Sharks lose Reinach and Van der Walt

Reinach injured his knee, while Van der Walt injured his neck.

They will undergo scans to determine the extent of their injuries.

Stefan Ungerer and Lubabalo Mtyanda have joined the squad to replace the injured players ahead of their next match against the Chiefs on Friday.

Meanwhile, Sharks Director of Rugby Gary Gold was happy that his team could come away with four points against the Highlanders.

"I'm quite relieved to have come away with a victory in a very hard-fought game," he said.

"We knew it was always going to be very difficult down in Dunedin, playing against the current champions. There was added pressure with the fact that they were coming off a loss to the Reds a couple of weeks before, and ahead of their five week run of games, they definitely identified us as a team they should get an easy victory against."

While the win was a major confidence booster for the sharks, Gold was disappointed that his team could not score any tries in the match – even though the Highlanders were down to 14 men for most of the match after Jason Emery took out Willie Le Roux in the air in the 12th minute of the encounter at Forsyth Barr Stadium. 

"We're disappointed not to have scored tries, it's something we are going to be putting a lot of time and attention towards.

"We had a couple of try-scoring opportunities and a few momentum build-ups that we didn't finish, but the Highlanders are a good defensive team as well and against a quality team like them, playing at home, keeping them out aside from that one try – which was well taken – was a creditable performance.

"Although we didn’t score any tries, there was a lot of intent shown and some fantastic phases we put together. Our confidence is getting there." Gold added.