John Plumtree mentioned the Sharks would take positives from their residence loss on Saturday as they appear to qualify for the Investec Champions Cup final 16 in Bordeaux subsequent week.
The Sharks went down 20-8 at Kings Park in opposition to French giants Toulouse, who had been properly beneath their commonplace in scorching and humid Durban situations however had been nonetheless too robust for the Durbanites.
Lacking a number of key Springboks, the hosts struggled to include the six-time champions however Plumtree noticed sufficient from his younger fees to imagine they might flip issues round in opposition to Bordeaux-Begles on Sunday.
“There are all the time positives,” the top coach was quoted post-match. “We play Bordeaux subsequent week, a staff that performs related rugby to Toulouse in some methods.
“That is going to prep us properly for it, but it surely is likely to be a bit cooler the place we’re going.”
Toulouse dominated the sport with superior continuity play, offloading and relentless stress, and Plumtree was impressed by their high quality.
“You possibly can simply see they’re a cultured outfit,” he mentioned. “Simply the way in which they utilized stress – not simply by means of their defence and their set piece – their continuity play and assault was excellent, their offloading and skill to maintain the ball alive… That’s their recreation, that’s what makes them so harmful.”
RECAP: Subpar Toulouse nonetheless too good for Sharks
The Sharks did enhance within the second half, with Jurenzo Julius scoring a late strive after some sustained stress. Plumtree praised his gamers for his or her effort throughout this era.
“That’s actually one thing we spoke about at half time; simply to carry on to the ball for longer durations of time and begin placing them underneath a little bit of stress,” he added.
“I feel we did that, significantly within the final 25 to half-hour, and so they began performing some defending.
“If we had a full-strength Sharks facet, we might have made it look extra fascinating. I don’t wish to discredit the gamers that we had on the market, but it surely’s clearly disruptive to lose gamers each week with damage.
“And with the calendar season that we now have, the squad has acquired to be high quality. We’ve acquired six or seven key gamers that might make an enormous distinction to our staff, and it stresses the squad.”
Nonetheless, Plumtree was fast to credit score the gamers who took the sphere: “I don’t wish to discredit the gamers that performed on the market [on Saturday]; I feel everybody performed their hearts out.
“However to do properly within the URC and the Champions Cup, you want a top quality squad.”
Picture: Steve Haag Sports activities/Gallo Pictures/Getty Pictures
