After three rounds and a game in hand over all of the non-South African teams in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, the Hollywoodbets Sharks have surged into the top eight with one match remaining in their three week European tour.
Reflecting on his team’s five-try-to-four, 33-30 bonus point victory over the Dragons at Rodney Parade Stadium in Newport on Saturday, Hollywoodbets Sharks head coach John Plumtree was happy to have emerged successful, but not thrilled with the way the team went about securing a last gasp victory.
Many a team have come short when things haven’t gone their way, but this Hollywoodbets Sharks side has learned ways to win games, even when the chips are down.
“I wasn’t happy with the performance, we have a lot of work to do around our game, not just from a physical point of view, but also an emotional point of view,” Plumtree conceded afterwards.
“We were pretty passive in the game and lacked urgency and we have some stuff to fix around that space.”
Looking at specifics, the coach explained that: “We didn’t secure our plan, our discipline was poor and we allowed them to build scoreboard pressure and that’s not good.”
Of course, a win on tour is a positive outcome and six points in two games is a fairly healthy haul, with a flight to Italy ahead of their final tour match, against bottom of the log Benetton next Saturday.
“The positive for me was that we managed to stay in the contest the whole way, we found some moments where we were able to score a try and stay in the game.
“We were pretty lucky in the end to get the win.”
A win this Saturday would see the Hollywoodbets Sharks hop on a plane bound for Durban full of smiles and their best opening to the tournament since their inclusion.
In round five, they will host Glasgow Warriors at Hollywoodbets Kings Park and a big task awaits as they look to improve this week in their march forward.
“So no, I’m not happy, there’s a lot of work to do this week.
“We’ll take the win, but that’s all it is, we have to get a lot better.”
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