Sharks' physicality was too much for 'Canes
The Hurricanes were favourites to win, but struggled to find their normal attacking rhythm against a stubborn and aggressive Sharks defensive outfit at Kings Park.
"They had passive line speed and allowed us to play, but once we got into that contact area they dominated that," said Boyd.
"We struggled to get go forward ball and that affected the way they are able to play.
"We knew what we were going to get and what we got was exactly what we thought we were going to get, but we didn't cope with it well enough.
"The try just before half-time and a couple immediately after half-time we were chasing the game and had to alter things a little bit.
"But at the end of the day we didn't get our own way at the breakdown. They played very well. They had a reasonably good tour of New Zealand, came back here for the first time in three weeks and it's starting to get to the point in the competition where you need to consider the situation on the log with the play-offs.
Boyd said he was disappointed that his team could not end their losing streak in Durban.
"We are massively disappointed obviously. We wanted to win the game and play well and we didn't do either, so that's a huge disappointment.
"The Hurricanes haven't won here since 2004. I'm not sure if it's in the way we approach the game, or the preparation, or the performance, but clearly whatever it was wasn't good enough today.
"We need to put our heads down and make sure we give ourselves the best chance to regroup and go ahead next week," he added.
Consistent Hurricanes No.8 Victor Vito said ball retention simply hadn't been good enough to allow them to capitalise on the chances they created on attack.
"If anything I feel like we didn't take care of ball well enough and gave them too many opportunities," said Vito.
"They are a team that's really good on capitalising on our mistakes. You could see that with the free style they played.
"We felt like we were well in it and that we'd weathered the initial storm and we could come back... They stole a lot of ball around our ruck and we just needed to get that clean out a little earlier."
Source: @Hurricanesrugby