The Sharks produced a first 40 minutes that should rank amongst their greatest abroad within the United Rugby Championship, but then a messy second half left them with a most uncomfortable end to the sport as they held on for a 42-37 win against Zebre in Parma.
Having led 28-3 because the first half got here to an in depth, the Sharks scraped residence ultimately, but they have been fortunate as a result of Zebre had a long-range 77th-minute strive – that would have given them a 41-39 lead – disallowed as a result of Werner Kok had been taken out whereas chasing a kick. Boeta Chamberlain as a substitute kicked a penalty to present the guests a vital 42-34 lead.
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“Obviously we’re very happy with the win, we did really well to get five points away from home in our first outing,” mentioned Sharks coach Sean Everitt mentioned.
“The first 40 was actually pleasing. We’ll take quite a lot of positives out of that, we performed some improbable rugby.
“We knew what happened to Leinster in the second half final week [Zebre fought back from 28-10 at halftime to only lose 33-29], but we didn’t be taught the lesson.
“We went off plan by way of our execution, our kicking recreation and our defence, and we conceded seven penalties within the second half, which is unacceptable.
“But those things are all fixable and we are happy to get off to a winning start. But we know there’s lots to work on,” Everitt mentioned.
Better game-management will probably be one of many takeaways from the sport as Zebre have been in a position to get well from what appeared a misplaced trigger within the first half and fully change the momentum of the match.
Everitt will need to know why his group allowed themselves to be so totally placed on the again foot. Zebre gained loads of go-forward from their maul, and the Sharks have been additionally susceptible out huge.
They additionally misplaced essential possession from the restarts, permitting Zebre to degree out the one-sided territory (64%) and possession (65%) stats from the first half.
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