The Melbourne Rebels are talking up the positives despite their Super Rugby finals hopes collapsing in the final round.

South Africa’s Sharks beat Argentina’s Jaguares 20-10 in Durban on Sunday morning (AEST), demoting the Rebels to ninth and snuffing out the prospect of a maiden play-offs appearance.

The Sharks and Rebels ended level on 36 points but the Australian side’s differential was 16 points inferior.

It is a painful outcome for a team who looked comfortably on course for the post-season before the June international break but emerged with losses to the NSW Waratahs, Queensland Reds and the Highlanders.

The best of those performances was Saturday’s 43-37 defeat against the Highlanders in Sydney, where they couldn’t defend a sizeable lead early in each half.

Speaking after the game and before the Durban result was known, coach Dave Wessels hailed his team’s fighting qualities.

“It’s heartbreaking for us. We played with a lot of guts and a lot of spirit – it’s not an easy place to come and play,” he said.

“To take the game to the very last play, 5m from their line, I thought was a pretty special effort from our guys.”

Wessels was referring to a sweeping attack after the final hooter that set Jack Maddocks clear near the tryline before the fullback was hammered in a match-saving tackle by Highlanders wing Waisake Naholo.

It ended a thrilling match in which Rebels five-eighth Reece Hodge scored a hat-trick of tries and 29 points.

Hodge said positives were easy to find following a disastrous 2017 in which their future was on the chopping block for months and they picked up the wooden spoon.

“It’s tough to do right now but I think if we look back in a few weeks we can be satisfied,” he said.

“We only won one game last year and we’ve won seven this time and we’re pushing the best teams in the comp a lot closer than we did last year.

Just one team, the Waratahs, will represent the Australian Conference in the finals, alongside four from New Zealand and three from South Africa.