JAMES Shepherd has been acting as Cronulla’s caretaker coach for less than a month, but already he knows one major area of the Sharks’ game which must improve ahead of Saturday’s match with Penrith at Carrington Park – defence.

Shepherd cast a frustrated figure last Friday night after his Sharks went down 36-18 to the Cowboys to remain rooted to the bottom of the NRL ladder.

During the course of 80 minutes the Sharks racked up 27 missed tackles.

Given the Panthers outfit the Sharks will face in Bathurst on Saturday afternoon sit seven places above the Cowboys on the ladder, any defensive errors will likely be punished.

“You have got to be better technically in certain areas. Obviously when it is going against you, your defence is under pressure. Technically we are not winning enough tackles and that is part of our issue and we are giving up some metres,” Shepherd said.

“It is easy to point the finger at the last guy to miss a tackle, but that momentum in the set is built up over the set. Most people in the crowd will say that last guy that missed the tackle in the set ‘oh it’s his fault’, but there could have been three or four sloppy efforts on play one or two.

“It was a little bit disappointing with the two [tries] they scored under the posts to be honest.”

The Sharks made a poor start to that match when fullback Michael Gordon spilled a Jonathan Thurston bomb in the second minute.

From there, Shepherd’s men conceded 16 consecutive points, but the game was not without its positives.

The Sharks fought back to be within four of the lead at 16-12 by half-time before falling away in the second stanza.

Maintaining momentum once they get it is something Shepherd hopes to see at Carrington Park.

“There was again some similar themes coming up – momentum shifts, swings, we’re not handling that too well at times,” he said.

“I thought they fought really hard to get back into the contest and showed some spirit and we went into half-time pretty positive, but again early in that second half we probably didn’t make the most of our opportunities. 

“When it turned against us we didn’t handle that.”

Sharks skipper Wade Graham agreed that he and his fellow players hurt their own cause as they hunted for what would have been win number five for the season.

“We worked hard to get ourselves back in the game, but just a few crucial errors there in the second half and a few penalties at the wrong time – we sort of took the momentum away from ourselves,” he said.

“There’s no shying away from the fact that we’re struggling as a team.”

The Sharks have never finished with the wooden spoon and the current crop of players certainly do not want to be known as the first group to finish with the unwanted prize.

Still, if they can improve areas such as defence, they will be a chance of lifting themselves off the bottom of the ladder as fellow strugglers Newcastle and Canberra are just two competition points ahead.

The Sharks’ quest to bridge that gap will continue from 3pm this Saturday afternoon at Carrington Park.