Whilst one cannot really read much into pre-season results, Sharks coach John Plumtree was clearly not happy with his teams 41(10) – 10(5) defeat to the Lions in game 2 of the Neo Africa Tri Series at Newlands.

Plumtree blamed his team’s poor ball retention and high penalty count as major contributing factors to the score line.

In their 2nd and final 2011 appearance in the Neo Africa series, the Lions ran in 6 tries, 3 from rolling mauls. Coach John Mitchell was happy with his teams continuing improvement. “The Neo Africa series has been an invaluable training camp for us. We are happy with the result, but still have a long way to go with much improvement left in us.”

The Sharks now meet the DHL Stormers on Saturday at Newlands in the final match up of this year’s series. Tickets at Computicket and Shoprite Checkers. Season tickets are not valid.

Sharks – tries Lambie, Mvovo

Lions – tries Minnie, Whitely, Taute, VD Merwe, Grobbelaar, Killian. Penalty Pretorius, conversions 4.