Gold laments errors again

The Durban-based franchise won the game 40-29 to secure their spot in the Super Rugby play-offs, however, costly mistakes and penalties plagued their performance throughout.

"I thought it was a great start to the game," said Gold after the match. "It looked like we could get ourselves in commanding position and then errors and penalties let them back into the game again. 

"It made it a tough night for us at the office, which is exactly what we did not want to do.

"It's the story of our lives – when we do what we say we are going to do and we are ruthless with our discipline then we are effective, but we can't be letting teams back into the game like we did there."

Gold also gave credit to a plucky Sunwolves team, who rattled the home side at various stages of the game. 

"Under the circumstances I think it was a potential banana skin and the guys stuck in in the second half against a team who had nothing to lose. 

"They [Sunwolves] are a well-coached side – they play a good brand of rugby and they never go away.

"If you win by 50 points, people say the opposition was poor, but if you are in a scrap like we were in then it is not good enough. By our standards, there are no excuses at all – we could have and should have been a lot better than that," Gold added.

Despite their performance, Gold believes there were a number of positives to take out of the game ahead of their quarterfinal against the Hurricanes in Wellington.

"I thought Odwa Ndungane was outstanding – it was good to see Tera [Lubabalo Mtembu] get a couple of runs, the guy has been out injured for almost two years. I thought Garth [April] played well – I am not saying he was error free, but he played much better. I thought his try was outstanding at the end. 

"There were quite a few things that were positive for me and we have to focus on those positives. We are in a quarterfinal now and I don't think it is all doom and gloom," he said.

@rugby365com