French Freddie appears to be completely recovered after his horror knee injury against the Waratahs earlier this year. Expect the little maestro to be among the substitutes when the Sharks side to take on the Valke on Friday is named.
The news is less good for Rory Kockott, though. After doing his ankle against Boland a fortnight ago, it appears the Sharks form scrummie (and first-choice goal-kicker) will need at least another week on the sidelines. The dearth of reliable kicking options in te squad means Monty Dumond will probably get the nod at 10 again this week, with Brad Barritt (if fit) taking over from Andries Strauss at inside centre.
In another change to the backline that did duty (or lack thereof) in Pretoria last week, Rovers winger Wes Bodmer looks set to be named in Henno Mentz’s number 11 jersey. Mentz was woeful against the Bulls and hasn’t convinced all season. Plumtree is keen to give the club star a start, to see how he shapes up at this level. His Rovers teammate Chris Jordaan will continue on the other wing, after an encouraging first outing last week.
In the pack, Steven Sykes is expected to be fit and should start at lock. Deon Carstens, though, will almost certainly miss out after picking up a calf injury, meaning Plumtree will shift Jannie du Plessis over to the loosehead side, with BJ Botha continuing on the tight.
Possible Sharks team:
15 Stefan Terblanche, 14 Chris Jordaan, 13 Waylon Murray, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Wes Bodmer, 10 Monty Dumond, 9 Scott Mathie, 8 Keegan Daniel, 7 Nic Strauss, 6 Jacques Botes, 5 Johann Muller (c), 4 Steven Sykes, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Skipper Badenhorst, 1 Jannie du Plessis
16 Craig Burden, 17 Robbie Harris, 18 Albert van den Berg, 19 Skholiwe Ndlovu, 20 Charl Macleod, 21 Frederick Michalak, 22 Henno Mentz
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Welcome back, paddaboutjies
does anyone know anything about Bodmer? Seems he’s a little oke… 1.0m and 85kg. I hope Dewald Pretorius doesn’t kill him…
Little oke my arse, at 1m he should be in the circus but then at 85kg he must be a stocky bugger.
whoops… I meant 1.8m 😉
Cool. I’m all for giving the club players a chance. The Currie Cup lost its spice a long time ago and the only people that seem to take it seriously are the Free State team who cajole themselves are every woeful super14. Bring on the club players.
@CapeShark (Comment 5) : this Bodmer chap cannot possibly be worse than Mentz in any case 😉
If they are taking club players into the Sharks, great, but what then is the Academy achieving?
I am one of the shark supporters who stand by their team but we are playing k*k rugby. watched the last game at craven week yesterday lions cheetahs and with the commitment they both showed i think they would have given us a klap!!!! also saw robdylans friend there looking for new talent Wish i knew how to get the sharks back on track they play like the hillcrest high school 13th side and with all the talent that we have we should be so far ahead of the rest. dont know about you guys but i have had it with the positive spin placed on bad performances I remember a time when england were really k*k also woody had taken over and it wasnt jelling then they played a end of year test against the AB’s and drew and proceeded to do a lap of honour!! I feel like that with the sharks. We havent had any silverware since robdylan was a sprog and we get told great season we finshed 2nd or we made the semi final and then we had to fly over to australia and the trip killed us! Am I the only one who feels that this is a plague that has taken root in the higher ups at kings park-dont want to get banned so i best shut up
@hellbent (Comment 7) : well, I for one am wondering what Mvovo did that was so bad…
@Fattmann (Comment 8) : my friend uncle Adolf?
@Fattmann (Comment 8) : BTW – the only way to get banned here is to be a racist or act like a prick. You are in no danger of doing either, so vent away 😉
Bit off the topic, but did anyone see the article in Rugby World about the proposed changes to the S14?
Apparently SANZAR are meeting in July (not sure of the dates) to discuss changes to be made public in September.
They seem to reckon that the only way to stop all the SH top players from leaving to play in Europe is to go the way of private ownership of teams.
And expanding to USA, Canada, Arg, Japan. And the min financial guarantee to buy a team is aroung £6 million a year guaranteed for 3 years.
@ra-cheltjie de’ be-er (Comment 15) : sounds like a decent idea
Also if possibly going the way of a ‘conference’ system. 3 Conferences, Americas, Africa, & Asia/Pacific. Or something like that.