We'll sulk, then get on with it - Straeuli

Durban - "We won't let this get us down. Give the guys 24 hours to sulk about it, and then get on with it," was the response from coach Rudolf Straeuli after the Sharks had blown their chances of beating the Stormers in their opening Super 12 encounter at the King's Park Stadium on Friday night.

"Hopefully (by) next week the pain will have gone. We've been in worse situations before and recovered," he said ahead of their departure yesterday on an Antipodean trip that will see them criss-cross the Tasman Sea twice and oppose the Highlanders, Brumbies, Hurricanes and Waratahs before returning to a home ground once regarded as a fortress.

Straeuli's dressing down to the Sharks was done in private. "I'm not going to criticise them for their decision making, this was their first game in the competition," he insisted.

It would surely have made far greater rumblings on the Richter scale after they squandered a comfortable 10-point lead in the final 13 minutes to lose 25-18 to the Cape side.

The only consolation for the home team was that they picked up a bonus point for their efforts for losing by seven points or less. Despite the heroic efforts of their forwards for three quarters of the match, their old failings returned to haunt them - lack of ideas behind the scrum and an inability to finish.

How enjoyable it was to see the Stormers backs create space for themselves despite limited opportunities.

The Sharks, by contrast, always seemed to be looking to make contact whenever possible, even when they were the ball-carriers. It was almost as if they were trying to physically overwhelm their opponents when it would have been easier to draw defenders before putting their teammates away.

"We can't make excuses. We lost today. That's the end of the story," conceded skipper Mark Andrews. Even that was an understatement.

Halfway through the second period, the home side looked to have sewn up the match in front of an impressive crowd of 45 506.

However, they were made to pay dearly in the end for some poor decision-making when it mattered most. Thirteen minutes from the end, Lukas van Biljon's throw to the back of the lineout from inside his own 22 metre line went over his intended target only to be snaffled up by tireless Stormers skipper Corne Krige and sparked a move that led to Percy Montgomery dotting down close to the left-hand touchline.

Minutes later scrumhalf Bolla Conradie - whose enterprising play from the base of the Stormers scrum earned him the Man of the Match award and had some clamouring for his instant elevation into the Bok side - dropped a goal to level the score.

But perhaps the final straw came when the Sharks, in attempting to run a penalty from 40 metres out, instead of kicking for touch, gave the ball to Ollie le Roux in the hope that he might batter his way over from distance.

That move was predictably snuffed out due to the lack of support for the big man on the drive.