But there is plenty of merit to their director of rugby Gary Gold’s earnest post-match message that his men needed to move on from the jubilation of their victory and start focussing as soon as possible on the next job at hand.
After travelling back from New Zealand last week ahead of their 32-15 win over last year’s beaten finalists, the Sharks now face a long flight in another direction.
“We fly to Buenos Aires on a day flight on Wednesday. Looking at the schedule, it feels like we are going through about 18 different countries before we get there, which will be some time on Thursday,” said Gold.
There is good reason for Gold to be wary of the Jaguares, who they face in Buenos Aires late on Saturday night South African time. Although the Argentinian entrants in Super Rugby have endured a disappointing season, most of their games have been played away. In fact, they’ve only played three home games thus far, losing narrowly to the Chiefs and Stormers before smashing the Southern Kings.
“The Jaguares are getting better every week, and I have impressed on the players how tough they will be to beat in front of a passionate and hostile Buenos Aires crowd,” said Gold.
“If we lose concentration now, and slip up next week, then a lot of the good work we have done and what we have achieved by beating the Hurricanes will have been cancelled out. It was a good win, make no mistake about that. It was great to see most of the plans working out for us.
