The encouraging news for ailing Sharks fans is that there will be two current Springbok props in Jannie du Plessis and Tendai Mtawarira returning to the fragile front row for Saturday’s Super Rugby visit to the Cheetahs.
The former has completed paternal leave that co-incided with the birth of his daughter and his stipulated need for rest as a Saru contracted player, and the latter has recovered from a calf injury sustained in the season opener against the Cheetahs at Kings Park.
The Sharks will also be hoping that the reappointment for the fixture of the two match officials that largely sunk them in the controversial encounter in Pretoria, the Blue Bulls pair of TMO Johan Greeff and referee Jaco van Heerden , will perversely work in their favour. They will be holding thumbs that the troubled Greeff will counter his dunderheaded deliverances in favour of the Bulls a fortnight ago with some decisions in favour of the Sharks. Guilty officials often over-compensate.
The re-instatement of the props alongside hooker Bismarck du Plessis completes a long-standing Sharks and Bok front row that goes back to 2008, and could not have come soon enough following the humiliation of the Sharks’ scrum at Newlands at the weekend.
A further boost to the Sharks’ tight five is likely to come in the form of lock Mouritz Botha, a former England international who fractured an eye socket in the second-round match against the Lions.
Former Saracens coach Brendan Venter yesterday assisted Director of Rugby Gary Gold in a robust session at Kings Park, with the forwards getting stuck into each other in a session that was about the breakdown. There was a lot of sweaty endeavour, and the confrontation had a casualty in the form of prop Dale Chadwick who appeared to break a finger, which would be a pity considering that the fiery Westville High Old Boy has been in excellent form.
Yesterday, answers to the Sharks’ lamentable performance in Cape Town fell to forwards coach Brad Macleod-Henderson, who was vapid in his responses to the questions that hundreds of thousands of Sharks supporters have been asking as in “what the heck is going on with our team?!’
Macleod-Henderson mustered the following when asked what happened to his defeated pack: “We’re very disappointed with the result, in the first half I thought we played some good rugby, we had a few chances and if we can build on that first half this Saturday, it will go really well.”
No fine. That is the Cheetahs accounted for. - The Star