Although the Challenge Cup campaign ended at the Round of 16 phase, and while it was a frustrating end to the competition for the Hollywoodbets Sharks, there are also positives to take from the players’ experience of top-flight rugby.
Lyon proved why it is so difficult for visiting teams to beat French sides on their home grounds, it is the stuff of legend in France, and for this young, exciting Hollywoodbets Sharks side, it was a tough learning experience, but a valuable one nonetheless.
In his summation of the game, defence coach Joey Mongalo admitted that for long periods, his team was in the game, but just couldn’t overcome all the obstacles.
“In the first half, Lyon played with the wind, a strong wind which gave them territory and possession, but I thought the opening 10 minutes showed the plan we wanted to play and it was really well-executed, so I’m proud of the boys for getting together for three days and executing so well for that period,” he explained.
“But in the next 20 minutes, I thought we lost some of the territory battle, we defended quite well and forced them to kick at us, but we weren’t able to handle the ball so they got a lot of bounce balls that gave them 22m entries and they were quite clinical from that position and we could have been better defensively.
“I felt during the first half if we had turned things around a little, just one score less – 20 points to seven – with such a strong wind behind us in the second half, we could have made an impact.
“We saw in the first 20 minutes of the second half, we had all the territory and possession and one or two opportunities we could have finished. If we had finished those early, we could have made a real shout of it.
What we spoke about as a team are two core thoughts: we want people watching us to see that we had a clear plan and we stuck to the plan irrespective of the scoreboard, and secondly that we fought for each other and showed people how much we care about one another, about the badge and the province.
“I thought we did those two things pretty decently, so even though we didn’t get the result we wanted, I thought we really fought hard.”
With half the match squad 22 years of age or younger, including a 22-year-old captain in Nick Hatton, their experience at this level would have been severely tested in the hot cauldron of playing away in France where visiting teams rarely win (Lyon last lost at home in November across three different tournaments).
But for Hatton, Bradley Davids, Hakeem Kunene, Corne’ Rahl, Litelihle Bester and Jean Smith (all 22 years of age), Jannes Potgieter and Mawaarende Madanda (both 21), and Jurenzo Julius, Ethan Bester and Bathobele Hlekani (20), the learnings they would have taken from this trip are immense and can only benefit the Hollywoodbets Sharks in the long run as the development of squad depth continues.
“For these young guys to come out to France, anyone who understands rugby knows that rugby in France, away from home, is never easy, you don’t get many calls going your way either, so for them to stay in the game and stay in the fight till the end was very impressive,” Mongalo concluded.