Coach Du Preez admits that the Sharks let the Waratahs off the hook

The Sharks tried their best to give the Waratahs their first win in Durban since 2009 but they had to settle for a 24-all draw at King's Park on Saturday.

The hosts held the aces for the better part of the game but they often found ways to bring the visitors back into the game with needless mistakes.

Sharks coach Robert du Preez said they played too much rugby and their game management was substandard.

His namesake son Robert du Preez‚ who started at fly-half‚ was the chief culprit.

He kicked the ball away aimlessly and his faulty tactical kicking often relieved the pressure on the visitors‚ who were equally poor.

“We let them off the hook too many times because the game was there for the taking.

"We were just impatient at times. Right till the death‚ we tried to play too much rugby instead of slowing the game down‚” Du Preez said

“It was humid and the ball was difficult to handle.

"We also had quite a few opportunities and we didn't take those and our game management was poor.

"There were some positives and the tries that we scored were good but we need to learn to be more patient.”

Former All Black centre and current Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson was far more frank and forthcoming about his team's shortcomings in their past two games.

Against two South African teams‚ they've collected six points from a possible 10. They beat the Stormers at home last week.

Those are results he clearly didn't bargain for at the start of the season.

“We were poor to be honest. We lack ball control and we put ourselves under pressure through turnovers.

"To come away with two points from this game is fine but I'm not happy with the performance. I don't know whether both teams would walk away from this match happy but we need to get much better‚” Gibson said.

“I guess we'd set pretty high expectations this year but the fact of the matter is that we got out of jail last week against the Stormers.

"This week we were average and came away with two points. It depends which side of the fence you on but we know we've got a lot of work to do.

"We'll be much better than what we showed in this match.”