John Plumtree conceded he was never worried about defeat despite his Sharks side struggling for some parts of Saturday’s Super 15 victory over the Waratahs in Durban - a win that kept alive their hopes of a place in the playoffs.
Patrick Lambie scored 21points for the hosts as they came back from eight behind and 15 minutes remaining to win 26-21.
“We always knew it was going to be a tough match, playing against the second best defensive side in the competition,” said Plumtree
“We knew we had to work for everything.”
“Even though we had a bad start to the second half, I never felt stressed. Apart from the scoreboard, I felt that we were playing the better football and it was a case of just sticking in there and getting the momentum.
“I just felt we were the better team and we just didn’t get the reward for some good play through the game. With a little more luck we could have scored more tries at least.”
Victory moved Plumtree’s team onto 47 points on the overall standings, now in fifth place ahead of the Australian side and in a strong position to finish in the top six.
They will now need to win their remaining three games to assure themselves a place, but the Sharks boss conceded that things will not be easy.
“Obviously we need to go on the road and that in itself provides a challenge,” he said. “We go to Bloemfontein next week (to play the Cheetahs) and that’s going to be a big task.
“Then we have the Lions, so it’s not going to be easy. But I guess if we can perform to our ability we can do all right.”
Plumtree was especially pleased to have put last week’s poor 32-23 loss to the Bulls at Kings Park behind them.
“We were so p*ss*d off about last week because at the end of the day this competition is so tough and if you don’t perform to your best you’re going to get hurt.
“Now it’s just a case of it’s three to go and we have to win all three and qualify. If we do that, anything can happen from there.
“We’re in an 18 game competition, we’ve had 15 and we’re still in it. So it’s a lot better than last year and the year before, so we’ve made a couple of steps.” – Sapa