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The Sharks will persist with Thomas du Toit at tighthead despite him being given a working over by the Lions' loosehead prod, Jacques van Rooyen during the Sharks' 26-19 loss. Sharks coach, Robert du Preez, said at the post-match press conference that the first scrum set the tone negatively for the Durban-based team, something which they struggled to come back from. "I think after the first scrum, we really battled to get back into it and regain our composure. It is always tough when your scrum is going back like that, but we will come back from it," Du Preez told SARugbymag.co.za. Challenges, such as the many Du Toit faced against last year's finalists, will be part and parcel of the conversion, but Du Preez is confident that he will benefit from and improve with experience. "There are going to be obstacles along the way, but he is only going to get better playing at tighthead." The errors from du Toit weren-year-olds prop's errors weren't the only ones that halted the team's efforts, as du Preez was critical of a lack of patience and an ability to execute. "It's never good to lose in such a way, especially when we created a lot of opportunities. I think we lacked patience at crucial times so I'm not happy with that. "In our previous two games, we made very few handling errors and today was just one after the other. This is Super Rugby and we were playing against a quality side, so you have to look after the ball." The Sharks have a bye this weekend before their first home match against the Waratahs on 3 March.
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