IT was a funny old Monday in the Shark Tank. There was the revelation that Alistair Hargreaves has signed for Saracens in a bid to rejuvenate his injury-hit career, the speculation that Victor Matfield could ask the Sharks for game time should he answer Heyneke Meyer’s plea for him to come out of retirement … and then there was the disappointing news that Sonny Bill Williams and the table-topping Chiefs have scorned Durban and will remain in Johannesburg to prepare for Saturday’s match at Kings Park.
The 25-year-old Hargreaves has never fully realised the potential that he showed when at school at DHS and in captaining the South African Under-19 team to an IRB title win, and has indeed been capped by the Springboks, but every time he has been on the point of truly “coming through” he has been hit by injury.
A season or two in England where there is a massive focus on tight forward play could see him return to the Sharks as a mature player who will hit the heights expected of him.
Hargreaves is currently recovering from an ankle fracture and still has a role to play for the Sharks later in their Super Rugby campaign.
Matfield for the Sharks? It sounds like an April Fool’s joke but it is not inconceivable. It is a concrete truth that Heyneke Meyer has asked the 34-year-old to come out of retirement and captain the Boks in the interim, at least for the 12 Tests ahead of the Boks this year.
Matfield has said that he is “thinking about it” and if he does dust off his boots, he will need game time ahead of the series against England in June, and the informed speculation is that the Sharks and the Cheetahs are the leading contenders to be offered Matfield’s services. Why? They are competitive teams that are short of experienced locks.
The Sharks, oblivious to this conjecture and solely focused on holding down the warriors from the Waikato, enjoyed a languorous session in yesterday’s autumn sunshine after a month away from the green grass of home.
They arrived home on Saturday night, having left Auckland in the early hours of the same day (taking into consideration that New Zealand is 11 hours ahead of South Africa) and arrived home after about 24 hours of travelling.
Sunday was spent catching up with family and yesterday coach John Plumtree scheduled training for early afternoon to allow a morning for recovery from jet-lag.
“It makes a big difference to have played on Friday last week so that we have this extra day of recovery,” Plumtree said. “There are a lot of sore bodies after what was a very bruising battle against a passionate Blues side.”
The Chiefs, meanwhile, have chosen to remain at Caesar’s Palace in Jo’burg, where they prepared for last week’s victory over the Cheetahs, and will come to Durban only on Friday.
Plumtree said that injured hooker Bismarck du Plessis was expected to be over his thigh injury in time for this weekend’s kick-off.