Sharks played into Stormers' hands

REACTION: Sharks head coach Sean Everitt says his team played into the Stormers hands during their 10-20 defeat in a United Rugby Championship clash in Cape Town on Saturday.

The Sharks were labelled favourites by many pundits before the match, but it was the home side who were superior in most areas of the game.

"Your start is really important in games like this, especially in games that are going to be close," Everitt told reporters after the match.

"Last week was a draw and we had three opportunities in the first 20 minutes.

"Unfortunately, the execution let us down and I am talking about the handling errors. All three of those opportunities would have led to tries. Then you come under the pump.

"But the same can be said about the Stormers. They also had opportunities in the first half. What we didn’t want to do today [Saturday] was give the Stormers running metres from the back.

"Unfortunately, the kicking accuracy is not what we wanted tonight, so that played into the Stormers hands, so they deserved their victory."

Everitt believes his team could have made better use of their dominance in the air.

"We would have liked Aphelele Fassi to counter a bit more. We did chat about that at half-time, but in saying that we were winning the aerial battle," Everitt explained.

"If you look at the stats at half-time, we won most of our contestables back, so I don't think that was a major issue. If you allow a team like that to get momentum and play off quick ball with backs like Warrick Gelant and [Seabelo] Senatla, you are going to be in trouble."

An area of concern for the Sharks was the midfield where Stormers centre Dan du Plessis cut the visitors' defence to pieces on a few occasions.

Springbok superstar Lukhanyo Am, who is one of the best outside centres in the world, played in the No.12 jersey.

"I think Lukhanyo played well when he gets the opportunities. Last week he performed really well at 12 and he got a man-of-the-match there, so he is solving a problem for us there at the moment.

"Ideally, I would like him to play 13, but I don't think that contributed to the result tonight. The Stormers were good," said Everitt.

@rugby365com