Sharks boss gives brutal assessment after Stormers loss

The visitors humbled the Sharks 19-46 in the suffocating Durban heat in their rescheduled United Rugby Championship clash. The Stormers were quick out the blocks, racking up a 0-24 scoreline in just 33 minutes as the Sharks floundered in front of their home crowd.

Speaking to the press after the loss - their second in their last three URC clashes - Powell made no bones about the poor performance.

"It's definitely not a good performance from us," he said, as per rugby365.com.

"We were in that game last week [against Edinburgh] and we didn't pitch up for this one. From our mental approach, it's a massive disappointment, but it is a good lesson for us and we take this on the chin.

"There are no excuses. We got to get better and we got to learn from our mistakes. We knew the Stormers are a team that can punish you if you make mistakes and that is exactly what they did to us in this game.

"As a coaching team, we will again look at ourselves and then ask the questions to the team on what we could have done better to prepare ourselves for this game. It is just not good enough."

While the Sharks have a number of high-profile Springboks on their payroll, game time management has meant they can't be fielded week in and week out. One could argue their inconsistency in team selection is translating to inconsistent results, which Powell admits is difficult.

"Consistency is always tough, it is a difficult thing to get right every single time, but again there are no excuses," he said.

"If we want to be a champion team, we got to get ourselves up for every single game and be mentally prepared for whatever the opposition is bringing."

The Sharks next travel up to the highveld for a match against the Lions on 18 February.