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Cape Town - Sharks coach Robert du Preez has blasted his side following Saturday's 40-10 loss to the Bulls in Durban.
The Sharks, who thought they had turned the corner after beating the Blues 63-40 in Auckland and then losing 38-37 to the Hurricanes in Napier, were completely outplayed by John Mitchell's charges and fell 21-3 behind after 25 minutes.
They would not recover from that, and in the end the Bulls scored a total of six tries to just one from the hosts.
Speaking after the match, Du Preez got stuck into his players.
"It's an embarrassment ... it was a complete lack of effort," Du Preez said.
"There was still lots of time left to pull the game back, but you've got to fight for every minute to do that and we didn't. There was no effort.
"Nothing went right tonight."
Du Preez praised the Bulls.
"We spoke about the Bulls scoring points in the first 20 minutes of every game and that's been a trend right through Super Rugby. That put us on the back foot and we could never recover from that," he said.
"I think they played the perfect game. There was a good mix of running rugby and kicking the ball into space. We just couldn't handle it.
"We've got to take this loss on the chin and move on and fix it next week."
The Sharks now turn their attention to a crucial clash against the Stormers in Durban on Saturday while the Bulls host the Rebels at Loftus.
