A week ago Joe Pietersen was a hero when he scored the try that sunk the Stormers at Newlands, but on Friday night he was the villain as he failed to secure victory for the Sharks against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld.The game ended 16-all.Despite missing a sitter of a penalty in the dying seconds of the Super Rugby clash, the flyhalf has received the backing of coach Gary Gold, who was more dissatisfied with his team's overall performance."Joe walked in and apologised and we moved on," Gold said after the match. "There are so many other things in the game that we can control. If Joe had missed that kick in the third minute, we wouldn't even be talking about it. That is not the issue."The issue is that there were other critical opportunities that we could have taken that would have afforded us a comfortable lead, but we didn't take them."The Bulls had the fortune of going into half time with a seven-point lead and looked likely to go on to hand the Sharks their first defeat of the season. However, an improved performance by the visiting Durbanites resulted in the lead changing hands in the second half."I thought we were really poor in the first half. Our errors put the Bulls back into the game," Gold said."I'm happy with the character and fight the guys showed in the way they came back. But I think if we are honest with ourselves we can't start games like that and put ourselves on the back foot."The Bulls, who are improving every week, looked the happier of the two sides after the close-fought encounter.Ensuring that their home ground remains their fortress is something the Pretoria side holds dear."Our intention is to make Loftus a place where we do not lose," captain Adriaan Strauss said.Aside from Pietersen's missed kick at the end, the Bulls have the cool-headed flyhalf Tian Schoeman, who moments earlier had slotted home a 50-metre penalty to level the game, to thank for saving them from the grasp of defeat."It was a helluva roller-coaster ride. When you realise in the last minute that you're playing for a draw is not ideal, but when you do get it in the last seconds, then you have to be happy with it. It was just a roller-coaster ride of emotions," said Strauss."He (Schoeman) came up to me and said 'just give me the ball' and I backed him. I respected that - a guy who is that confident and backs himself. He's shown in the past that he can handle those kicks under pressure."The Bulls will now travel to Singapore where they will face the Sunwolves on Saturday. The Sharks, on the other hand, will want to get back to winning ways when they host the Crusaders - a side that thrashed the Kings yesterday - at Kings Park...