You can’t win ugly all the time – eventually you get caught out.” TAKE NOTE STORMERS FANS!!! !!!

What was good enough to get maximum log points from a fortnight in Australia will not suffice on the New Zealand leg of the Sharks’ Super Rugby tour, coach John Plumtree has told his troops ahead of Friday’s match against the Chiefs (and the tour finale against the Crusaders at a venue still to be confirmed.

“In this competition, you have to focus on how you perform and not just on results,” Plumtree said from Auckland, where the team will train before travelling to Hamilton on the eve of the match. “You can’t win ugly all the time – eventually you get caught out.”

Plumtree is being hard on his men. The Sharks have been pretty good in all winning all four games to date, but the coach feels that playing well for periods and then being sloppy for a while before switching on again is going to see the Sharks come a cropper somewhere along the line.

“We know what a tough challenge it’s going to be here in New Zealand, particularly with us now being into the third week away from home (a notoriously difficult week for SA team’s on their month-long tours) We need to be more accurate and for longer periods or we’re going to leave here with no points,” he warned. “The standard of the competition is so high that you have to keep focussed on improving on each performance, and then hope that the wins take care of themselves.”

So what bugged the coach about the 34-32 win over the Rebels?

“We weren’t as accurate as we would have liked. We made too many mistakes, including basic errors, which affected continuity,” he said. “We have addressed it in training and done a lot of skill work, so hopefully we’ll be a lot better against the Chiefs.

“We were again disappointed with some of our defence. It’s an area we will address in training this week and we have to get it right against the Chiefs, who have some very good steppers.”

The Sharks are catching the Chiefs coming off a narrow loss to the Hurricanes. Pressure is building on the Waikato team after three losses from four matches.

“The Chiefs were probably a bit unlucky to lose to the Hurricanes,” Plumtree said. “And with all the talent they possess, they must be very disappointed with their start to the competition. They have a home game now and will be desperate to bounce back, so we’re expecting a terrific fight from them. In this competition, you have to win your home games and the Chiefs don’t need to be reminded of that.”

BY Mike Greenaway