Sharks forward coach Ryan Strudwick is confident his side can turn the tables on the Lions in their quarter-final in Johannesburg on Saturday.
Who would have wanted to be in the Sharks players’ shoes prior to their game against the Lions this past Saturday when they were in the invidious position of knowing that a loss was the best outcome? When pride suggests that all they wanted to do was win, but the reality was the strangest of bedfellows.
The big question is whether the Sharks can turn it all around from after suffering a 27-10 loss to the Lions in Durban at the weekend.
“I think we can,” said Strudwick.
“We didn’t perform well on the weekend, we know that, but we know where we went wrong. Obviously there wasn’t much to play for in that game (the Sharks could not improve on their 8th position overall, nor could they drop out of contention for the knock-out rounds), but there is plenty to play for this weekend and we’re pretty confident the guys will pick it up for Saturday.”
Strudwick doesn’t believe there was some unconscious thing in the back of the players’ minds where nothing to play for hardly contributed to their motivation.
“I don’t think it was sub-conscious, it was definitely there, in the front of their minds; you could tell," he added.
"In the first half, we really came out and played some good rugby, and defended well. But when the chips were down in the second half, it was almost like the guys already knew the game was going to be there next weekend again.”
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