Unconfirmed reports suggest that Sharks prop Eugene van Staden is on his way to join French club Biarritz – but only as short-term medical cover during the southern hemisphere off-season.
Details are sketchy – and again, this really is not a lot more than rumour at this stage – but it sounds as if the burly former Griquas prop will eschew rest this year in favour of earning a few Euros in the toughest scrummaging league in the world.
If the reports are correct, van Staden will return to the Sharks in time for the start of next year’s Super Rugby competition, but the impact of no off-season on his conditioning may be telling. Fortunately, the Sharks are understood to have secured appropriate cover by extending the contracts of both Wiehahn Herbst and Julian Redelinghuys.
More on this as we get it.
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you can tell it’s silly season and I’m desperate for content…
Seriously spurious one this… Anyone know Brent Moyle?
This is becoming a bit of a trend ..playing during the SA off season overseas..surely the repurcussions will be a shortened rugby career.
Wouldnt be a half bad idea if he did go there. He wasnt exactly overplayed this year and appears to need a bit of a tune up. I think he a good Sharks acquisition but isnt consistent.
@robdylan (Comment 1) :
Use your sources to find out what Plumtree intends to do with Lambie in 2012!!
That’s what everybody really wants to know (right?)
@hendrikp (Comment 4) : you assume Plum himself knows…
@CoffeeshopBok 😉 (Comment 2) : The repercussions could well be shortened career, but in this case van Staden is probably nearer to the end of his career than the start… Consider also that he’s only recently started playing for one of the big unions (not sure about his earning potential in Europe prior to returning to SA), and that he hasn’t played all that much of late. Personally, I think had I been in his shoes I’d do the same. Not so sure about guys like Jacque Fourie though…
@robdylan (Comment 1) : Brent Moyle, no, but I do know a Bell moil; it’s the hardened bit of steel that fits in the jackhammer attachment of a back acter. Does that help?
@Culling Song (Comment 6) :
Right didnt realize he was older ..you make a good point though ..its all about the Fun tokens before the body retires.
Yea Jaque Fourie will be well knackkered next year if he is to play Super and Bok rugby ..
@robdylan (Comment 1) :
you could always do an article on LMS and FL 😈
@Zibbie (Comment 9) : ja… working up to that
@Zibbie (Comment 9) : Was about to make the same suggestion 😈
Is Brent Moyle worth knowing? A new aquisition maybe?
@JarsonX (Comment 12) : Brent Moyle used to play for the Sharks…bit past it now!
@SheldonK (Comment 13) : Google just told me the same thing 😈
@JarsonX (Comment 14) : If u on google check out Antonie Claasen…wouldnt be the worst Sharks acquisition
@robdylan (Comment 10) :
Dankie meneer !!!
@JarsonX (Comment 11) :
hehe never a dull moment 😉
isn’t this what they said about that devastating Sharks centre SUPREMO riaan swanepoel? the french are back from the world cup, is swannie back in Durbs or will he make his way back for Super Rugby?
@robdylan (Comment 1) : Surely not? He’s 38! Unless he’s our new backline coach.
@war1 (Comment 18) : no no… He’s van staden’s agent 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 19) : What ur thought on Antonie Claasen Rob?
@SheldonK (Comment 20) : too old and we don’t need loose forwards.
@robdylan (Comment 19) : Aah, misread you completely. I think he is on fb and twitter so have a look there.
Great to see Julian and Wiehann’s contracts bein extended and not popping down to the local mall to buy some props. Still have Dale Chadwick as well.
@robdylan (Comment 10) : When you do the article, don’t forget to make special mention of the player who won the mvp no less than THREE times, and managed to be runner up TWICE!! 😆 😆
Julian redelinhuys and herbst,van staden are both short props to lift a line out jumper. Dunno how threatening our line out will be if they persist with deysel at 4?
Redelinghuys is 1.76m,herbst 1.79m and v staden 1.80m ( chadwick is given as between 1.83-1.86m,depending on the site.).
@bergshark (Comment 25) : I’ve always been a big fan of a short tighthead…
@robdylan: agree that the experts say a shorter th ( in relation to the lh he is scrumming against )is better scrummager.the problem arises when lifting a short lock.dunno how much competition at the front of the line out ( versus opp line out ball ) we will see from sharks if deysel is at 4 lock. Guess we can move kanko to 2 jumper( 1.93m and seems to have longer arms than deysel,ie reach).but then,what happens at the back of the line out?
