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Manie Libbok and Lukhanyo Am protest a decision (Gallo Images)
- Sharks coach Sean Everitt refused to blame a poor initial performance against the Lions on four members of his first-choice team missing the game.
- He noted that several members of the pack who were still present had a decent experience.
- Instead, Everitt stated that the Sharks were simply victims of their own bug-ridden performance, which was compounded by a team of Lions putting them under heavy pressure.
Outperformed (and possibly mocked as well) is not a word associated much with the Sharks today, but his messy loss to the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday night exposed the disruption caused by the unavailability of four members of his first-choice team of five for the game.
Dan Jooste, Thomas du Toit, Ruben van Heerden and Hyron Andrews were missing for reasons ranging from Covid protocols to family bereavement.
However, Sharks’ mentor Sean Everitt he was reluctant to use that as a mitigating factor.
“We are not going to make excuses for that performance,” he said after a 12-27 loss.
“We still prepare well for this game. What happened here is that when you’re conceding a lot of penalties because you’re under pressure, you don’t shoot a shot.
“The individuals who started in this game are experienced and have played at one of the highest levels, namely Super Rugby. We have no excuses, we just have to work harder and improve.”
Most of the 14 penalties the Sharks awarded were directly attributable to a rampant Lions side that controlled procedures and forced many other mistakes.
“You shouldn’t be winning games when you give up so many penalties,” Everitt said.
“However, the Lions put us under pressure and that’s one of the reasons the tally was so high. We are a performance-driven team and we perform well below standard.”
To add insult to injury, the Lions’ prominent brand prevented Durbanns from crossing the cover-up for the first time in 15 games, spanning Super Rugby, Super Rugby Unlocked and the Currie Cup.
Some will hope that helplessness in the attack is not a sign of things to come, although Everitt reasonably noted that his record of scoring attempts suggests this was simply a bad day.
“We just have to accept it on the chin (that we didn’t score a try),” he said.
“It’s not a concern at all. We’ve been scoring attempts, we were in the top two in that category going into the game.
“It doesn’t bother me. This was purely a bug-ridden performance and when you do as many of them as we did in this game, you’re not going to score attempts.”
