Sharks coach on semifinal loss: 'It's all my fault'
REACTION: Sharks coach Joey Mongalo is taking full responsibility for his team’s Currie Cup semifinal loss to the Pumas in Durban on Saturday.
The Sharks, who finished second on the table ahead of the third-placed Pumas, produced a sluggish performance on their way to a 20-26 defeat to Jimmy Stonehouse’s side.
After the match, Mongalo admitted he made a mistake by resting key players in the final-round clash against Western Province in Cape Town a week earlier.
“It’s all my fault and I mean that,” Mongalo told reporters.
“I am the one who tinkered with the team that went to Western Province.
“I didn’t have to do that. I could have chosen the same team that would have gained momentum going into the semifinal.
“I took a risk and the risk didn’t work.
“You saw how long it took us to get going in the game and that is purely because the guys were disrupted a week before because I chose to play a completely different team against Western Province, so it’s not on the guys, it’s 100 percent on me.”
On the Pumas’ performance, Mongalo added: “The Pumas were really up for it emotionally.
“You could see how they played and how they started the game.
“I thought they were tactically very good in terms of how they stopped our mauls, which is one of our key areas. The kicking game that they used with Devon Williams and Tinus de Beer, I thought was very good, so you got to compliment them.
“They were better than us on the day, but they were better because I disrupted our momentum by changing the team last week.”
‘A big moment’
The Sharks had to play for most of the final half hour of the match with 14 men with Henco Venter receiving a yellow card for a high tackle in the 52nd minute before centre Alwayno Visagie was red-carded for taking out a play in the air in the 65th minute.
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#CurrieCup REPORT: The defending champions from Nelspruit edged the Sharks 26-20 in a tense semifinal clash at Kings Park on Saturday. 👇#Sharks #Pumas #SHAvPUM https://t.co/AA3l38qAwq
— rugby365.com (@rugby365com) June 17, 2023
“I love Henco. I love him like a younger brother,” said Mongalo.
“He will know that was a big moment in the game because we got a penalty, Lionel kicked it out beautifully on the five-metre line and then the opposite happens and then we are defending on our own tryline.
“I don’t think we lost the game because of that, but I do think it does influence the game.
“The other one with Alwayno, I guess you can’t play against penalties, you can’t defend against penalties and you can’t defend against cards, especially in a play-off game where the pressure is heightened.
“It is what it is.”
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