The Hollywoodbets Sharks XV showed great character and tenacity in the way they went about crafting their 24-18 Carling Currie Cup victory over the Vodacom Blue Bulls at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Sunday.
Hollywoodbets Sharks head coach John Plumtree praised the team for the way they held on and then took control of the game.
“I was pleased with the way we gutsed it out, travelling from behind for pretty much the whole game but with a couple of pressure moments we were able to get in front with a good scrum and good kick-off receipts,” he summised.
“It’s always good to win your home games and we’re grateful to the crowd that came out on a Sunday, in the wet, to support us. It was great to see a few people here.
“There were some good things we’ve been working on in pre-season that I was happy with, although there was some dustiness expected of the pre-season. I was just pleased that the boys stuck in it. The Bulls are always a physical side and we met that head-on.
“Our scrum was also very good, Phillip Lemmer has been doing a lot of work there and it was good to see us get reward there, it’s not often you get to dominate a Bulls pack. It was good to see, but everyone has been working really hard behind the scenes.”
While Plumtree was generally very happy, there was the flip side, not about the performance but the inevitable. The plan for the semi-final starts with planning around personnel before even starting preparations for the actual game.
“The negative for me was the injuries we picked up, it was a bit disappointing to lose a couple of players to injury,” the coach admitted.
“It looks like Ruan Dreyer has done his calf, Jaco Williams his groin and Jurenzo Julius has a concussion, so we’re hoping for a speedy recovery for those guys.
“So we’ll have to suss out who we have available, we have a few injuries so we have to sort that out and then get the team organised before we have a normal week.”
But in general, he was happy with the way the team is trucking on and where they are at in this stage of the pre-season.
“There is still plenty of work to do, it’s the first game of the season for many of the boys, combinations that hadn’t played together before and the first run for a lot of them, so it was a pretty good start.”
Plumtree also had a word of praise for Carling Currie Cup Champion of the Match Ethan Hooker, saying, “In those conditions when it’s a bit wet, you have to be more direct and I thought he was immense. He carried well and got us some momentum.”
The week ahead holds much promise, and another shot at the Bulls.
“It’s a normal, regular week, but also an exciting week for us. It’s a semi-final but also a different pre-season for us when we normally have warm-up games, but this one counts for so much more. It adds an edge to the pre-season which is nice and puts us under a bit of pressure which will be great for when we travel overseas on tour.”
