Chiefs let the game slip away

 

A strange game that saw three red cards dished out in the first half was also punctuated with rain showers and gusts of wind which caused both teams to throw out their game plans.

 

The Chiefs played for most of the game with a man advantage after Frans Steyn joined his captain Bismarck du Plessis on the sideline for a red card-offence.

 

It then became a war of attrition where the Chiefs looked to break the Sharks' spirit with all out attack on their line.

 

However, the Sharks revised game plan, aided by the Chiefs lack of accuracy in poor conditions, saw the tenacious home team come out one-point victors.

 

Rennie admitted that the weather was a huge factor in their less than dominant display, but did not blame to conditions, rather acknowledged that they were poor in their execution.

 

"It is some simple things, we battled to hold onto the ball for long enough and we did not deal with the slippery ball well enough," the Chiefs coach said.

 

"I felt that when we carried we got in behind them and we looked dangerous every time, but you have to go a lot more than a couple of phases.

 

"They were prepared to put the ball in the air and put us under pressure, we did not deal with that well enough.

 

"It was an incredibly hollow night [Saturday], especially with them being down to 13 men. 

 

"Incredibly frustrating."

 

Captain Liam Messam agreed with his coach's sentiments and stated that besides the discipline, they struggled to hold on to the ball.

 

"Two basic errors in our game, our discipline let us down, and not being able to hold into the ball for long enough," the All Black said.

 

"We built the pressure, but if we could just hold on to the ball for one more ruck, we would have had them.

 

"It was slippery, but as a professional you should be able to hold onto those balls and move to the next ruck to build pressure."

 

Rennie was straight forward about his team's poor display, pointing out that they were not clinical enough which allowed the Sharks to 'steel up' and snatch victory.

 

"There was a lack of accuracy, we lost a lot of ball in contact, so that is individual responsibility," Rennie added.

 

"We were not clinical enough, simple as that. 

 

"We should have put them away and we did not, they hung in there and became more difficult the longer the game went on.

 

"Both sides had to play with a wet ball so it is not an excuse, at this level you have to be far more accurate, they hung in there and defended well. 

 

"Teams steel up when you lose a man, Hika [Elliot] got sent off first and our boys steeled up well to defend their line.

 

"The Sharks were able to do the same, they were just able to hold onto the ball."

 

Sharks coach Gary Gold on the otherhand was proud of his team's character as they executed a revised, simplified game plan after half time.

 

"We simplified the plan a lot in the second half because of what our limitations where, and I think we got some good reward from that," Gold said.

 

"I said at half-time that I believed that we could still win, the reason I said that is because we have not shown our character in the past, we have not shown it in other situations. 

 

"When some bad calls went against us at Loftus we needed to show better character than that. 

 

"This game we simplified the plan at half time to one of putting them under pressure."

 

Gold shared his plan after the game and it seemed to be a contributing factor in unsettling the Chiefs.

 

"The plan tactically was for us to keep the ball in the scrum and to use JP [Pietersen] on our own ball," Gold explained.

 

"We believed we could scrum for a penalty, and we got those three – we also did get turned over as well, so that plan backfired then.

 

"It was not to steal ball on the floor, it was to tackle and get out.

 

"At line-out time we went with the five plus one and we just wanted to drive and then we were going to use the cross kick to ask questions because we believed Odwa [Ndungane] and Lwazi [Mvovo] are good in the air.

 

"Finally, we just wanted to keep playing rugby."