Relief, But One More Challenge – Featured Durban Blog

Cell C Sharks Director of Rugby Gary Gold admitted after his team’s victory over the Cheetahs that it was a season-defining result, particularly as they have now virtually booked their place in the knock-outs.

They have one more hurdle this weekend when they host the Sunwolves at Growthpoint KINGS PARK on Friday evening, and four log points will guarantee them entry into the play-offs ahead of the chasing Bulls.

Assessing his team’s performance against the Cheetahs, he explained: “I was a bit disappointed in the performance, too many errors and discipline kept the Cheetahs in the game. And there were a couple of opportunities we could have finished better.

“But after the week we had last week when we were well and truly beaten, it was a test of character to come back and the Cheetahs are a fiery team, there’s some history there. I’m really happy for the guys. While it’s never an excuse, it has been quite disruptive with Patrick, Andre, Paul and Willie. But I’m happy for the guys like Garth and Rhyno who got their opportunities and were able to come out on the winning side.”

Gold suggested that “We couldn’t get our territory game going in the first half. The set-piece seemed to struggle, our scrums struggled a bit in the first half, our kicking game didn’t go well enough and we didn’t spend much time in their 22.

“They were always going to come here with fight in them, they’re a team that has a lot of character and we didn’t want to get into a game of touch rugby with them. And our discipline kept them in the game with us conceding a handful of penalties.

“But we knew what we needed to do after half time, we spoke about game management, better discipline and taking opportunities when they were there and when we got it right, we looked quite good.”

All games have turning points and for the Cell C Sharks, it was the immense character shown when the team’s scrum was down to seven men and they were defending thir tryline, one scrum after the next. There was the very real danger that the game may well have been lost at that critical time.

“At 7-3 down, had we gone to 14-3 down, that would have become a real dog fight for us,” Gold admitted.

“That was critically important for us, and it’s not the glamour part of the game. You’re down a man, your scrum is already under pressure and you have to really dig deep. And we defended nicely before building up to turn them over and getting the ball down-field.

“That would have been a very difficult period to come back from had we conceded a try.”