A mindset switch and an urgent injection of energy are needed from the Sharks if they want to snap a four-game winless streak against fellow strugglers the Scarlets in Durban on Saturday, coach John Plumtree says.
After a slow start, the Sharks are third from the bottom on the 16-team log with only three points from their opening four matches.
Losses against Ulster, Leinster and Glasgow and a 17-17 draw with the Dragons have left the star-studded Durban outfit with their backs against the wall in the United Rugby Championship (URC).
Plumtree said his Springbok-laden team needed to look in the mirror after a 34-26 defeat against Ulster.
“It was disappointing and we expected so much more against Ulster,” Plumtree said. “It’s hard to get my head around.”
He said: “It is not a great start. But we have the quality and now we need the response. We have got to be harder on ourselves. That includes the players, coaches — everyone. We’ve all got to take a look in the mirror and come with a different mindset.
“The team looked flat. We had plenty of opportunity through scrum penalties to get into their 22 and build some scoreboard pressure but we just didn’t turn up physically.
“And they were really good, really clinical. They put the pressure on us early with a couple of great scores and then it was probably only about the 30th minute that we scored. Then we looked like we were in the right mental space and started to put some pressure on them.
“It’s a bad night for us; there are no excuses here. We know what quality we’ve got in this group and we’ll just have to look in the mirror and come with a different mindset and try and get into this tournament.
“We’re working for a guy in New York who’s pretty passionate about his group and he’ll be disappointed.
“If you look at all of the Springboks that came back into the team, we were a little bit rusty, but again, we know what we needed to do and it was get five points to get back into this competition.
“And to get one is not good enough and that was a big loss against Ulster.
“Then you lose prop Ruan Dreyer with what looks like a pretty serious knee injury, and Makazole Mapimpi could be out for a while now because of a citing, so it could get uglier for us.”
Plumtree refused to blame his team’s display on the disruption caused by several Springboks returning to the Sharks line-up.
“It definitely affected the balance, but we can’t go into that space,” he said. “If you look at all the Springboks coming back into the team, they were maybe a little rusty. We can go into the excuses, but we know what we needed.”
The Sharks were given two second-half yellow cards for dangerous tackles, the first to Vincent Koch and the second to Mapimpi, which was later upgraded to red.
Plumtree confirmed the return of former Sharks captain and English Premiership star Thomas du Toit from Bath.
“He is a good signing for us,” he said. “Obviously he’s a good Sharks man with a lot of experience, and getting those types of characters back here in the jersey is a real positive for us.”
SA’s weekend fixtures:
Friday: 9.45pm: Glasgow vs Bulls
Saturday: 1.45pm: Lions vs Ulster, 4pm: Sharks vs Scarlets, 6.30pm: Benetton vs Stormers
