AUDIO: Sharks were 'embarrasing'
The Sharks suffered a disappointing 10-40 defeat to the Bulls in Durban on Saturday.
Fresh from an impressive New Zealand tour – which included a convincing 63-40 win over the Blues and a narrow 37-38 defeat to the Hurricanes – it hard to believe that the Sharks produced such a lacklustre performance which saw them leaked six tries.
"After you played two really good games in New Zealand, where the team showed how talented that they were, and then to come back and have an absolute embarrassment at home," coach Robert du Preez tried to make sense of his side's performance after the match.
"Because that's what is, it is embarrassing.
"A complete lack of effort," the coach added.
The Sharks took an early lead with a Robert du Preez penalty in the third minute. However, that lead did not last long with Bulls flyhalf Handre Pollard orchestrating the game's first try in the sixth minute.
Pollard sent a neat chip kick over the home side's defence with Warrick Gelant collecting and scoring the five-pointer.
The Bulls were in a commanding position leading 21-3 after just 26-minutes of play.
Bulls fullback Gelant was the star of the show scoring three of his team's six tries.
While Sharks' only try was scored by centre Andre Esterhuizen in the 39th minute.
"We spoke about the Bulls scoring points in the first 20 minutes, that has been their Super Rugby trend this season," Du Preez said.
"I think conceding the first 20 minutes and then the first 20 minutes of the second half, really put us on the backfoot – we never recovered.
"The Bulls played the perfect game [given the wet weather condition]. There was a good mix of running rugby and kicking the ball into space, we just couldn't handle it,"
The Sharks' next opponents are the struggling Stormers outfit in Durban on Saturday, April 21.
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