The Sharks coach John Plumtree was beaming with a huge smile at the high-scoring win over Zebre at HollywoodBets Kings Park Stadium on Sunday where they ran in riot, highlighting the key points of his lads’ dominance. 

The Hollywoodbets Sharks registered their third consecutive home win, hammering Italian side Zebre 47-3 to book themselves a ticket to the Challenge Cup quarter-finals.  

The Sharks proved to be too strong for struggling Zebre, scoring a total of seven tries with a man of the match, flyhalf Siya Masuku kicking six between Zebre’s posts.  

“The win was built on the back of full dominance. That was always our plan, we wanted to put them under pressure up front,” said Plumtree after the game.   

“Obviously with our scrum and our driving maul, the forward did a great job of it.”   

The South African side started the game a bit shaky in defense being pinned in their 22-metre line in the first few minutes which resulted in them conceding a penalty that gave Zebre an early lead.  

Just after Zebre’s penalty goal, the Sharks eventually found their groove with an early response through a well-worked Vincent Tshituka try in the sixth minute and thereafter ran into riot on the Zebre defense. Plumtree explained how the early turnaround influenced the rest of the game.  

“We didn’t start the first 15, 20 minutes how we would’ve liked conceding a few soft penalties, but our defense was generally pretty good. When we got the scoreboard ticking over, the boys settled down, and looked more confident going through the game”, explained Plumtree  

With Zebre only managing to score three points and Sharks 47, Plumtree’s side recorded the least points conceded and the second-highest score in a match this season for them, making it the most impressive all-around performance of the season in all departments.  

Plumtree commended his troops saying they pulled a good performance both in defence and attack.  

“I thought Ox (Nche), Bongi (Mbonambi), and Vincent (Koch) upfront were great, I think the back five worked well together and I think we fluffed a couple of opportunities that we’d be disappointed with but generally it was a pretty good step-up,” he said.   

The Sharks win now look to prepare for an Edinburgh side that is looking to take revenge having suffered defeat at the Shark Tank just a week ago in a United Rugby Championship fixture.  

“I think both teams will be desperate to progress to the semi-finals, so it’s going to be a tough match with a quality side in Edinburgh,” Plumtree said.   

The Challenge Cup quarter-final match between the Sharks and Edinburgh will take place at HollwoodBets Kings Park Stadium on Saturday (15:00).