumtree added: “I thought Lukhanyo was really good, first game back and showed his class. The guy pulls the trigger on the right options just because of his experience. That’s the standard and we’ve got guys around that are aspiring to be like him.”
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