Well, hope you enjoyed the off season! As of this morning, the Sharks are back in pre-season ahead of the 2012 Super Rugby season.
News is slowly filtering through about who’s there and who isn’t, but we don’t really expect any major surprises at this stage. The good news is that Fred Michalak is back in town after spending much of the last 3 weeks in France, already tweeting about how hard conditioning coach Mark Steele is working the players. This really is the stage of the season where the hard work put in in the gym builds a solid foundation for the ridiculously long year ahead, so spare a thought for the players who are going to be working stupidly hard for the next month or so, before taking a well-earned Christmas break.
New signing Riaan Viljoen should be training with the team, but the other new addition, Tim Whitehead, is not expected to be back in training until the new year as he’s still recovering from injury. We know that John Smit, Stefan Terblanche, Daniel Adongo and Eugene van Staden are also not with the team, although the last-named will, of course, be back in January.
If we manage to confirm the presence – or absence – of anyone else, we’ll let you know. First prize would, of course, be a full squad list, but don’t hold your breath too much for that.
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Will there be a Neo Africa series again next year?
Small mistake in the first paragraph Rob – 202 Super Rugby
@vanmartin (Comment 2) : thanks dude… stupid keyboard
@JarsonX (Comment 1) : I have no idea… I assume so
@robdylan (Comment 3) :
Propably how many teams will be in the comp 😉
@JarsonX (Comment 1) : @robdylan (Comment 4) :
sooooooo , LMS 😈
@JarsonX (Comment 1) : I think it was confirmed by the Stormers including a game against the Kings too.
@Zibbie (Comment 6) :
@JarsonX (Comment 1) : @robdylan (Comment 4) : Think I read something about 27 January Sharks vs Lions at Newlands.
I don`t have fond memories of the Neo Africa series at all.
It was the first time I saw our average backline this year!
Hopefully next year there`ll be something to cheer about!
Come On Viljoen and Whitehead !!
@vanmartin (Comment 7) : Hope we can win a game or two this time 😈
@JarsonX (Comment 1) : Ughhhh, the Neo Africa series is a complete and utter waste of time. Or to put it another way: the marketing dudes who figured out how to charge people for watching what is effectively a dour practice game are geniuses. One thing I learned a long time ago about these warm-up games is that John Plumtree does not give a stuff whether his team wins or loses. It’s farce that they put it on television in the first place and managed to find a sponsor. And… that’s the end of my rant
@Capeshark, I dont think Plum cares whether his team wins or lose period 🙁
The 2 player I’d like to see benefitting the most from the offseason are Paul Jordaan and Allan Dell.
Paul probably doesn’t need the gym that much but his defence has to improve a lot. Right now this is the biggest obstacle standing in his way of advancing to senior rugby – he can’t afford to fall off tackles, not be strong or have a flawed technique. All these areas need work.
Allan Dell just simply has to get bigger and stronger in order to fight off a huge challenge for a spot in the Baby Bok front row.
I’d also like to see Lwazi Mvovo and Sbura Sithole remove any traces of doubt fans may have about their basic handling skills with some extra hard offseason work in this area.
@beet (Comment 13) : agree with you re Sbu and Lwazi with the hands… hell, even the Oddmeister could do with some more work on that aspect.
@robdylan (Comment 14) : They surely must be phasing the Odd one out this year?! Best days are behind him.
@CapeShark (Comment 11) : Think he better start caring, the Stormers have always done well at this competition and that has always translated to a good Superrugby year. Please don’t tell me about the 2011 Lions, the 2012 Lions will be a hand full. This competion shows how ready you are.
That is only two warm up games re: vs lions and weepee .how many other games do the sharks have ?any confirmed yet?
I hope the coaches didn’t take a break.. 😐