Sharks coach Dick Muir says ill-discipline was the Sharks' downfall in their 21-27 Super 14 defeat by the Brumbies.

When you are 18-7 up at half time and steamrolling the demoralised opposition any which way you like, it is unfathomable that you can proceed to lose the second half 20-3.

But the foot was taken off the throat of the Brumbies when the Sharks' discipline began to creak early in the second half. The Brumbies started getting more possession, and then that discipline completely unraveled and the home team stormed through the opening.

Muir was abjectly disappointed after the match, not angry in the slightest, just gutted that his team had reacted so badly in the face of adversity.

"We cannot blame anybody but ourselves for this defeat," the crestfallen coach told the Sunday Independent. "Discipline cost us the game. It is that simple. You cannot play with 14 men for 20 minutes of a half".

Muir was referring to the yellow-carding of Ryan Kankowski in the 50th minute and Frans Steyn 15 minutes later, both for going off their feet at rucks.

"What is very disappointing is that a major talking point in our planning was how Bryce [Lawrence] referees the breakdowns, and we spoke about how he is a referee that very much likes to be in control, and then we went out into the pitch and gave him reason to turn against us," Muir said, choosing his words carefully.

It did not help the Sharks that they suffered injuries to impressive young lock Steven Sykes (twisted ankle) just before halftime and key centre Bradley Barritt (shoulder) not long after the break but, in truth, the injury that mattered occurred in their collective brain.

There was perhaps some youthful arrogance and cockiness in the Sharks in that they felt they could disregard the infamously pernickety Lawrence who, after all, refereed the Sharks versus Brumbies game in Durban last year which led to the Sharks bemoaning Lawrence in the aftermath of their defeat.

"Stupid" is the word Muir used to describe how the Sharks conspired to let the Brumbies into the game.

"We had them dead and buried in the first half and should have scored more points than we did. We were running onto the ball and looking good," he said. "But it is a simple game — you can only look good if you have the ball, and when we started giving away penalty after penalty, we no longer had the ball, and the game changed".

Before the match, the big question for the Sharks was whether they would be able to capitalise on the Crusaders' loss to the Chiefs and make up ground on the points table. In the end they salvaged a solitary point to move up to 32 points, six points behind the Crusaders but just one ahead of their next opponents, the third-placed Waratahs.

365