Waikato ended the Sharks' unbeaten start to the Super Rugby season with a 15-9 victory in a rain-soaked match on Friday that was decided on penalties.

Flyhalf Mike Delany replaced Waikato teammate Andrew Donald, who was taken to hospital with a back injury, and kicked four penalties from five attempts to steer his side to a narrow win.

The Durban-based Sharks won their first four matches, posting their first-ever back-to-back wins in Australia but failed to improve on a 40 per cent winning record in New Zealand despite leading 6-3 at halftime.

For most of the match the championship-leading Sharks looked the better team but were unable to take advantage of a steady stream of Chiefs' errors.

Though they also defended superbly, Delany's goalkicking consigned them to defeat.

"It was an important win for us and very gutsy. The conditions weren't too good but the boys gutsed that one out," Chiefs captain Liam Messam said.

"It wasn't the prettiest of rugby but we came away with the win and we're happy."

The Chiefs paid a heavy price for their win, losing Donald to a back injury during the first half

The seriousness of the injury was not immediately clear but the flyhalf - recent understudy to All Blacks star Daniel Carter - was taken to hospital for examination.

Prop Ben May suffered a serious calf strain and replacement lock Romana Graham an apparent concussion, adding to Waikato's already heavy injury toll ahead of next week's match against the Auckland Blues.

Sharks flyhalf Patrick Lambie, who entered the match as the tournament's leading pointscorer this season with 65 points, added to that tally with two first half penalties.

He slotted goals in the fourth and 27th minute while fullback Tim Nanai-Williams kicked a goal for the Chiefs while Donald was receiving treatment for his injury.

Delany then came on and wrested the match from the Sharks, kicking long-range goals in the 41st and 46th minutes to give the Chiefs the lead, before adding two late goals after Lambie had equalised in the 53rd minute.

"It was a pretty knockabout sort of affair, not a lot of pretty rugby but sometimes you've got to play like that and be a little bit smarter," Sharks winger Stefan Terblanche said.

"We pride ourselves on our defence and they had gamebreakers all around the park but as I said not a spectacle of rugby but we tried real hard out there."

The Sharks were due to fly home to South Africa hours after the match and will then fly to London on Thursday to meet the Canterbury Crusaders at Twickenham Stadium on Sunday week in the first Super rugby match played outside the southern hemisphere.

The match has been moved to London because the Crusaders' home ground at Christchurch was wrecked in last month's deadly earthquake. By Friday more than 30,000 tickets to the London match had been sold.

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