Sean Everitt praises Sharks defence, ‘lots of pleasing things’ for Bulls’ Jake White

Cape Town — Sharks coach Sean Everitt was concerned when scrumhalf Grant Williams was sent off in the final quarter, but he praised his team for showing great resolve to close out a 29-22 United Rugby Championship victory over the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night.

The Durban side grabbed a bonus point for scoring four tries and got back on track after drawing and losing against the Stormers over the last two weeks.

But they made heavy weather of getting past the Bulls, who lost flyhalf Morné Steyn to a red card in the 11th minute for a late and dangerous tackle on Sharks captain Lukhanyo Am.

They were leading comfortably at 26-12 around the hour mark and with the bonus point in the bag when Williams was also red-carded — for leading with the head and making contact with Bulls pivot Chris Smith’s face — and it provided an opportunity for the home side to loosen the shackles and give it everything they had in the final quarter.

They nearly pulled off the impossible, with tries by Simphiwe Matanzima and Madosh Tambwe bringing them within reach at 26-22. But replacement flyhalf Curwin Bosch sealed the victory with a penalty after the hooter.

“When Grant went off and the score at 26-12, we knew that it’s never done — we found that out at Kings Park a couple of weeks ago. That’s when you need to be accurate in your execution of your set-piece. And those two lineouts unfortunately, between the two 10s (10-metre lines), that put us under the pump, definitely,” Everitt said in the post-match press conference.

“And those were errors of ours, so we probably could’ve put it away. We know when the logs are so closely contested, every point counts. So, the try that the Bulls scored obviously allowed them the bonus point.

“I’