JP Pietersen praises resilience of young Sharks in close call against Cheetahs

Sharks XV coach JP Pietersen praised the resilience shown by his young Currie Cup team in fronting up to the Free State Cheetahs, despite suffering a third loss on the bounce in the competition on Saturday evening at Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium in Clermont, west of Durban.

"Obviously we didn't get the result but immensely proud of the team. It's been tow tough weeks. We stood up today against a well-coached Cheetahs team, fronting up on our home ground in showing the performance that we did today," the coach said after the match.

The home team lost the closely contested match 7-5, with a missed conversion denying them at least a share of the spoils against their more experienced rivals. 

"The game was obviously won and lost defensively. You can see both teams defended well but the Cheetahs took the opportunity," Pietersen said. "It was just unfortunate we couldn't get our continuity on attack. We did some very good things on attack, we just couldn't get continuity.

"But it takes time to build cohesion, to get a feel (for each other). Vusi Moyo was new at 10, Marnus Diego was new (at centre). It takes time, so I'm extremely proud of the group today."

Pietersen feels that some of the youngsters have already shown that they can play at a URC level, which he feels will be music to coach John Plumtree's ears. 

The Sharks XV don't have much turnaround time, with another tough encounter against Griquas looming on Friday (3pm kickoff).

"It's a huge challenge, but I think a challenge is what this young group needs, and we'll fight. We'll correct what we did wrong today or work-ons, look at positives on Monday, and hit the ground running so we can go good come Friday," the Sharks and Springbok legend concluded.