Du Preez addresses Sharks' shortcomings
REACTION: Sharks’ lack of patience on attack could be the side’s Achilles heel heading into the last few weeks of the Currie Cup season.
The Sharks managed to secure a 33-29 bonus-point win over the young and inexperience Free State Cheetahs last weekend.
The Sharks dominated the opening minutes and found themselves constantly inside the FS Cheetahs’ 22. However numerous handling errors kept the halftime score to just 19-15 in favour of the visitors.
“We had no patience on attack, we couldn’t get the phases going; to me that was the biggest issue,” Du Preez revealed after the match.
“We had a lot of opportunities, especially in the first half, but couldn’t convert them,”
“The Cheetahs gave us a proper workout, it’s always difficult to come and play games like this if you get into a situation where you potentially disrespect the opposition, then you get a tight game like this,” explained the coach.
“I have to say, this Cheetahs side is not bad, there are some good players in this team. They gave us a proper run for our money and in the end, the game could have gone either way,”
Three of the Sharks tries were scored via rolling mauls, du Preez admitted that it wasn’t a specific ploy they had necessarily decided on using in the planning.
“With all the penalties that we earned, they were kicked to touch and so the rolling maul became a regular option from the lineout and a good opportunity for attack,”
“Some of the tries we scored through the phases showed what we’re capable of, but at times we lost composure and throwing silly little offloads and 50-50 passes that weren’t really on.
“For me, that’s the biggest take-out from the game: patience on attack,”
Source: @TheSharksZA
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