Umaga happy to end Sharks drought

The team from Durban won the last ten encounters between the two sides before Saturday's match, but went down 18-23 in a highly physical encounter.

"There are some areas we worked really hard – our ruck and ball carries and trying to get to the right spots," said Umaga.

"They were tremendous in their ability to slow our ball down, but also hold our men up. 

"They really hampered us in that first half – the second half we got on the front foot a bit more and that helped us get in behind them."

Umaga said they had to be careful not to let their emotions get the better of them for the game after losing a former player to cancer leading up to the match. 

"I am very happy with the win. We have not done well against the Sharks in recent times. 

"There was a lot of emotion going into the game. We were recognising the legends of the Blues – the 1996 winning side and then during the week we lost a Blues brother with Kurtis Haiu passing away. 

"We talked long and hard about making sure that it wasn't all about emotion," he added. 

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