John Plumtree admits frustrations as Sharks go limp in London

John Plumtree admitted frustration after his Sharks side shot themselves in the foot in their 19-5 URC loss to the Ospreys in London.

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JOHN PLUMTREE ADMITS FRUSTRATIONS AS SHARKS FUMBLE

The Sharks have now lost three of their last four matches against Welsh opposition and Plumtree felt they didn’t do themselves any favours in the first URC match played in London.

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“So frustrating. We started really well, scored a good try. Our discipline wasn’t good enough and we had to defend for long periods in our own 22,” Plumtree said after the game at Twickenham Stoop.

“They came away with a try and then we get a line-break and then we made poor decisions that allowed them to get an intercept and score under the post.

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“And then a soft try before half-time and straight away you are 5-19 down and chasing the game in the second half plus a yellow card.

“The fact that we weren’t good enough to build pressure and take our opportunities and also our discipline is a real worry.”

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Plumtree said that the Sharks had some reflection to do over how to improve after a dismal start to the URC.

“We have to really look at ourselves. As much as Ospreys deserved that win, I don’t think they were that much better than us.

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“We should be doing a lot better so we got a pretty tough week ahead of us. We have to find some belief and find some confidence, work on some of these things that are letting us down.”

NO EXCUSES

Plumtree made it clear that he wasn’t looking for excuses with every team currently facing early season struggles.

He went on: “Everyone’s got some of their players out, we’ve got a couple of injuries as well and it doesn’t help. I still believe that we’ve got a good enough squad to do better than what we are doing.

“I’ve called for some patience and it’s going to take time to build our game but some of the stuff that we can’t control is mainly around our discipline, decision making and us being able to take some opportunities that we create.

“We are just not good enough to be clinical enough to know those opportunities. This is a really important week for us. We’ve been on tour for three weeks and we haven’t had any success.

“So we just got to make sure we stick real tight as a group. We will make sure we prepare them well the best we can so we can get the best result in Italy.

“We’ve got to find that little bit of spark and confidence we need. So we’ve got to find that in the next five, six days.”