Phepsi Buthelezi says the Sharks will fight to set things right against the Dragons in Newport on Friday night after letting themselves and the fans down in Glasgow.

The Sharks fell to a 35-19 defeat at Scotstoun despite a bright start, with discipline and decision-making undoing their early momentum. For Buthelezi, the loss underlined the need for a response that reflects the identity of the side.

“It’s really simple. We want people to see a proud and desperate Sharks team that’s going to go out there, work hard for one another, and restore pride back into the jersey,” the flanker said.

“We were very disappointed with last weekend. We didn’t stick to the Sharks’ way of playing, the things we worked on in pre-season, and that’s the biggest focus for us going into Friday.”

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Buthelezi admitted the Sharks had been guilty of losing shape after failing to deal with the immense pressure of the Glasgow pack.

“There’s nothing wrong with our system. When we move away from it, we scramble and look for desperate actions. At this level, when a team is close to your tryline, actions like that get punished. We’ve worked really hard this week, and I’m excited to see how our pack responds.”

He also pointed to decision-making and overplaying as a major issue.

“We drowned ourselves a bit. We thought we overplayed in certain areas, and that’s what Glasgow are good at. They forced us into conceding penalties and pinning us back in our half. That’s definitely one of the things we want to improve.”

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Buthelezi expects the Dragons to provide a different kind of test.

“They’ve got a bigger, more physical pack, so we know we’ve got our work cut out. We looked at their game against Ulster and thought they were really competitive [in a 42-21 defeat] . The scoreboard didn’t reflect that.

“They’re a proud team and with a new coach and around 40 new players, they’re a completely different side.”

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