Durban - Sharks coach Gary Gold was not in the least bit amused on Saturday night after his team had flogged a 16-10 lead at the 70-minute mark to eventually lose by 15 points.
Gold said there could be “no excuses” for letting the Lions in for three late tries and their first Currie Cup win in Durban since 2007, having been outplayed for most of the game.
The Sharks travel to Port Elizabeth on Saturday for a rematch with a Kings team they struggled to beat a fortnight ago, and a defeat would sorely test the patience of Sharks fans.
Gold is acutely aware of expectations and has to balance that with his desire to grow the Sharks into an attacking force that will test the best of defences in next year’s Super Rugby competition.
“I am not going down the road of saying we will get better as the campaign wears on and players gain more experience,” Gold said.
“That will sound like we are trying to buy time, and we are not interested in offering excuses.
“The truth is that we should have won that game, and only have ourselves to blame,” Gold said.
“I myself will put my hand up and say maybe I should not have made the substitutions I did when it was a case of ‘why try and fix something that is not broken?’”
The Lions cashed in on some critical handling mistakes from the reshaped Sharks backline in the last 10 minutes.
But the change at flyhalf at half-time is not a case in point. Lionel Cronje came off and fullback Joe Pietersen moved to 10.
“That was simply a case of wanting to give (fullback) SP Marais an opportunity after he has been so good in training and has not yet had an opportunity, and with Joe having played plenty of rugby at flyhalf, I could move him there and thus keep our goal-kicker on the field.
“And I thought SP played really well. So did virtually all the players.
“We just have to quickly learn that you can’t lose concentration against a team of the composure of the Lions.” - The Star