The Sharks’ pair of wrecking-ball loose forwards, Jean Deysel and Willem Alberts, are both still doing rehabilitation work after off-season surgery to correct knee and shoulder injuries respectively.
Both of the players carried a heavy work load last year, starting off initially with Alberts playing nearly every minute of every game during the first half of the Super Rugby campaign, due to an injury to Deysel. Once the latter came back, he too got through a lot of rugby, first used in tandem with Alberts, then alone as the ball carrying option in the loose trio when Alberts was on Springbok duty. Once both players were available towards the end of the Currie Cup season, Deysel was used at lock.
The recurring shoulder complaint that plagued Alberts last year – and even came frighteningly close to ruling him out of the World Cup – has been a cause of some concern and the hope is that it has now been properly fixed. Ditto Deysel’s knee issues, which have been a constant factor over the last few seasons, no doubt exacerbated by the high-contact nature of the game he plays.
The Sharks were criticised last year for a game plan that placed too much reliance on the likes of Alberts and Deysel to provide go-forward ball via brute force, rather than a varied approach that occasionally favoured breaking the line through the skills of other players. With the possibility that the team may be forced to do without the services of one or possibly both players when the season kicks off on 24 February, it is possible that an alternative approach may need to be developed for 2012. In the likes of Ryan Kankowski, Marcell Coetzee and even the young Tera Mtembu, the side has loose forward options that can complement physicality and aggression with pace and guile.
Whatever the case, I feel it is of vital importance that the Sharks learn the lesson of 2011 when it comes to management of players, with Alberts and Deysel being of particular value. We have seen that both of these players can be great assets to the side when used to their best effect; however, we have also seen that an over-reliance on their physical approach, in addition to the certainty of further injury, adds an unacceptable level of predictability to the Sharks game plan.
Jean Deysel and Willem Alberts, whether individually or in tandem, are a very good thing for the Sharks, in other words, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing, after all!
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I like the idea of the Sharks being forced to rethink game plans and strategies. The are to predictable of late and thats another reason why we arent as successful as we should be.
Would also like to wish both Deysel and Alberts a speedy recovery.
Then a late start to the season for these two may in fact be a blessing in disguise
@vanmartin (Comment 3) : Yep, someone else can get to play flyhalf for a change.
Speedy recovery for both! But I agree, perhaps forcing the Sharks to use the likes of Jandre and Marcell might be a pretty good thing!
I hope you 2 get well soon. Please just don’t rush back unless you’re 100% ready!
this dumb crashball rugby was exposed in the currie cup final by the lions, the sharks must continue with it at their own peril! 🙄
even though I wish both these players a speedy recovery, I hope this mean we are going to see less crash ball and more of the tactics that won us the 2010 cc (give the ball more air and use the brilliance of kanko and daniel to get over the advantage line).Make sure we get a good platform from the forwards and give the ball to the backs (when they get more ball they will start performing better as well, this season it looked if they were surprised if they get he ball), we can sure as hell achieve this without Deysel and Alberts, maybe if plumtree see this works he will go back to those tactics even when they are back.
@Megatron (Comment 7) :no ,the lions took advantage of an apathetic effort coupled witht he fact that they had a seasons advantage of momentum and no disruption of returning springboks.
Didnt the Sharks score one of the highest points tally in the conference if not the competition?
I find it interesting that we are perceived as a team that struggles with attack and the stormers are a team with a much better attack ,can someone pull out some stats?
What guys like megatron salivate over is extravagant backline play ,the step ,offload and so on…Pansies .
Nothing wrong with good forward dominance and forward play.
But forward dominance with a flair in the backs is what we want,we got the players to achieve this
We all remember the complaints when deysel was injured that one season and we had a lack of ball carriers.
@juba_fan (Comment 10) : doesnt matter how we get over the line, forward or back. Instead of labeling these two players (or the game play) as one dymensional we should perhaps look at the hard yards they made and keep it in mind that they are doing their jobs and what they are best at doing. If they didnt suck in defenders who would?
and instead of looking at it as a fault we should consider it one of our strengths
@Talent (Comment 9) : hehehe 😆 i don’t know where you get off making such assumptions but anyway.
the sharks were ripped to shreds by the crusaders backline and manhandled THOROUGHLY in the scrums. they were matched in the collisions up until the likes of keiran read were subbed. this crashball is limited and inane. but hey what can you okes do if you have plumtree?
@Talent (Comment 9) : The sharks scored the 5th(3rd in SA) highest points with 407 and the stormers 7th(4th in SA) with 400 not much of a difference, the sharks was 6th(2nd in SA) with 40 tries and the stormers 9th (5th in SA) with only 33 tries.
Making the Stormers the worst attacking team in SA.
I hope we play with the Sharks traditional flair. We’ve certainly got the talent, now let’s us it!
We need to play a less rigid style and just play what’s in front of us.
We have such an abundance of skill in our loose forward department there is no reason we should be overplaying anyone.
@lostfish (Comment 17) : Let’s hope the coaches read that comment.
@StevieS (Comment 16) : “Sharks traditional flair”? Plumtree has no idea what you’re talking about. 🙄 😛
@vanmartin (Comment 3) : Agreed.
Give Marcel, Kankow and Keegan a go!
Hope we can see the game plan that saw our beloved sharks score 112 tries in a cc season again
@Megatron (Comment 19) : I think he means pre-Plumtree
The big question is whether Plum will play Deysel at 6, backup 7 or 4 this season.
With Alberts holding down the 7 position with Coetzee as his backup and Keegan more than likely captaining the side at 6, plum may well turn Deysel in to a 4 lock, ala Brad Thorne. Not a bad idea considering our lack of depth in that no 4 position.
@robdylan (Comment 22) : i know that’d what he means, but the phrase means nothing to john, who by the way PLAYED for the Sharks too.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 18) : One can only hope.
@Megatron (Comment 14) : well in that game alberts went of injured ,not? And our scrums did take a beating in the first half until beast came on in the second half however that scrum dominance was nothing compared to what the stormers had in the semifinals
These 2 guys are extremely valuable in any game! We are certainly going too miss them from the very start of the season. No matter what the game-plan; good,powerfull,skillfull rugby players both of them!