Sharks coach John Plumtree is seldom one to mince his words and he certainly wasn't holding back in a frank assessment on his team's disappointing showing in going down 21-23 to the Free State Cheetahs in the Currie Cup semifinal at the weekend.

Not too long ago Plumtree complained about the integration of his Springboks back into the table-topping team and suggested that their energy levels (or 'arousal levels' as he called it) were not where it should be.

Following their unexpected exit from the Currie Cup, the Sharks mentor was equally scathing of his team's performance in Durban last Saturday.

A severely-dejected Plumtree admitted that they were beaten by the better team on the day.

"There's nothing much to say, we weren't good enough," he said in an interview on the Sharks website, adding: "The better team won it.

"We were outplayed by a better team on the day who wanted it more, there weren't too many areas we were on top.

"That's semifinal rugby, at 18-3 up, you don't throw that kind of lead away, we just committed too many unforced errors, we never got our game going to force pressure."

One area he identified where the visitors got on top was the tackle area, where a number of balls were poached from The Sharks.

"They were far more committed than us," explained Plumtree.

"The breakdown could have gone either way, but you have to commit numbers and they did. They hurt us and it's not an area I can complain about."

Examining his team's output, there were areas he was pleased with but others where he felt they fell short.

"We did some damage but our kicking game was off, our ball-carrying wasn't blunt so we couldn't get any momentum going; it was something that plagued us through the latter part of the Currie Cup."

The Sharks coach admitted he wasn't entirely convinced that the game was in the bag even when they were leading 18-3.

"We just couldn't bring anything to the game"

"We hadn't played and needed to change things and when we conceded an early penalty and a try from turnover ball, then they were back in," he said.

"We just couldn't bring anything to the game, as soon as we had possession, we kicked it away, that's all based on pressure.

"So it was very disappointing, we weren't good enough, even right at the end on top by one point, we didn't close them down. One poor tackle, we turned the ball over, then gave back, it was a comedy of errors ? the last few minutes summarised the night for us."

He added that the string of attempted drop-goals towards the end of the game came from "some poor decision-making".

"We got some momentum, and then to do that when we had quality fast ball was pressure we didn't respond well to and pressure brings on human error."

Plumtree admitted that the tuning point in the game came with the Jacques-Louis Potgieter try, even if it didn't close out the game at the time.

"There was still plenty of time in the game and we had to get our set piece right. Our scrumming and line-out came right, but we lacked any kind of momentum, couldn't build pressure, turned ball over and committed too many unforced errors. In that case, you're never going to get your game going."

As he said in the beginning, The Sharks were beaten by a better team on the day and felt that they could go all the way in this tournament. "But I can't be too negative, the Cheetahs are a dangerous side and there is no doubt in my mind that they can win the final.

"You've got to give them some credit."