Sharks season nearly came 'crashing down'

Cape Town - In the end they got the job done, but for the most part the Sharks were far from convincing in their 26-10 win over the Cheetahs in Durban on Saturday night. 

It is a result that has all but ensured qualification to the quarter-finals. 

If the Sharks beat the Sunwolves at Kings Park on Friday night, they will progress to the knockouts. 

It could have been a very different situation had they lost to the Cheetahs, and in the opening half hour that looked extremely possible. 

The Sharks were being dominated at scrum time, came extremely close to conceding a penalty try and couldn't get out of heir half. 

An upset was on the cards, but in the end the Sharks got over the line. 

Gold was not overly pleased with his side's performance, but he spoke about the massive significance of the win.

"This was a potential banana skin. If we had slipped up then everything we had done for the first 13 weeks would have been in tatters," Gold said.

"The whole season would have come crashing down.

"It was a hugely significant win. We didn’t really want to get to a situation where our fate is in somebody else’s hands and it is in our hands." 

The Sharks should have no trouble dispatching the Sunwolves on Friday, but they will have to be far better than they were against the Cheetahs if they are to progress beyond the quarter-finals. 

"I was disappointed a little bit in the performance," said Gold.

"Two areas: errors and discipline just kept the Cheetahs in the game the whole time.

"It was 7-3 down, if we had gone to 14-3 down then it would been a real dog fight for us tonight."