AUDIO: Sharks solely focused on result
Sharks recorded their first Super Rugby win of the season with a 50-22 victory over Sunwolves at Durban.
The Sharks outscored the Sunwolves seven tries to three for the bonus-point victory.
The win means the Durban-based side occupy the second spot in the South African conference.
"It is always about the results," coach Robert du Preez said, adding: "I don't care about the performance, as long as we win,"
"It was never going to be an easy game but I thought we put the result away in the first 40 minutes. Our forward pack did admirably well, our scrummaging was good and I thought our breakdown work was really outstanding,"
The coach, however, did identify some facets of their game where the side needs to improve and highlighted the importance of patience.
"Patience, patience, patience. We need to improve on that. I think our game management needs work, we tried to rush things in the first half, in our own half; we need to be more patient.
"There were still too many opportunities created that we didn’t convert, which is something we’ll continue to work on. We also battled to exit in the first half,"
"But I’m very pleased with the multi-phase play aspect of our game. It’s very difficult to play in Durban at this time of the year, but I thought the guys did really well in that respect, I don’t think there were too many handling errors. We still need to work on our individual decision-making.
"If we get better every game, that will give the individuals confidence and the team confidence, that’s our aim, for constant and consistent improvement,"
Sharks' mentor made a number of changes ahead of the Sunwolves clash which included a start for Curwin Bosch at fullback while Wian Vosloo made his debut in the No.6 jersey.
"I think the guys who have come in have done very well, I was very pleased with their performances which do give us a few pleasurable selection headaches.
"The obvious one is Wian Vosloo who made his run on debut for us and I thought he did very well for us [his reward has been selection for the tour]. There will be one or two selection headaches but it’s always been important that we embrace the bigger squad system. I was happy that the guys were offered opportunities and took them,"
Next challenge for the Sharks is the struggling Brumbies. Thus far the Australians managed to produced one win over the Sunwolves but suffered two defeats to the Reds and Rebels.
"The Brumbies can’t be underestimated and we need to build on what we did against the Sunwolves. We saw some glimpses of what this team can do, we’re a work in progress and far from the finished product, so we’ll keep on working hard every day.
"There aren’t going to be any easy games, the Reds showed that against the Bulls with a young side and they did very well. We are just taking it one game at a time,"
