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“The skill level was poor, we didn't have enough respect for the opposition and poor offloads on the advantage line led to a lot of errors,” The Sharks coach pointed out.
“The positive was conceding a seven point lead to them at half-time and then scoring 17 points and three tries in the second half which was great.”
Not reaching the same heights as the team did against the Blue Bulls the week before but still coming away with a full compliment of log points (including the decisive bonus point for scoring four tries) is a double-edged sword presented to the coach.
“My feelings on the game depend on how you look at it,” he continued. “If you look at our performance it wasn't there, but we got the points. Ultimately, we're still in the competition and we achieved what we set out to do.
“You also have to give the Pumas some credit, they tackled everything that was in front of them. They knew we wanted to keep the pace of game high and knew they had to slow it down a bit, but we expected that. We didn't get a lot of good ball at the breakdown because they were killing it. But our skill level was poor when we went wide. As soon as we got a bit blunt around the middle of the field around the rucks, we got some gains and looked better.”
Plumtree added that he didn't wish to heap attention on how poor The Sharks were, but rather to say how good the Pumas were, how well they tackled. “They had some big loosies and a big ball-carrying lock who punched holes through us; this is not a bad Pumas side. I don't want to take too much away from their performance, they didn't play too badly at all.”
Psychologically, The Sharks know they have to raise their motivation for the Free State Cheetahs this weekend in Bloemfontein, but that is never a problem. Last year's victory away from home broke a duck of several years and The Sharks will certainly be up for the game.
The fact that Free State came from behind to beat the Blue Bulls in the final minute of Saturday's Absa Currie Cup match means they will go into Saturday's clash against The Sharks high on confidence.
There was a welcome return to action for Willem Alberts and with Ryan Kankowski, Beast Mtawarira and Ruan Pienaar released back to their province from Springbok duty, while Steve Meyer is expected back and further replacements could bolster the team even more, The Sharks are in a good position as far as squad depth is concerned.
“The Pumas match was Alberts' first hit-out for a long time and I thought he played very well. We need those big ball-carriers to do the work up the middle for us and he provided that for us, he was crucial really. We're also hoping to have Jean Deysel back for this week's game, we will see how he is.”
Michael Rhodes had stomach cramps before the game started and couldn't continue and Plumtree confirmed that there were no injury concerns. “Steve Meyer turned his ankle over in training and we wanted to look after him, but will be fine for next week.”
