Hollywoodbets Sharks head coach praised his side’s commitment and effort, but rued missed opportunities after Leinster took the Vodacom United Rugby Championship win at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Saturday.
Plumtree called it a “Tough arm wrestle,” describing it as two physical sides, “and they scored one more try than us, it was one more opportunity they took than us.
“We had our opportunities inside the 22 and didn’t come away with points which is something we’ll probably look at. But you have to hand it to them, they have really aggressive line speed which we knew was coming.
“It was two sides going hammer and tongs at each other, but they took their opportunities and we didn’t.”
With Leinster having scored the only try of the first half, the Hollywoodbets Sharks coach admitted that, “Not scoring in the first half goes down to skillsets, they put us under pressure.
“Both sides made a lot of mistakes, again it just goes down to them taking one more opportunity than us. We were dominant at scrum-time and we were able to relieve pressure with our scrum which was good, but equally frustrating that we don’t win a game of rugby based around that type of dominance upfront.
“They also got on top of us with contestable kicking, an area that’s bugging us. A guy like Aphelele Fassi coming back in is going to help in that department. But right now we seem to be battling to take the high balls.”
He admitted that this match was completely different to the previous week against Zebre. “That was a lot looser; this was a battle upfront, a battle of two aggressive defences.”
The option to go for the lineout instead of having a crack at the posts in the dying seconds of the game, ambitions to win rather than settle for a draw, didn’t pay off, but had it, the sentiment around the outcome of the game would have been very different. It was a brave decision and one that came from on field sense of how the game was going at the time.
“It was frustrating that we got held up, the Irish are masters at stuffing your ball up and it was another opportunity we didn’t take, you have to hand it to Leinster for keeping us out.
“The decision [to give for touch rather than the posts] was around feeling the moment and often the players feel different out on the park than what we feel in the coach’s box. They felt they could do it, Bongi scored off the back of a dominant drive and that would have been in Siya’s mind as well. But we just didn’t execute it.
“You can’t question my team’s character, but it was frustrating that we didn’t get across the line. We’ve had a few one-point victories this year when we gutsed it out and nailed some big moments when we needed to. In this game we just couldn’t do that.”
The Hollywoodbets Sharks remain in fourth place on the overall log, six points clear of Munster, with four rounds remaining.
“We’re still in the competition, we’re still in the top four. It’s frustrating that we didn’t get the result, but that’s not through a lack of effort.
“We’ll always question our accuracy and what we could have done better, but the boys tried hard.”