Plumtree Laments Etzebeth’s Absence In The Loss To Bulls
Hollywoodbets Sharks coach John Plumtree has admitted that the absence of experienced lock Eben Etzebeth was “massively” felt in their loss to the Vodacom Bulls.
The Sharks went down 25-13 to the Pretoria giants in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship semi-final at Loftus Stadium on Saturday.
The Durban-based side played that game without captain Etzebeth, who “unfortunately got injured at training this week.” Corne Rahl replaced him in the starting lineup, with Emile van Heerden coming in for Jason Jenkins, who “went down in last week’s victory over Munster and hasn’t recovered sufficiently,” as stated by the Sharks when they released their starting lineup.
Etzebeth was seen to have picked up an eye injury when the Sharks beat Munster in Durban in the previous week’s URC quarter-finals. Against the Bulls, Siya Kolisi led the team as captain.
“Yes, definitely,” said Plumtree when asked about the most-capped Springbok player, who has been troubled by concussions this season.
“I mean, he is the best lock in the world as far as I’m concerned. He is our captain; he inspires those around him. When he is in our group, it’s probably a different pack in a way. So, he was a massive loss for us. Jason Jenkins as well, who has played well this year. Two big men who have carried really well for us; they can win balls. That was a big loss to be without those big boys in this game.”
Time and again, the Sharks came close to scoring a try in the first half, but they fell short against the Bulls, who led 12-3 at halftime.
Prop Ox Nche, right at the end of the first half, thought he had scored five points, but the ball was held up before the referee blew the whistle for the first stanza. The Sharks’ three points came from the shaky boot of flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse, who had a largely unremarkable game.
“We had plenty of opportunities [to score] before halftime,” Plumtree said. “We put the Bulls under pressure, and they got three yellow cards, but we weren’t quite good enough to finish them off. We should have been closer to 15-15 at halftime, but didn’t cash in close to the line.
“We got held up over the goal line just before halftime, which was an absolute disaster. But I was still pretty confident at halftime. We were starting to get our game going and had the territory we needed. We scored a couple of good tries [in the second half] to get back into the game but weren’t quite accurate enough, and they managed to get that try [by David Kriel] that broke our backs.
“We were a bit off our game on attack,” he added. “Sometimes we played too deep when we had momentum, and sometimes too flat when we didn’t.”
The Bulls will now face Leinster Rugby in the final at Aviva Stadium in Ireland next Saturday.
Pic courtesy of Steve Haag
