Sharks have no right to complain

 

The Durban side suffered their sixth straight defeat and third on tour against the defending champion Waratahs on Sydney, in a match that saw considerable focus on some questionable decisions from referee Rohan Hoffman.

 

The defeat leaves them in 11th place on the Super Rugby log, with just four wins from their 13 games thus far and needing to beat the Reds in Brisbane next week to avoid a complete whitewash on tour.

 

Although frustrated with some of the decisions from the match officials in their 33-18 defeat to the Waratahs in Sydney, Gold said that his side are in no position to complain about being hard done by.

 

"I do feel a little unlucky, but when you are where we are on the table the last thing you can comment about is calls that don't go your way.

 

"It is a very tough time for us at the moment as a group now, we are in completely unchartered waters – we have never been this low on the table and I really can't fault the players' commitment and effort," he said.

 

While some have suggested that it would be best to go back to having neutral referees, Gold said that the nationality of the referee was not as important to him as his competence.

 

"I don't mind where the guy comes from, it doesn't bother me, every coach just wants a referee that is competent and the best man for the job, I am not overly bothered about that.

 

"I would like to believe that there is too much at stake, a couple of years ago they went this route where they assigned the best man for the job and that is how they will grow as referees and become the best in the world.

 

"I don't have a particular view on where the guy comes from, we just want consistency and competency," he said.

 

Despite suffering another defeat, Gold was encouraged by the way his team performed in Sydney and pledged to continue fighting to the bitter end.

 

"I thought we were up for the questions that they asked, I thought we defended extraordinarily well, we were always going to make mistakes – they made mistakes as well.

 

"I was proud of the way the guys hung in there and I think it was a cruel result at the end of the night. We will take it on the chin and we have got to stay in this fight.

 

"We have got a lot of pride to play for, we are a very proud union and this is not a great position for us to be in," he said.

 

They next face a Reds team coming off a resounding victory over the Rebels despite a somewhat indifferent season, and Gold said that considering their struggles this year they cannot afford to underestimate any opponents.

 

"There has never been a lack of quality in that Reds team, it has always been a situation of you need to be careful when they do click and they clicked against the Rebels so we have got our work cut out for us going up to Brisbane.

 

"We are not in a position to take anybody lightly where we are at the moment, we are fighting for a huge amount of pride and to resurrect the last few games and show our supporters how much it means to us," he said.