Having picked up another valuable four points against the Blues on Saturday, a 24-man Sharks squad left Durban yesterday in buoyant mood, ahead of their tour opener against the Western Force in Perth. The only blight on an otherwise perfect day for the Durbanites was the unfortunate AC joint injury suffered by prop Eugene van Staden, which was serious enough to prevent the big man from boarding the plane with his team mates.
With 8 points from two starts – not to mention healthy winning margins in both encounters – the Sharks remain at the very top of the South African conference and are in second-place overall behind the Waratahs, the only team to date to have claimed four-try bonus points in both of their victories. While perennial arch-rivals, the Bulls, are level on log points, their two nail-biting wins against the Lions and the Cheetahs respectively see them behind the Sharks on points difference, although the fact that the champions have yet to play at home and have managed to win twice, despite playing way below their best, is somewhat of an ominous portent for anyone wishing to write them off at this stage of the competition. You won’t catch me being so foolish (at least, not again!)
It is understood that their was a last-minute scramble yesterday to try and find a replacement for van Staden in the tour party. The natural choice would have been Wiehahn Herbst, who has played Super Rugby before and knows the structures, but he has himself just returned from injury and has played no rugby at all since last year. The management have made the sensible decision to leave him to get game time in the Vodacom Cup and we believe that young Dale Chadwick will fly out to join the team instead, just as soon as a visa can be arranged for him.
The initial squad named on Saturday was already a man short, with a place in the allocation of 26 players held open for Jean Deysel, who is expected to join up with the team in New Zealand.
We’d like to wish nothing but the very best to our lads on tour. They should have arrived in Perth a few hours ago and should hopefully be settling in nicely, ready for a big performance against the Force this weekend.
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Good luck boys..
Bring home a nice 10 points from tour please..
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 1) : Only 10? I believe we can get more 😉
JEAN DEYSEL! 😈
@Jarson (AddicteD) (Comment 2) :
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now..
Hope its a good tour so that when they return, Kings Park can be buzzing once again.:)
@Jeremiser (Comment 5) :
Yeah, the people need to fill the tank again..
26 000 people just isn’t cutting it..
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 6) : It looked like your press box area faired even worst attendance than the rest of the stadium’s dismal 50%.
@beet (Comment 7) :
The bloody place was packed!!
The food afterwards ran out, I was stuck buying MacD’s on the way home..
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 6) : In the US they have a local blackout of the television feed to try to keep the stadiums full. It seems to work cos it was always hard to get tickets to games.
Good luck boys! 😀
gave reds a hard time. won’t be a walk over, but the bye last weekend and the sharks playing positively on saturday, puts the sharks in the driving seat. the sharks mustn’t relax though.
@lostfish (Comment 9) : they tried that for cricket a few years ago, it didn’t really work. but it wasn’t a continued experiment. whether it will work for rugby is another story.
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 4) : I’m not getting ahead of myself, we CAN get more, I’m not saying they will. Be positive dude 🙂
Can we please have an analysis on all 4 games played overseas..see the strengths n weaknesses of our opponents..richard?rob?…asseblief
So, only 26 players for a four week tour?
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 8) : what was wrong with the good nutritionally balanced home cooked meals they serve at the Kingspark kiosks? You are obviously not into your health foods. 😀
@Jarson (AddicteD) (Comment 13) : I agree we are more than capable of getting 3 wins on tour.
Rob i will be so foolish to write them of,just like I said we were going to score 4 tries the weekend,I guess I can just keep on going.
Will pocock be playing for the force this weekend against the sharks?our support play at the breakdowns will have to be top notch if so.
Who is gonna ref the match? Eish,that one must even ask such a question (shaking my head)..