Gold will back his young Sharks
The Durban outfit were forced to work hard for their 33-25 victory over the EP Kings at Kings Park on Saturday, and Gold was clearly frustrated with some aspects of their performance.
The Sharks boss admitted that it was a relief to get a win under the belt after their opening round loss to the Pumas in Nelspruit, but made it clear that he was far from satisfied with the overall performance from his side.
"I wouldn't say enormously satisfied, probably at this stage more of a relief that we have actually been able to put our foot in the door now.
"They are a difficult team to play against and I was disappointed in aspects of our performance.
"We set a good foundation to kick on and we let them back in the game, the yellow card didn't help but silly errors, not looking after the ball at critical moments was disappointing," he said.
Gold pointed to some glaring defensive errors as his main concern, especially as they have focused on this area in training.
"With the work that we have done on our defence and our cohesion I really thought there were some simple errors, a couple of adjusts that we missed and obviously some straight forward tackles.
"When we did look after the ball and take it through phases in our shape we looked dangerous and asked questions of their defence.
"We weren't disciplined or ruthless enough to stick to our own plans and we have got to ask questions about that because we do want to play ball in hand rugby but we have to look after the ball.
"I'm happy for the effort and the fight the young guys showed, but I think we made it too difficult for ourselves," he said.
Despite these frustrations, Gold said that he is willing to show patience with his young squad as they go through what he expects to be a steep learning curve this season.
"We have targeted a predominantly young team that we are going to back through the Currie Cup and we are going to make those sorts of errors," he said.
"It is going to be a tough learning curve for us this Currie Cup, I am going to be brutally honest about it, but in three or four months time they are going to have a handful of games under their belt and have played all over the country and they are going to be better for it.
"We have got to back them, and they have got to come good," he said.
Gold added that one thing his side cannot be faulted on is their attitude, which is why he is hopeful of their prospects for the future as they gain some experience.
"Part of the reason I want to pick a young team is they bring the attitude, that is what I love, they are going to make mistakes but it is not because of a lack of attitude.
"They way we are trying to defend and what we are trying to do is going to create errors for us and they are going to have to learn by making the errors.
"I know we don't have a very understanding rugby public, but we have got a process here and the bottom line is changes had to take place. We lost a lot of senior guys and we are on a course and we know where we want to go.
"One thing I cannot criticize is the attitude, so I am happy about that and excited because I am enjoying working with the youngsters," he said.
