Sharks get attitude adjustment
13 Sep 2007
The Sharks won’t be the complacent bunch who turned up at Newlands when they face Boland, says assistant coach Grant Bashford.
The Sharks were a shadow of the polished side we’ve seen for the majority of the Currie Cup, looking unstructured on attack and uncharacteristically vulnerable defensively.
Bashford attributed the poor performance to an attitude problem rather than any technical flaws but insisted there would be no trace of that when they face Boland in Durban this weekend.
“We really took the guys to task about their attitude coming into the Province game,” Bashford told keo.co.za. “That had an adverse effect on the game and we were very disappointed to have been dominated at the set phases and breakdown, where we’re usually very good.
“But the guys have had a good look at themselves and I’m confident that we’ll get back on track this weekend.”
Bashford said Boland would pose different challenges to Province, adding that while they were confident of victory they knew the Wellington union were capable of punishing inaccurate execution.
“They’re one of those sides you would expect to beat but I know that if we don’t turn up on the evening they could beat us,” he said. “They have a couple of gamebreakers in their backline like John Daniels and Jongi Nokwe. I hear they’re out injured but we’ll believe that when we see it.
“On paper their pack shouldn’t be good but they showed against the Cheetahs and Lions how competent they can be under pressure. Even going backwards for most of those matches they were able to be creative with the scraps they had to work with.”
The Sharks have some serious injury concerns coming into the match. Flyhalf Brad Barritt and lock Steven Sykes are both almost certain to miss the match, while Johan Ackermann and Henno Mentz are deemed very doubtful. Bashford said the fact that those were experienced players was a concern but refused to take a pessimistic view on the situation.
“We’ve got 19 of our Super 14 players out either on Bok duty or injured. But We’ve got wonderful depth at the Sharks,” he said.
“We’re not viewing this [the injuries] as a huge blow but seeing it as an opportunity to give some of our promising young players a run.”
By Ryan Vrede
9 Comments
13 Sep 2007, 07:31 am
Dragons – Carcharodon Carcharias
13 Sep 2007, 08:13 am
They certainly won’t be a complacent bunch if they turn up at Newlands – they’ll be a lost bunch! The game is being played in Durban.
13 Sep 2007, 08:26 am
2
13 Sep 2007, 08:45 am
Yup, they wont be complacent at all, just very confused.
13 Sep 2007, 08:48 am
Less than 2 hours after losing that game, I saw Ryan Kankowski, Rory Kockott, Keegan Daniel and the entire front row in a well known Cape Town nightclub. They certainly weren’t looking too upset that they had just lost.
I wonder if that had something to do with the “attitude”
13 Sep 2007, 09:16 am
#2 The article clearly refers to the Sharks turning up at newlands last week, ”wont be the complacent bunch who turned up at Newlands”. There is no error.
Ps The sharks deserve credit for the wealth of depth they have and being able to compete in the currie cup and keep standards up.
13 Sep 2007, 09:18 am
Guys read the first sentence carefully it says ”
The Sharks won’t be the complacent bunch who turned up at Newlands” the operative word is turned – being past tense so laughs on you!!!
So what if the guys went to a night club – are they not entitled to some fun???? They have been taken to task about their bad attitude so lets move on!
13 Sep 2007, 09:21 am
IMO WP played the better game in 1 st half with Jantjes pinning Sharks with long corner kicks.
2 nd half Sharks came back.
WP are tough to beat at Newlands.
With 19 players out Sharks played well but WP were too good on the day.
13 Sep 2007, 12:13 pm
Ja ploos, it was just a bit early in the morning.
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