Coming back from a 10 point half-time deficit and staring down the barrel of a disappointing loss, the Cell Sharks were quite magnificent in the courage and character shown to blast the Emirates Lions into their first Vodacom Super Rugby loss to a South African opponent since 2015.
Head coach Robert du Preez admitted afterwards that the talk in the change-room at the half-time break was all about showing character in the second half.
“We didn’t have any possession in the first half, as well as territory and I knew we would need a special performance and a really big fight back from the boys,” he explained.
“I talked about playing for each other, fighting for each other; that’s what they did.
“With this win we obviously got our campaign back on track.”
There were early warning signs that things might go awry when the scrums were penalised which allowed the Lions to launch attacks deep in our half, but as the game progressed, our scrumming improved to the point where the advantage was reversed and the Lions became the target and we earned the penalties.
Du Preez admitted that there were teething problems but they did resolve themselves.
“I think we were a little bit high in our set-up in the beginning and perhaps not enough speed on the set-up, but we sorted that out and the second half was a vast improvement. I think that changed the game for us.”
Another contributing factor was the determined defence that had the Lions’ attack under pressure and in the second half, so good that it prevented any further tries.
“I thought our defence was outstanding, apart from the two soft tries conceded in the first half,” du Preez said. “I think that ultimately took its toll and in the end gave us the win.”
The coach also had a few words of praise for the Vodacom Man of the Match performance from hooker Akker van der Merwe who is enjoying a revival in his playing career after making the move to the Cell C Sharks from the Lions.
“Akker only played 60 minutes and still got man of the match! He was great, he had a fantastic game. But Chiliboy also made a big difference when he came on, especially at scrum-time. In fact the whole bench was great.”
Although the Springboks had no break, aside from two days off, the coach admitted that they slotted back seamlessly. “They came back with a lot of confidence, the standard of our practices was better than before. Their contribution was huge. Everyone’s was”
This match was billed as a final, a must-win, and for now it’s mission accomplished. However, it doesn’t end here. There are still two weeks remaining in the pool stages, with a clash against the Stormers in Cape Town this weekend and then the Jaguares at JONSSON KINGS PARK the following weekend.
But the players would savour this win long into the night.
The post Showing Character appeared first on Sharks Rugby.
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