Sharks assistant coach Joey Mongalo will never forget his 40th birthday because the party-pooping Lions ruined his day. It was the corresponding fixture to Saturday’s United Rugby Championship match between the Lions and Sharks in Durban last year, and the Sharks started the game strongly — much like how the Lions shot out of the blocks in last week’s game at Ellis Park — but the second half was a different story.
“I won’t forget that game in a hurry,” Mongalo said ruefully.
“It was on my birthday, the January 6, and we led 18-3 at half-time, but the Lions spoiled it in that last quarter to win at the end, 20-18. It was a bitter pill to swallow.”
As redoubtable as the Lions are, the Sharks were also guilty of taking their foot off the gas, and that proved fatal against a team that has made ‘hanging tough’ an art form.
“The Lions are indomitable,” Mongalo said. “They just don’t go away. They don’t know when they are beaten.”
Much has been made this week about the importance of dominating the opening quarter, but Mongalo says this is hardly where it ends.
“The first 20 will set a tone, as it did last week, but we know from experience that no matter what it looks like at half-time, it means nothing.
“The first 20 is critical — you can’t afford to let the opposition get on top — but this game will be decided in the last 20,” the defence coach continued. “It could be as close as last year’s game when it was decided by kicks at the end.”
A good example of keeping the throttle open from start to finish was the Lions’ 38-14 defeat of the Sharks last week. They were 19-0 up at half-time and scored another 19 points in the second half to lead 38-0 with a few minutes to go. The Sharks’ late flourish earned them 14 points, but that did not diminish the extent to which they had been outplayed.
Mongalo said that, with hindsight, the Lions’ spectacular start — they scored 14 points in the opening 10 minutes — makes sense but is not forgivable from the Sharks’ perspective.
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“The Lions were in the perfect mental space ahead of that game,” he said. “We had beaten the Bulls with 13 and, at one point, 12 men, and then had no game. The Lions were coming off a loss to the Bulls and were desperate to make the Top 8. We had to match their hunger and didn’t.
“We spoke about how desperate they would be, but it is one thing knowing what is coming and another to apply yourselves to deal with it.”
It is safe to say that the much-chastised Sharks’ mental preparation will be on a different level this week. However, Mongalo says the rest of the preparation is not as easy as it would appear, even though they are playing the same side seven days later.
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“Playing back-to-back fixtures helps with analysis in that you are looking at the same bodies and the same team DNA,” he said. “It helps you with about 80% of what you are doing, but there is a nervy 20 percent of things that the Lions will change.
“You feel like you have read the script, but you know the new script will have some tweaks, and you are not sure where. It looks like the same game, but it will play out differently.
“Then there is the big difference between playing on the highveld and playing in Durban,” Mongalo continued. “We are expecting extreme heat and humidity, so that changes quite a bit of how the game will be played. We have our way of playing in those conditions, and they have theirs.”
The Lions will take note of Mongalo’s concluding words.
“Everyone is hurting. Sometimes, when you are coming off a bad loss, you become opposition-focused, but we want to prove to ourselves what we can do. We want to remind ourselves of who we are and how hard we have worked over the last 18 months. We want to honour the work we have done.”