Following the Cell C Sharks defeat to DHL Stormers in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby at Hollywoodbets Kings Park, there is a sense of analysing what went wrong mentally and focus on fixing it.
Cell C Sharks Director of Rugby Neil Powell, speaking after the game, admitted as much when he said there needs to be some brutally honest examination around the match.
“Definitely not a good performance from us, probably a case of being caught up in last week’s match and didn’t pitch up for this one,” he said. For me, a massive disappointment from a mental approach side, but a good lesson for us.
“If we were on the wrong side of the result but had a better performance and effort, we could accept that we got beaten by a better team on the day. But this just wasn’t good enough from us and we will take this on the chin; no excuses, we have to get better and learn from our mistakes.”
The Cell C Sharks were in the game and competitive throughout, but little errors proved costly and the Stormers were able to capitalise.
“We knew they would punish our mistakes, they’re a team that does that, and that’s exactly what they did, capitalising on our mistakes,” Powell admitted.
“Looking at our mental prep coming into this game, I don’t know if we thought after the Edinburgh game that this would be easy, being at home, but we’re obviously very disappointed. As a coaching staff, we’ll look at ourselves first and then ask the questions of what we could have done better to prepare for this game.
“Just not a good enough performance from us and we will have to look at it and learn from it. We can’t get into a situation where we play so well and show such character and fight in one game, and the next there’s nothing of that which just undoes all the good we’ve done.
“We will definitely have a hard look at ourselves and make sure we don’t get ourselves into this position and situation again.”
After a string of positive results in both the URC and Heineken Champions Cup over the past two months, this was something of an aberration.
“I thought this was the only game we were not up for after some consistency in the last few games. This was the exception for me in terms of the effort and what we wanted to do in this game. Getting that consistency right every time is tough, but there are no excuses.
“If we want to be a champion team, we need to get ourselves up for every single game and make sure we’re mentally prepared for whatever the opposition brings.”
The Cell C Sharks are back in action against the Emirates Lions on 18 February at Emirates Airline Park and they will use this performance and outcome as a big lesson.
“There weren’t a lot of positives out of this game, but there were one or two,” Powell explained. “At times the guys really tried to fight and get themselves back into the game, but the wrong time was when we needed it the most, in the first 20 minutes of the game.
“We will look at those positives, but we need to be brutally honest with ourselves about this performance and make sure we learn from these mistakes.”
The post A Hard, Honest Look appeared first on The Sharks.
Click here to submit your News – free.
Have you tried: Videos From PE?
Quick Durban KwaZulu-Natal Fact: Every year Durban finds itself in the middle of one of the greatest animal migrations, the Sardine Run, where billions of sardines travel up the coast line attracting sharks, dolphins, whales, birdlife and of course numerous fisherman
Watch a Video:
