- Sharks coach Sean Everitt has bemoaned his side's lack of patience in their 54-7 loss to the British & Irish Lions on Wednesday.
- The Lions have now won both of their tour matches comfortably since landing in South Africa.
- Everitt conceded that the Sharks did not have the intensity or match-day pace of the Lions.
Sharks coach Sean Everitt praised his players' fight but acknowledged that they lacked intensity in their 54-7 loss to the British & Irish Lions at Ellis Park on Wednesday night.
The Lions now have two wins from two on their South African tour, having beaten the Johannesburg-based Lions 56-14 this past weekend.
The Sharks certainly had their moments and threatened the Lions' defence on several occasions, but errors at critical stages meant they would only cross the whitewash once.
Speaking after the match, Everitt acknowledged that a lack of international competition in South Africa had left the Sharks a little short on the match pace that the Lions brought to the table.
"Like (SA Lions coach) Ivan van Rooyen said after their game, we just weren't used to the intensity of the game," Everitt said.
"The speed at which we allowed them to get ball on attack hurt us a little bit. We weren't able to get around the corner quickly enough to set ourselves early on defence.
"It's not an excuse, but we haven't been playing international rugby for a while. Our last game of Super Rugby was 15 months ago. I think the pace of the game caught us a bit off guard.
"Although we were expecting it, you don't realise how quick it really is.
"When you're playing against each other in a domestic competition week in and week out, you get away with making errors."
On his side's performance, Everitt said the Sharks needed to look after the ball better.
"We were a bit disappointed with the error rate of some of the individuals in the team. In saying that, I think there was a lot of good to come out of the game, and we put them under pressure at times," he said.
"We didn't have enough patience with the ball and, at this level, you've got to respect the ball. Against international rugby players, there will be consequences for the mistakes that you make.
"We've got to understand that the fundamentals of the game are really important."
Everitt also revealed that, after the match, some of the Lions players had applauded the Sharks on their efforts.
"They'll know that they were in a game. I spoke to some of the Lions players after the game, and they said we put up one hell of a fight," Everitt said.
"I'm not questioning our players' effort, work-rate and physicality they put in today."
The Sharks are now set to face the British & Irish Lions again at Ellis Park on Saturday.