SHARKS coach John Plumtree credited his team's new-found mental toughness with Saturday's convincing Currie Cup final win over Western Province at King's Park Stadium in Durban.
Asked to what he attributed their spectacular rise from Super 14 stragglers to Currie Cup kings in the space of a few months, the elated coach said: "More than anything, we toughened up mentally in the Currie Cup."
Few can argue after the Sharks trounced the Bok-laden Province side 30-10 on Saturday for their second Currie Cup title in three years.
Flyhalf prodigy Patrick Lambie may have taken most of the plaudits for a virtuoso performance that netted him 25 of his team's points, but in truth it was a team effort. The Sharks simply refused to give the visitors room to play, and punished the turnovers with ruthless efficiency. A case in point was Charl McLeod's opening try of the match in the 6th minute after the Sharks won turnover ball at the breakdown - where they feasted all night - and wing Lwazi Mvovo gathered a perfectly weighted McLeod chip over the top and fed the scrumhalf close to the try line.
Lambie showed another touch of individual brilliance to slice through the Province defence to make the score 15-3 in the 12th minute. The 20-year-old flyhalf then converted the try and kicked a penalty in the 16th minute to make the score 20-3 - and the shell-shocked visitors never recovered.
As they had done against the Blue Bulls in the semifinals, the Sharks starved Province of possession in the first half - limiting their much-vaunted backline stars to cameo roles - and defended like Trojans in the second. Province's only try of the match came captain Schalk Burger capitalised on a line-out drive in the 36th minute.
Burger was to come in for some stick later for passing up shots at goal in the second half that could have narrowed the gap, instead opting for line-outs.
But he said: "When we took the first decision to kick at touch we didn't know we would get so many more opportunities. At that stage it felt like the right thing to do."
For Sharks captain Stefan Terblanche the win was especially sweet. "People wrote us off at the start of the season," an emotional Terblanche told the remnants of the 52000-strongh crowd after the match. "Today we were game breakers, stylers, we were Bokke. Any team can beat any bunch of individuals."
A new breed of shark in Durbs
SHARKS coach John Plumtree credited his team's new-found mental toughness with Saturday's convincing Currie Cup final win over Western Province at King's Park Stadium in Durban.
Asked to what he attributed their spectacular rise from Super 14 stragglers to Currie Cup kings in the space of a few months, the elated coach said: "More than anything, we toughened up mentally in the Currie Cup."
Few can argue after the Sharks trounced the Bok-laden Province side 30-10 on Saturday for their second Currie Cup title in three years.
Flyhalf prodigy Patrick Lambie may have taken most of the plaudits for a virtuoso performance that netted him 25 of his team's points, but in truth it was a team effort. The Sharks simply refused to give the visitors room to play, and punished the turnovers with ruthless efficiency. A case in point was Charl McLeod's opening try of the match in the 6th minute after the Sharks won turnover ball at the breakdown - where they feasted all night - and wing Lwazi Mvovo gathered a perfectly weighted McLeod chip over the top and fed the scrumhalf close to the try line.
Lambie showed another touch of individual brilliance to slice through the Province defence to make the score 15-3 in the 12th minute. The 20-year-old flyhalf then converted the try and kicked a penalty in the 16th minute to make the score 20-3 - and the shell-shocked visitors never recovered.
As they had done against the Blue Bulls in the semifinals, the Sharks starved Province of possession in the first half - limiting their much-vaunted backline stars to cameo roles - and defended like Trojans in the second. Province's only try of the match came captain Schalk Burger capitalised on a line-out drive in the 36th minute.
Burger was to come in for some stick later for passing up shots at goal in the second half that could have narrowed the gap, instead opting for line-outs.
But he said: "When we took the first decision to kick at touch we didn't know we would get so many more opportunities. At that stage it felt like the right thing to do."
For Sharks captain Stefan Terblanche the win was especially sweet. "People wrote us off at the start of the season," an emotional Terblanche told the remnants of the 52000-strongh crowd after the match. "Today we were game breakers, stylers, we were Bokke. Any team can beat any bunch of individuals."
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