Despite the loss in the opening weekend of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, there were enough encouraging signs for the Hollywoodbets Sharks to look ahead with confidence and optimism.
Hollywoodbets Sharks Defence Coach Joey Mongalo, speaking from the team’s base in Ireland, explained as much, when he said, “We’re showing glimpses of where this group would like to go over the next two to three years under John Plumtree’s leadership.
“Overall, it was a Hollywoodbets Sharks effort that was full of fight, which is very encouraging, and even with the yellow card, we had a stint defending inside our 22 for quite a bit and kept them out for long periods of that 10 minutes. We were also ambitious enough to keep the ball during that block.”
It’s often small moments that have a big impact on the outcome of matches, and Mongalo pointed to the try just before half-time that swung the game in Munster’s favour.
“The critical moment in the match was at half-time when the hooter had gone and we had the option to kick the ball out and we didn’t do that. With the amount of rugby they had played, we had done well to put ourselves in a position to turn with the scoreboard at 14-7, so that try just before half-time hurt us quite a bit.”
With change comes a measure of learning and this is exactly where the Hollywoodbets Sharks are currently.
“The coach has been very clear that we’re in a building process, he’s been very clear that he wants this Hollywoodbets Sharks team to be a very attack-minded, ambitious team.
“There are definitely glimpses of where we’re trying to go.”
Taking on Leinster this weekend poses another huge challenge for his side
“They’re a union with a lot of history and pride, and they’ve had a lot of success this side of the world. They’re full of quality players despite not having their World Cup internationals, they’ve just taken a heavy loss against Glasgow and that’s probably the worst time to catch them.
“We’re well aware that we have a challenge ahead of us, but we’re a team that embraces challenges and a team that wants to represent the jersey in a way that the fans can be proud of them.”
Expectations of the opposition aside, Mongalo’s hope for this weekend is to see more encouraging signs from his own team.
“When we have the ball in hand, it’s to finish,” he admitted of the primary focus. “We had four clear-cut opportunities to score that we didn’t close out, so executing those are one focus. On the other side, when we don’t have ball, to make sure when we defend for 17, 18 phases, that they don’t end in soft moments, but that we actually end up with a turnover.
“So I was really pleased with how we looked structurally, but soft concessions is not something we want to do. We’re going onto the field expecting everyone to work incredibly hard.
“The final thing is to nail the critical moments better.”