The Hollywoodbets Sharks head coach John Plumtree said their "ugly" performance against Zebre Parma where they managed to escape with a 35-34 in Durban at the weekend will not be good enough to beat Leinster, on Saturday at 19:15 (SA Time).
"It shows that it doesn’t matter who you are playing against, if your skillsets are poor and you can’t build pressure with the ball and you don’t play in the right areas and you’re kicking is not good and you are not winning the aerial battle and you are playing a side with a fullback like they’ve got, you are in for a long day."
“In the middle of the park, our skills were really poor. We turned over possession and allowed them with the backs that they’ve got to hurt us. Zebre worked hard for each other, they were scrambling back and making tackles. We were struggling for momentum, we had to keep punching away."
“We were up for it emotionally, but our skills were terrible and it almost cost us the game.”
“The team will be hard on themselves, we have a lot of Springboks out there that are very proud. We will put our hands up and said this wasn’t good enough. As coaches and management, we have to look at what we could have done better also."
Looking ahead to hosting Leinster, Plumtree said Leinster will be hurting from losing their unbeaten run against the Bulls.
“We have a good side to play against next week. We know we can’t afford to play like that. They will punish us and won’t let us off. They won’t give us the soft moments Zebre gave us."
“We will have to play a lot better in every aspect of the game. We have a lot of work to do this week and be better next week.”