McLeod said from South Africa the defensive display by his side in its narrow 45-41 win over the Cheetahs was disappointing.
''I was gutted. We missed 31 tackles and had our lowest percentage of the season. We didn't apply any pressure on the opposition that we had wanted to do,'' he said.
''We allowed them too much time and space and went against some of our policies that we had agreed on.
''But what we have taken away is those three tries in the last five minutes showed the pride the guys have. The guys just did not give up, kept battling away and epitomises what we the Highlanders are about.
''To be fair, we should have not put ourselves in that position. But we have had a good look at that and reviewed that really hard in terms of defence.''
He said the side did not have the right attitude going into the game and lacked the physicality throughout the match but the good thing was the side had got the victory.
The onus now switches to the Bulls in Pretoria, never the easiest place to play.
As McLeod pointed out, the draw has been something of a curse for the Highlanders.
In their past three games, the Highlanders have played a team which the week before had been belted by the Crusaders. That will continue this weekend with the Bulls smarting after being thrashed by the Red and Blacks last weekend.
''In terms of what we are coming up against this week they are a different beast to the Cheetahs. We are still trying to find our game and still trying to perfect that. We're still trying to find the right balances.''
The Bulls have been a standard issue for many years - big, tough forwards with a solid kicking game - but McLeod said the Bulls had also attempted to throw the ball around.
Even though they lost to the Crusaders by more than 50 points, they still looked threatening at parts, he said.
''They are doing a lot more offloading and attacking a lot more and kicking a little less.''
The side has a couple of bruised bodies and Liam Squire had gone home after breaking his thumb.
The team had a light training run yesterday but had rested up over the weekend.
Loose forward Gareth Evans had a sore shoulder after the match against the Cheetahs but he had been cleared of any injury.
Second rower Jackson Hemopo had flown over to replace the injured Squire.