Cell C Sharks forward coach Ryan Strudwick admitted on Monday that there is a firm commitment to improve this weekend for the Cheetahs match after a less than satisfactory performance against the Kings on Saturday.
“We are really disappointed with the way we played, the key focus all week was about not giving them any soft tries and we literally gifted them two, so that wasn’t great,” he said. “Those tries were purely down to our own undoing. Otherwise, defensively we were good but we were poor on attack.”
There were a number of split balls and possession lost in contact – by both teams – which Strudwick explained was down to a wet and slippery ball.
“Conditions aren’t great for running rugby at this time of year, we are going to make mistakes, but in saying that, admittedly we did make too many this weekend.”
Was it a wake-up call?
“Perhaps it was a good thing that it was such a poor performance because we will have to lift our game against the Cheetahs. We must also remember though that we made seven changes for the Kings’ game and it didn’t all go according to the plan of building continuity.”
He described the general mood in the camp after the Kings in positive terms, explaining that there is a determination to steer the ship back onto a steady course.
“The mood is good, but it’s also good that the guys are upset with the way they played, they know they let themselves and our fans and team down. We made far too many unforced errors, we gifted them ball and we gifted them tries. There is also a sense of relief because if we’d lost, it would have been disastrous. They know they owe themselves and everybody else a good performance this weekend.
“We have a few guys back for this weekend and hopefully that continuity will return. Hopefully the conditions will also be suitable for running rugby; we haven’t had a really nice dry game this season, other than the Brumbies game. Playing in Bloemfontein at altitude, the ball should be dry and we can at least get into some attacking shape.”
As far as selecting players who missed out this past weekend, Strudwick did hint at a few returns.
“There a few guys carrying bumps and bruises and will have to come through training and we have some on the ‘maybe’ list so we’ll give them to Wednesday before we decide. But Beast will come back, Coenie Oosthuizen is hopefully back in the mix, so we will get some of our Boks back and hopefully they’ll make a big difference for the Cheetahs game.”
The Cheetahs made changes for their match against the Jaguares and suffered a 41-14 defeat. They too will be hurting over their performance and the assistance coach warned of the dangers posed by last year’s Currie Cup champions.
“They’re definitely better than their result against the Jaguares, we know what the Cheetahs can do, they’re a running side. In fact, for the next three weeks we will be playing teams who throw the ball around, who attack from all over, who have good runners; so we’re going to have to be really sharp, especially defensively.
“We are weary of the Cheetahs’ threats and we’ll prepare accordingly.”
The post Righting the Wrongs appeared first on Sharks Rugby.
Full article here: Sharks Rugby – sbuki1030
Fill in the form below to have your blog featured on MyDurban – we will post a snippet and title link to your new blog posts.
Submit and get free press releases here: MyPR Free Press Release | Meet the Durban Bloggers.
