Although it was mid-competition, the long break in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship during the Autumn Test Series opened the window of opportunity for the Cell C Sharks to get valuable game time against Toyota Free state over the past weekend.
In a pulsating match that went from end to end and delivered excitement throughout, it was the home side who prevailed, but it could have been anyone’s game given the see-saw nature of a game where both sides enjoyed dominance at various stages.
“I thought we started the game off really well and were in control for the first 20 minutes, unfortunately the errors crept in from a defensive point of view,” explained Cell C Sharks head coach Sean Everitt after the match.
Everitt pointed out that the double influence of not being in game mode for more than a month, plus the heavy workload the players had carried leading into the game were two factors that may have counted against his side.
“It’s been a while since we last played, just short of five weeks and we knew we would be rusty, so we spent the last couple of weeks in a mini pre-season because we hadn’t had that opportunity prior to the Currie Cup.
“So the guys might have been a bit tired in the legs, but that’s no excuse for us, we have to get better than we were in this game. We’re just thankful we had this opportunity to play a game before we take on the Scarletts at Jonsson Kings Park this weekend.”
Taking lessons from a loss is always crucial and the Cell C Sharks’ coach identified areas that the squad will be working on this week in the build-up to Saturday’s URC home game.
”Defensively on the short side we were found out and the Cheetahs played it really well and we probably weren’t as desperate as we should have been. I was quite disappointed in our work rate, particularly our bouncing off the floor and getting back into line on the short side from a defence point of view.”
Despite outscoring the home side five tries to four, Everitt felt his team could have produced even more fireworks with ball in hand.
“There were also moments on attack when we should have taken our opportunities,” he admitted. “I felt that during the game we were in control at stages and played some really good rugby. But at the end of the day, we didn’t get the result. However, there are a lot of learnings we can take out of this and we need to fix a few things.”
Small mistakes have a nasty habit of causing big consequences in rugby and this was not lost on the coach.
“In certain areas that was the case, I thought our set-piece deteriorated as the game went on, particularly in the last 10 minutes. We had the ascendancy in the scrum and won a few scrum penalties and then the Cheetahs took over that ascendancy so that’s a work on for us. Our lineouts at times, when we had good opportunities, we didn’t get the clean ball we would have liked to. That was the difference in the first 10 minutes and the last 20 minutes.
“We had certainly put ourselves into a position to win the game with 15 minutes to go, putting a lot of pressure on them. But that 90m try of theirs when we were inaccurate in the gold zone was the turning point in the game.
“Those are the little errors that you pay for and we need to get better at that.”
Everitt confirmed the good news that there were no injury concerns to come out of the game ahead of Saturday’s URC clash against the Scarletts.