WATCH | Bulls explain 21-day Sbu Nkosi search after fielding criticism

After copping much flak, the Bulls explained their course of action during their 21-day frantic search of Springbok Sbu Nkosi, who was located in Emalahleni three weeks after he failed to return to training.

With Nkosi being located at his father's house in the Mpumalanga town, many questioned why the Bulls waited until Saturday, 3 December to go public about the star's missing case.

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"We're obviously not trained for scenarios like this," Bulls CEO Edgar Rathbone said.

"Yes, I'm sure we made mistakes along the way but what we need to keep in mind through all of this is that there's a player's reputation that needed to be managed as well.

"His safety was also a concern. It's about finding the balance in those two elements.

"I think the steps that we took in terms of visiting all his known residences, contacting family members, phoning him myself basically every day on all the known numbers that we've got, in the end led us to the police, unfortunately.

"But their help wasn't really forthcoming. Luckily for us, our partners SSG stepped in and really gave us momentum, as did the media, and 48 hours later we were able to find him."

The Bulls opened a missing persons file with SAPS in Sunnyside, Pretoria but encountered challenges in this regard.

They also met resistance in Emalahleni, where they tried to solicit police help to track down the star after following various tip-offs that pointed them to the town.

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"Having failed to reach Sbu directly through his known channels and numerous visits to his known address here in Pretoria, we mandated our