If the pictures from yesterday’s Sharks training session are anything to go by, then it looks as though two players at vastly different stages of their respective careers are in line to replace Pieter-Steph du Toit in the Sharks line-up to play the Lions on Friday night.
21-year old lock forward Stephan Lewies is, of course, in the mix after a good season for the under 21 side; at 39, Albert van den Berg is certainly old enough to have fathered the lad – or at the very least legally cracked open a beer to celebrate his birth! The retired Sharks stalwart has been lending a hand to the junior sides this season as a specialist lineout consultant, but is still clearly in very good shape, given his full-blooded involvement in a contact session yesterday.
We’ll get a bit of clarity from the Sharks later, but I’d personally be very surprised if the Sharks were to turn to a man such as van den Berg, rather than developing Lewies. The latter, it goes without saying, is a far better option with an eye to the future!
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Good Lord! So the comment Van den berg seen at training was not in jest!
It’s dangerous to start such a youngster when he has only been with the team for a week. By all means, bring him off the bench, but I certainly wouldn’t start him.
Leave Lewies in the u21 set up and play Deysel at 4 with Marais at 5 and Hewitt on the bench. This way we can keep Mtembu in the starting team
Still remember Albert as the king of intercepts and stretching those long legs. When he was at the Boks, he was the fastest player over 400 meters.
@Caratacus (Comment 1) : I thought the same