Hollywoodbets Sharks head coach JP Pietersen promised that his side would bounce back from their Vodacom United Rugby Championship loss to the Lions at Ellis Park, as they face a second consecutive derby match on the highveld.
In summing up the match, Pietersen admitted that, “If you look at our team performance, it was pretty poor, although there was some good stuff at times, but we couldn’t back it up with more good stuff.
“So we were always in that cycle of one positive and two negatives.
“Credit to the Lions for taking their opportunities.”
Looking at the overall flow of the game, he explained that, “When we analyse the game, we’ll check if it was individual or system errors. We had a good start, but that yellow card did change the ballgame.”
Pietersen rued the carding which allowed the Lions to pull ahead at a crucial time when the Hollywoodbets Sharks were down a man on defence.
“We defended well until then, but when we got the yellow card, they scored two tries. Can we blame the yellow card for that? I don’t think so, there were just some controllables that didn’t go our way, and had they, it would have been a different ballgame.”
Pietersen had said prior to the match that he was looking forward to seeing Jurenzo Julius in the number 12 jersey, a position he’d have more opportunities to get hand on ball.
The 21-year-old certainly didn’t disappoint with some powerful, athletic runs on attack.
“Jurenzo was really good and showed what he’s capable of. I love the way he backs himself, he had a full go and his decision-making was good.
“I’m very pleased with the way he put his hand up. If he can master both positions, inside and outside centre, that will be a good weapon for us.”
Julius is just one of a number of young players putting their hands up in a period when the Springboks are being rested for national good.
“There’s a lot of learning going on, this is a transition for some young players, but we probably lacked a bit of leadership without Andre Esterhuizen and Siya Kolisi. But this is all part of the process, to learn. We will get better.”
Where does this loss leave the Hollywoodbets Sharks? For Pietersen, it’s a disappointment, but there is still a lot of rugby to be played.
“Every game is important for us, when I took over, we were 14th on the log and there’s a tight gap between 14 and 8, so there are challenges ahead. We have the Vodacom Bulls up at Loftus next and we’ll look at how we can get better and eliminate soft errors in the game.
“The boys hurt from this loss, but they’ll definitely bounce back.”