Sharks head coach Sean Everitt believes his team can improve on their error-prone performance in the semi-final against Griquas and “turn the Bulls over” in the final in Pretoria on Saturday.
The Sharks held out to come away with a 28-24 victory over Griquas in the second semi-final at Kings Park, despite a nervous finish with a yellow card dished out in the last 10 minutes.
That set up a repeat of the 2020 Currie Cup final against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, which Jake White’s team have re-established as a fortress.
“We’re happy with the win, any win in a semi-final is great, although at times we did put ourselves under pressure by conceding too many penalties and then the yellow card in the last 10 minutes which didn’t help matters either,” Everitt said after the semi-final.
“At the end of the day, I thought we did enough to win the game, but we’ll work hard this week and make improvements where we need to, then go up to Loftus confident that we can turn the Bulls over.”
Everitt said there were positives to take from the game – such as their scrums, lineouts and mauls – but wanted his team to seek better continuity and patience on attack.
“Our scrums are generally improved, we earned a good scrum penalty early on in the second half and I also thought our lineout mauling was very good – so, there are a lot of positives to take out of the game.
“Our continuity on attack wasn’t always there and perhaps we lacked a bit of patience in the outside channels where we could have just held on to the ball rather than put the kick through, but I thought we had them on the racks, especially early in the game.
“So, a lot of positives from our side and we mustn’t forget that Griquas have beaten a number of the top franchises this year. They had the double over Western Province, they beat us at Kings Park, so they’re a tough team and playing any team in a semi-final is going to be tough.
“All credit to Griquas for a great season, I’m just happy that we got the win and can contest a final for the second time in seven months.
“There are definitely areas of our game we need to address before the trip to Pretoria, but the team is in a good space and we are excited about the week ahead.”
Photo: Gallo Images
