In a tight clash in which the hunger and determination of the Cell C Sharks was enough to see off the Vodacom Blue Bulls, head coach Sean Everitt felt that his team’s win was the deserved outcome.
“I thought the guys put in a big performance and a massive improvement on what we’ve delivered this year,” he said after the match.
“We said we need to improve our performances over the 80 minute period and we took ascendancy in the last five. If you look at the first half as a whole, I think we deserved to win this one.”
Although a player from each side was carded for tackles that resulted in accidental head clashes, it was fortunate that no injury resulted or that the incidents led to major upheavals in the game.
“It was unfortunate with the yellow cards, but the right decisions I felt, I don’t think any harm was intended in either of the tackles,” the coach said.
The match had been brought forward to accommodate the possibility of a major storm predicted around the time of the original kick-off, although Everitt admitted that conditions were still tough, even at the early 2pm kick-off.
“The conditions were quite difficult with the wet surface. It didn’t rain much but it was rather humid out there and difficult to handle the ball; I thought both teams did well in trying to do that.”
An area of focus was the breakdown where the Bulls have been particularly dangerous, but while there was fierce competition there, both sides made valuable gains.
“We worked hard on our breakdown, it was something we said we would do, [man of the match] Dylan Richardson was outstanding, his effort week in and week out is to be commended and he’s playing some really good rugby at the moment. His contributions have been up there with the best and I’m very happy for a youngster still just 21 but showing great maturity with his composure on the field.”
Another area that was always going to present a challenge was the Bulls’ driving maul, something they have used to very good effect of late. However, they were frustrated time and again and failed to achieve the gains they expected.
“Hats off to the forwards for taking on the challenge,” said Everitt. “We knew if we got parity with the Bulls, we’d be in with a shout and the pack was just outstanding in the way they executed our lineout and set-piece, but more importantly, managing to stop their mauls.”
Everitt paid tribute to the maturity shown by the playing group that grows with each successive match.
“We’ve got some experienced personnel back, it’s good to have guys like Sikhumbuzo Notshe and Henco Venter back, and obviously also our captain Lukhanyo, so to add experience does help. In saying that, we’ve managed to build some depth in our squad over the last six weeks and that’s certainly paying off now. The more the guys play together, the better they’ll get, but we are certainly trying to reach peak performance at the right time and I’m glad the guys have improved from the last outing against the Bulls.
“We take a lot of confidence out of this victory, winning your home games is really important and I’m very happy that we’ve been able to maintain a 100% record at home this year. It was one of our goals at the beginning of the season to make Jonsson Kings Park our fortress and make our fans proud.
“The challenge is now for us to win on the road. But our guys will grow in confidence from this performance and hopefully we can put in an even better performance next week.”