Assistant coach Joey Mongalo is confident that the Sharks can convert a run of narrow defeats to victories, starting against the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The Sharks face Ivan van Rooyen’s charges in round 11 of the Vodacom URC. The Durbanites occupy last place on the table after nine losses from 10 matches in the competition that includes a last-gasp defeat to the Lions at Kings Park last month.
John Plumtree’s men threatened a comeback in a 25-21 defeat to the DHL Stormers two weeks ago, and speaking in a Sharks conference on Tuesday, Mongalo believes the tide will turn.
“This is a proud place, a proud rugby region and rugby province, so we’re always going to go into a game to represent the badge to the best of our abilities,” he told reporters.
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“We also see how far up we can finish on the [URC] log as we really want to challenge ourselves from where we are at the moment.
“The way we want to do that is to continue to fight and put out performances that we can be proud of and the effort we’ve put in during the week.
He added: “We can’t get away from the fact that we’re in a performance-based industry. We only get judged by winning, so players and coaches who aren’t winning things aren’t rated highly.
“We know that and we’re aware of the environment that we’re in, so we want to win as many games as possible.
“We have enough evidence to show that we’re a group that is going somewhere and we take encouragement in that, with one more step closer, those close losses would’ve been little wins.”
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