Sharks out for redemption against ’lucky’ Stormers in United Rugby Championship

Durban - Behind closed doors the Riot Act was read to the Sharks in a team meeting this week after four yellow cards and two penalty tries translated into the Stormers coming back from the dead at 19-3 to draw their United Rugby Championship(URC) game last week 22-22.

In short, the Sharks took out a shotgun and blasted themselves in the foot and what looked like being a five-point bonus point haul was reduced to two.

Coach Sean Everitt diplomatically told the media that discipline had been addressed and “will not be a problem” at the Cape Town Stadium today in the return match.

After that match, Stormers coach John Dobson celebrated the draw but for Everitt and the Sharks the result was a backward step after the high of beating the Lions at Ellis Park the week before.

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The feeling after that match — in which the Sharks scored six tries — was that they would kick on at Hollywoodbets Kings Park and move up another level, but it did not happen, largely because the yellow cards meant the Sharks played half of the match a man down, plus two of the cards gifted the Stormers 14 points in penalty tries.

No wonder Dobson exclaimed: “We were lucky!”

Everitt, reflecting on what his team has to rectify on Saturday (5pm kickoff), looked back at what went wrong.

“The accuracy of our kicking game did let us down in the last 20 minutes as we always knew we shouldn’t give the Stormers back three the space to run back at us off our kicks and we knew that if that was the case, we would be in trouble,” he said.

“We knew we overcooked a couple of our kicks. But in saying that, if you go into the last 10 minutes of the game just seven points ahead and you