Sharks find positives in loss to Connacht

There were moments of squinting despair but the Sharks left Galway, despite a stiff breeze and driving rain, with heads held high.

They can meet their next appointment with a measure of confidence after their 24-12 United Rugby Championship (URC) defeat to Connacht on Saturday.

Ordinarily, that would sound preposterous for a team with their ambition and status, but the result could have been far worse for the Sharks team that had barely trained, let alone played together as a unit.

They had opted to send a much-revamped line-up and a stand-in coach for the assignment and Joey Mongalo, who was tasked with that job, thought his players’ effort was beyond reproach.

The Sharks, after all, have bigger fish to fry in the Champions Cup next week.

“We asked for effort and physicality. They gave us effort, they could have given us more physicality,” was Mongalo’s unvarnished appraisal.

He argued the players had acquitted themselves well, apart from the middle third of the game.

“We fought really well in the first 25 and 30 minutes and also the last 25 minutes of the game. The middle section is where we lost the game — 12-0 down into the wind, into the rain with 38 minutes gone, I thought we were still in the game.”

He said his team spurned an effort to score and were punished at the other end just before halftime.

“Similarly in the second half with us on the front foot they got a turnover, again they kicked it downfield and we got charged down. That’s where the game changed. Those two moments were massive,” Mongalo said.

The double whammy of failing to score and being punished with points against you as a result will be a point of reflection for the Sharks.

“It was almost a 14-point swing each time. We had no respect for the ball and they took the ball. When you do get a sniff at this level you do need to value the ball.”

The Sharks chose to play into the wind and rain in the first half in the belief they would be fresh enough to absorb the pressure the hosts were likely to bring. They contained Connacht well enough in the first 25 minutes or so. However, they conceded a soft try after the break but played with renewed resolve at a time most would have thought them ripe for the plucking.

Rohan Janse van Rensburg showed great determination to get their first score, and when they had an effort ruled out through an accidental offside, even after the conversion got taken, the Sharks momentarily thought they were back in the contest.

“If the score was 14-24 with 20 to go with the wind at our back we would have really backed ourselves,” Mongalo said.  “When they called us back after the conversion that was quite a psychological blow in the gut for us. It took us a while to get over it. We only scored eight to 10 minutes later. The game was almost all but gone by then.”

Dian Bleuler scored the Sharks’ second try but by then they had left themselves too much to do.

The way they finished the game is the lingering aftertaste Mongalo believes the team should take from the game.

“We must never normalise the feeling of losing,”  the coach said, thrilled and relieved the players did not drop their bundle. “These guys didn’t go away. It is a massive plus for us because it shows the character of the Sharks player we are trying to develop. That’s really encouraging. We didn’t do damage to the Sharks’ jersey. If anything, we showed Sharks’ character.”