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| Willem Alberts. Image © sharksrugby.co.za |
“I thought we were very unlucky to lose to the Waratahs, but we showed an upwards curve in our game,” he admits. “We played some good rugby at times and we just need to improve, to keep getting better. Admittedly, we made too many mistakes and we also need to play with more discipline.”
While the two yellow cards were disappointing, the team rallied together showing tremendous character in scoring eight unanswered points when they were reduced to 13 men by referee Paul Marks.
“When a side normally loses a player they concentrate harder and the opposition let things slip which is what happened on Saturday,” the strong loose forward comments. “I thought we showed a lot of guts with 13 guys on the field to score some points, but we let our concentration slip a bit and the Waratahs got back in the game.
“The forwards worked back hard from there and it was just unlucky for us at the end not to win the game.”
With Ryan Kankowski’s intercept try where he outran the Waratahs scrambling defence, The Sharks were back in the game and when they scored their second, the match hung in the balance and a rare win in Sydney seemed on the cards for the luckless Sharks.
Adi Jacob’s try came off 15 phases and involved just about every player in the team having a hand in the build-up. Showing that kind of patience really paid off for The Sharks and Alberts believes emphatically that it’s something they will look to continue doing.
“Definitely, that’s what we’ve been trying to do as a team. Everyone needs to be able to fulfill different roles, so if a back needs to clean, he must clean or if we need a forward to make a scrumhalf pass, he must. In that move, we were able to do that and after a number of phases their defence was tested and just wasn’t fast enough which made it easy for Adi to cross the tryline. It was a good team try.”
With three of The Sharks games being lost by a couple of points only, things could be so different on the log.
“We just need to be patient, keep on working hard and we will start winning the close ones,” says Alberts. “We’re playing good rugby but at this stage things are just not happening for us. We’ve been a bit unlucky at this stage, so we just need to keep on working hard because when things are not going in your favour, you need to make the most of your opportunities.”
The Waratahs game was the team’s best performance of the tournament so far, and Alberts agrees that along with a sense of disappointment at losing, there is also a desire to kick on and get a good result against the Brumbies on Saturday.
“We played some good rugby and would like to take all the positives out of that game going forward into this week’s game because we can definitely win this one and the rest of the games on tour. We just need to get the first win under the belt and we’ll take the next step from there.
“But we need a win. This will help to get a bit of confidence and belief back,” he adds. “We have a good team, we just need the extra motivation a win will bring and which will help us keep on fighting. We’ve been doing the hard yards, it just hasn’t paid off yet.”
Despite the run of results, he admits that the mood in the camp is still upbeat. “We’re very positive, we know that there are just small things we need to fix before the wins start but we’re confident for the rest of the competition because there are still a lot of games to play and we could still end up right near the top.”
The Brumbies at home are always a tough proposition and he agrees that they will have their work cut out for them. “They are a well-balanced team with a good front row. They like to play off Giteau and have a good backline with the likes of Stirling Mortlock and Adam Ashley-Cooper, so we need to be precise in what we want to achieve. We need to stick to our structures and game plan and we need to take control of the game.
“To do that we need to make sure our discipline is correct and work on a few individual mistakes. But we will keep on doing the hard work and will try our best every minute.”