Cape Town - There were mixed emotions for the Sharks as they returned to Durban from their Australasian tour.
The Sharks won one of their four tour games but things could have looked different had they hung on to beat the Hurricanes in Napier last Friday.
The Sharks led by nine points with less than three minutes remaining before conceding 10 points in the dying stages to go down 38-37.
“It was a step up from the previous week’s game against the Blues and I’m very happy with that. I thought the guys did everything to win the game, but in the end, it was really disappointing to lose because the boys threw everything into it,” head coach Robert du Preez told the Sharks’ official website.
After losing to the Brumbies (24-17) and Rebels (46-14) in Australia, the Sharks showed marked improvement on the New Zealand leg of their tour, beating the Blues 63-40 before narrowly losing to the Hurricanes.
Du Preez said he was happy with the team’s efforts in New Zealand.
“I thought everyone played well and the bench players were also valuable contributors when they came on.”
Disappointment aspects, Du Preez said, were allowing the Hurricanes back into the game, particularly near the end when the Sharks had a good lead.
“We leaked two soft tries that I’m not happy about,” Du Preez added. “And we should have closed the game out in the end, that’s a negative to me because we had every opportunity to do that and we didn’t. Overall, although we lost, it was a very positive effort from the boys and I’m proud of them.”
The Sharks’ next assignment is a home game against the Bulls this Saturday (17:15 kick-off).