Remember when we had mark andrews,albert vd berg,aj venter and charl v rensburg in the same team?that team was a potent line out combo
@bergshark (Comment 27) : It’s a valid point Bergshark.
At KZN schools level, the selectors have the same challenge to overcome. Genetically the KZN boys are smaller than the Platteland kids, so it’s beneficial to find taller props.
It didn’t happen this year and that goes a long way to explaining why we struggled in lineouts vs the Lions and Bulls whose locks are close to 2m whereas ours were only in the region of 1.93m.
It wasn’t just the 6-7cm diff, the size of the lineout supporters ie. props had to be factored into the equation. Our starting props were 1.76 and 1.79 respectively, so they were giving their opponents almost a 10cm head start in this dept as well. Total lineout reach diff was therefore at the very least 15cm which is significant.
@robdylan: I’m impressed by herbst( not just does he seem a more than competent th when scrummaging,but he has also impressive workrate for a prop.almost always seem to notice him making tackles on defence.hope that next year is a big year for the player).
The short th versus taller lh was best exemplified for me back in ’07 vs cheetahs in bloem (sr game),where bj botha totally destroyed the cheetah frontrow and legendary lh bok prop incl ( he also had a sttrong scrummaging hooker next to him that day).
Freek burger was saying over the radio that the irb will be looking at some changes re: the scrum law.they think the lh is getting a raw deal at present.this was after being asked what he thought of the pens against beast in the cc final.he said he thought beast was unlucky to be penalised.so,all the people doubting beast’s scrummaging ability can ponder that..
@beet: I wonder what is deysel’s reach? I think kanko has longer arms.
Would be nice to see if they start showing a player’s reach like they do in boxing,etc.lennox lewis was 1.96m and had a 213m reach.combined with 113kg I’d liked to have had such a player at 7 in my team
@bergshark (Comment 30) : Well the NFL made the vertical jump test famous but this is more to do with measuring the height a player gets off the ground rather than how high he can reach into the air with his arms fully extended. I think rugby now also uses this as a test of ability esp explosiveness. I guess one could read a lot into the available stats when measuring locks athletic jumping ability from a stationary position.
@beet: with lifting such a big part of lineout play( the understanding between jumper,lifters and thrower), how important is the vertical jump test when measuring lineout ability?
@beet: do you know how the players rank in sarugby with the vertical jump test?
The game @ PMB has been declared a no result….
@Franshark (Comment 34) : 😳 wrong thread 😆
All of this goes away, though, if we don’t pick deysel at lock. He’s 1.91m, ffs… That’s too short to play lock, even if you have 2.5m props.
Let’s solve the lineout problem by picking specialist locks, not taller props 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 36) : I agree Robbo!
@robdylan (Comment 10) : please . I would like honourable mention for not being killed. Leopards were kind to me this year
will be a pity if they go with the shorter format. 😐
@rekinek (Comment 38) : you are so seldom around we did think u dead 😆
@robdylan (Comment 21) : He is 27 and can play lock as he did throughout his school career.
@SheldonK (Comment 40) : only 27? Though he was more like 33… my bad 🙂
How tall is the bloke? I also played lock for most of my school career and I’m 1.78m 🙂
I don’t think it is a bad thing. The French love their scrums and take great pride in them so it could only be beneficial to him and the Sharks. It’s not like he has been over played either.
@robdylan (Comment 41) : I dont know how much he has grown since school but then we were about the same height and I havnt grown too much since then (Im 1.94m) I know he played lock for the Bulls juniors before going overseas. I just think its a travesty that a guy whose dad is a Bok legend is not playing in SA!
@franshark: hehe (not funny!) But talking about dead. The traffic is killing me softly …:-)
@ and how are French after the WC final? What’s the mood on the streets?
Antonie claassen is 1.93m according to brive website
@SheldonK: seems like in a interview (c2009) ,both antonie claassen and gerhard vosloo expressed their desire to play for france once eligible..guess that explains him not playing in sa 😐
@bergshark (Comment 47) : YEh i did see that interview, was shocked that the son of a Bok legend can want to play for any other country, just seems crazy. But maybe im a bit old school.
Guess he has aspirations to play at test level but can’t see himself as good enough to make the bok team?
@bergshark (Comment 49) : Well if Marc Lievremont didnt pick him I dont know if any Frnach coach would cos Lievremont used a lot of players!!