Gold: I'm not a romantic
Sharks Director of Rugby Gary Gold admitted that his team may have placed too much of an emphasis on attack and too little on defence this season.
Speaking at a media briefing ahead of their Round 16 Super Rugby encounter with the Rebels in Durban on Friday, Gold admitted they learned some harsh lessons in a campaign that could see them finish outside the top 10 for the first time in a decade.
The Sharks boss said one of those lessons is that romanticism don't win games.
While the Sharks' 29 tries in 14 games are more than what teams above them on the standings – like the Lions (seventh with 27 tries) and Stormers (third with 24) – have scored, it is the number of tries they conceded (40) that have hurt them most.
"I've been taken to task by a handful of journalists, [about the fact] that we had an intent that we wanted to play a better brand of rugby," Gold told a media scrum in Durban.
"I'm not sure why having that intent provokes such animosity."
Gold pointed out that New Zealander Brad Mooar joined them in their pre-season build-up with the focus on attack.
"We believe we have the right players and as it pans out, possibly there wasn't enough time in the middle put into defence," the Sharks Director of Rugby said.
"I feel strongly about not pointing fingers," he said, adding: "This was how we planned and how we went.
"Some lessons come back to bite you, regardless of the level of rugby you play."
Gold was adamant the "foundation" of the game is still defence.
"No matter how romantic you are, in terms of how you want to play the game, you need solid defence and manage territory.
"That's the platform the rest of the game is built on.
Gold felt that the Sharks were not suddenly a bad defensive team. It is just their focus in pre-season was on the wrong aspects of the game
"We have to put our hands up and say we didn't put enough time into our defence in pre-season," he said.
"There is definitely still room to improve, but time and energy on tour were dedicated to defence. There was good improvement there.
"There's not a perfect remedy out there. Sometimes there can be some collateral damage and with the focus we wanted to put on attack, maybe there was a bit of collateral damage with defence.
"No-one has denied that our defence, leading up to the tour, had been woeful. There were definitely situations where we were well below our standards – resulting in the capitulation in the Crusaders game.
"When we had the opportunity, on tour, to sit down and put focus on areas we believed were important, none were more so than the defence.
"That was a combined decision. It was not one person's fault, or reason, why the defence wasn't working.
"There are numerous reasons why it didn't function.
"It was a very important time for us to spend more time on tour together, to put a lot of focus into it.
"We're still very disappointed in the Highlanders' performance, a couple of soft tries in the game and we felt that everything capitulated from there.
"But I have to commend the character of everyone on tour.
"Even in the Waratahs and Hurricanes games – that we weren't successful in – how much of a difference it made for us to carry on in the fight.
"While we are out of the running [for the play-offs], we were still going to stick to our task.
"From our point of view, we have two home games and we know for the continuity of the union how critically important it is that we continue on winning ways."
