Sharks director of rugby Gary Gold says his side showed great character to beat the Jaguares 19-15 in Durban.

The hosts ground out a valuable win in a match Gold said they had prepared for like a Test.

'I’m really happy with the character shown, we saw that late in the game with a fantastic defensive effort when the Jaguares were really playing and it could have ended disastrously. It was a very tough day at the office, but the guys stuck in there.'

The 48-year-old, however, lamented his team's poor finishing abilities and says improvement is needed.

'We could focus on the things we didn’t do well, or we could choose to celebrate the areas we’ve improved on,' said Gold. 'I think the answer lies in having a humble balance and realising that we’re a long way from being the finished product.

'We needed to be more ruthless on attack but we weren’t. We want to convert opportunities into scores and it that didn't happen nearly often enough. But overall it was a good test for us, we have Kiwi teams to play and this was a good exercise.'

Gold confirmed there were no serious injury casualties after the match. 

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