Willem Alberts has been the Sharks’ most valuable player this season

Willem Alberts has been the Sharks’ most valuable player this season, give or take Bismarck du Plessis and The Beast, and when he fronted at a press conference at the Shark Tank yesterday he was frank in his assessment of how the players aim to turn Newlands defeat into victory over the Brumbies at Kings Park on Saturday night (7.10pm).

“A small change in the team’s mindset can lead to a big result,” Albert said. “We must make an attitudinal shift. Against the Stormers we seemed to be there just to compete instead of playing for the win. So we know what went wrong and this week will get our attitude right, believe in each other and take the opportunity to put things right.”

Alberts, who has made more line carries and yardage than any other Shark, backs included (according to Super rugby statistics), admitted that as a player he felt himself in a Sharks cause going backwards against the aggressive Stormers.

“We did not take them on physically and so made life hard for ourselves. We conceded three first phase tries which really are giveaway tries, and that is obviously disappointing, but we know what went wrong and we have to turn it around so that we go into next week’s bye on the right note. We have to get our minds right because the Brumbies are a very good team and they have nothing to lose (given their position on the Australian Conference).”

Alberts’ coach, John Plumtree, was sitting next to his in-form flank, and he said he backed his players to turn things around.

“We were in this position not that long ago and responded really well – the Sharks lost three in a row to the Chiefs (away), Crusaders (away) and Stormers (home) – before rallying to thump the Lions in Durban in the match before their first bye. Now the Sharks’ goal is to take maximum points off the Brumbies before their second bye.

“This is not new territory for us,” Plumtree said. “We have lost before, done our introspection and turned it around. We will just box on this week, it is all we can do. We are hurting from the manner of our defeat to the Stormers and must respond accordingly.”

Almost as important as the log points on offer is the need for the Sharks to go into next week’s bye feeling good about themselves after the negativity of the heavy defeat in Cape Town.

“It is vitally important that we play well this week,” Plumtree agreed. “We have not beaten the Brumbies for a while and they are hurting after their loss to the Cheetahs. It looks like they could be out of the competition but you can be certain that they will want to take something home out of Africa.

“It is a big game for both teams, and there is a lot of pressure on us as the home side coming off a loss.”

by Mike Greenaway

www.iol.co.za