More depth‚ experience and punch were qualities the Sharks were said to bring into this Super Rugby campaign. Indeed‚ for patches of their clash against the Lions they displayed familiar combativeness and stretched the South African Super Rugby standard bearers. Crucially‚ however‚ they still lacked the composure to avert a 26-19 defeat at Ellis Park. It would have required a high level of good fortune for them to have won the match but they had opportunities — certainly at the end — to at least walk away with a draw. "It’s never good to lose in such a way when you’ve created a lot of opportunities. Tough one‚" sighed their coach, Robert du Preez. He lamented his team’s inability to seize the moment‚ blaming poor execution. "I think we lacked patience at crucial times. I’m not happy with that." Some of it might have been explained away by the presence of early season cobwebs, but the coach was having none of it. "In our previous two [warm-up] games we had very few handling errors. I...
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