Scrum lessons in the Sharks' camp

 

In a physical match in Cape Town it was clear that the likes of Stormers front row forwards Steven Kitshoff, Siyabonga Ntubeni and Vincent Koch had the better of their Sharks counterparts.

 

Mcleod-Henderson admits that his team's scrum efforts were poor and that they would have to concentrate on that aspect of the game for their next match in Bloemfontein.

 

"We know that our set-piece didn’t function as well as we would have liked and that’s an area we need to get right on Saturday," the forwards coach told the Sharks website.

 

“We struggled at scrum time, but in the first half we had one or two good scrums as well, so we were probably a bit inconsistent.

 

"They seemed to get the roll on us and unfortunately we lost that area of the game.

 

“Scrummaging is an all-eight effort and we were a bit inconsistent. 

 

"So on the day we were very disappointed with our scrummaging. But there’s a possibility that Jannie du Plessis and Tendai Mtawarira, as well as Mouritz Botha could be available for this week, so there are a few guys coming back.

 

Although the coach was happy to back all of his props, including the possible retuning Springbok incumbents, he stated it is more about all the forwards firing at once.

 

“We have three quality tightheads and three quality looseheads so we just need to make sure that the eight who start and the guys who come off the bench are all on the same page and put in a better performance in the scrummaging area than this past weekend.”