It is back to the drawing board for coach Kevin Putt and his Sharks advisers on the eve of their upcoming double-header Absa Currie Cup matches against the Blue Bulls — at home on Friday and two weeks later at Loftus.
It will be a testing time as they try to analyse and eliminate the multiplicity of errors that denied them a valuable bonus point in their 26-17 win over the Eagles on Friday night.
The Sharks made 25 — mostly unforced — errors short of the Eagles line, with 14 knock-ons, three in tackle ball situations and eight in rucks and mauls — not to mention the countless number of overhand lob passes that went astray as they resorted to basketball-style tossing of the ball from one player to another.
The result was that centre Adrian Jacobs was given almost zero chance and was often the target of the proverbial hospital pass that saw him taken out instantly in a man-and-ball-together situation.
The Sharks will also be concerned that they gave away 13 penalties to referee Tappa Henning’s calls and that cost them dearly as Eagles flyhalf Rynard van As punished them with four accurate shots at goal.
They cannot afford the same degree of error against the Bulls, especially as flyhalf Derick Hougaard is so deadly with the boot.
Considering that they had more than 60% possession against the Eagles they should have had many more tries than the three they scored and for this reason, Putt will surely be wielding the big stick at practice.
He will want to find out just why the Sharks simply could not retain the ball as they turned over too much possession at crucial attacking times.
The back-to-back Bulls games were brought about by a reshuffling of the fixture list to accommodate the Tri-Nations Tests with South Africa up against the All Blacks and Australia in successive weekends.
And for the return game in Pretoria, they may well find that some of Jake White’s Springboks will get a Currie Cup run into the bargain.
The Sharks will have a practice game ahead of the Loftus clash when they take on visiting English club side Bath in a curtain-raiser to the Wallabies Test in Durban. — Sapa