Jannie du Plessis may not have been involved in the weekend’s scrumming massacre at the hands of the Stormers, but he has examined the evidence and given his diagnosis on what went wrong.

The Sharks efforts against the Stormers at Newlands on Saturday steadily disintegrated as the game went on.

Their set piece meltdown culminated in three tightheads over a period of 15 minutes.

Du Plessis might not have had a front-row seat on Saturday’s proceeding, but he did manage to get his hands on a video which he scrutinized at length.

“I was certainly not expecting it (conceding three tightheads in 15 minutes),” the Springbok tighthead said.

“We had prepared really well, but there are a few technical things that went wrong.

“I watched the video over and over again; my wife must think I am crazy because I kept going through it in slow-motion and super slow-motion.

“I went through everything with a fine-tooth comb.

“As a whole we did not get what we wanted, but it was only one or two technical things that we were not getting right and we have already addressed those issues.

“It will go better.”

The traveling Sharks were without their Springbok star props Tendai Mtawarira and Du Plessis in the front row against the Stormers, but in giving his diagnosis the good Doctor was not ready to blame any individuals.

“I almost want to say that scrumming is a 15-man thing because, at the end of the day, props may not be the ones scoring 10 tries in a game or getting onto the front cover of a sports magazine, but what they do is earn the respect of their backline if they are able to provide good front foot ball.

“It is the encouragement from the guys outside the scrum that plays a massive role.

“But scrumming on its own though is an absolute 8-man thing.

“You could be the best player in the world in your position but if you have a few guys who are not giving it their all, or they are making a technical error, then you wont go as good as you want to.

Du Plessis believes that the focus on individuals may be what is causing the Sharks slump, stating that their focus this week for the return clash against the Cheetahs has been on gelling as a team.

“As a unit we are not getting that synergy that we know we can get,” he continued.

“The focus this week has been to get that focus and to play well as a team instead of just as individuals.

“Many teams have had good individuals but that does not always mean you will play well as a team

“Our emphasis has been trying to gel together.”

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Meanwhile centre JP Pietersen insists there is no crisis at the Sharks despite their poor start to the Super Rugby season that has seen them win just once in four games.

The Durbanites lost to the Cheetahs at home in their opening game, before defeats away at the Bulls and Stormers. Their solitary win came against the Lions at Kings Park in Round 2.

“I won’t say we’re in a crisis,” Springbok star Pietersen said.

“A couple of good wins and then we’re back in the competition.

“You can see by the results so far, there are a lot of away teams winning games, so Super Rugby is a long competition and there’s a long way to go.”

However, Pietersen admitted that 1 win out of 4 was unacceptable.

“I don’t think 1 of 4 is acceptable for any team. So we need to step up.”

The poor sequence of results under new director of rugby Gary Gold has meant that the Bok-laden Sharks are a lowly 10th position on the standings and with a lot of work to do in the coming weeks if they are to ignite their challenge for an elusive Super Rugby crown.

They face the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein this week, with Pietersen acknowledging the pressure will be on to produce a result.

“There’s a lot of pressure on us,” he said.

“There’s pressure even if you lose one game and we’ll be under a lot of pressure again this weekend.

“But that’s what makes great players. And we’ve been in this sort of situation before, so I think the players will stand up Saturday.”

He admitted that the players and coaching staff had been discussing some of the problems encountered over the opening month this week when they got together at the start of this week.

They returned from Newlands in Cape Town with a 29 / 13 scoreline.

“We’ve made things difficult because we play such a good brand of rugby and we are a good team.

“We’ve spoken about it on Monday and Tuesday.

“The most important thing is our execution. We got into good areas o the field over the weekend, but we just didn’t execute. That was the frustrating thing. There’s nothing big to fix, but it’s just about being more accurate and more hard on ourselves.”

Meanwhile, the Sharks are expected to be handed a double boost this week with the return of Springbok front-row pair Jannie du Plessis and Tendai Mtawarira.

Du Plessis has been on paternity leave, while Mtawarira returns after a calf injury.

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