The Hollywoodbets Sharks will end their four match Vodacom United Rugby Championship tour of Europe in Parma at the weekend looking for the spark that coach John Plumtree feels is needed to ignite his team’s campaign.
The Sharks have been on a particularly difficult tour if you consider that Munster, their first opponents, are URC champions, and Leinster are the perennial log winners, but it would have been reasonable to expect a better result than a 19-5 defeat to Ospreys in what was essentially a neutral venue game at The Stoop in London this past weekend.
Plumtree said it was a frustrating game from his viewpoint, but it sounds like all three games he has presided over thus far have been frustrating.
“The fact we aren’t good enough to build pressure and then take our opportunities and our discipline is also a real worry,” said Plumtree.
“We have to look at ourselves. As much as Ospreys deserved to win, I don’t think they were that much better than us and we should be doing a lot better. It was a very frustrating game. We started well with a good try but then our discipline wasn’t good enough and we had to defend for a long period in our 22. Then we had a line break and a poor decision cost us and the Ospreys scored under our posts and then there was a soft try before halftime and suddenly we were 19-5 down and chasing the game.”
Plumtree said that he hoped a win over Zebre in the final match would ignite the spark his team needs as they head home after that for a run of home matches.
“It is going to be a big week for us. We have to find some belief and confidence and work on things that are letting us down because unfortunately what happened at Munster and again last week (against Leinster) is still happening now. Unfortunately it appears we are a little slow to learn, but we’ve got to win to get confidence.
“The tour has been an opportunity for me to get to know the players. We have had a couple of injuries. But I still believe we have a good enough squad to be doing a lot better than we are. I know I have appealed for patience as there are changes we are making to our game, but it is the stuff we can control that is letting us down, such as discipline and decision making.
“But we have a chance to end the tour on a high. We’ve had no success on this trip but the guys are still real tight as a group. We will just have to make sure we prepare them well for next week. We just need to find the spark that comes with a win and the confidence that brings. That is what we need.”