The Sharks are somewhat inexplicably taking their time in announcing who exactly will join the tour party as prop cover. We were expecting another front-ranker to join Steven Sykes on the plane to Sydney yesterday.
With Wiehahn Herbst ruled out of Saturday’s game – and Jannie du Plessis battling with injury too – it is hugely important to provide tighthead cover ahead of the match, with whoever makes the trip likely to slot straight in at number 17 in the match day squad. It was this need for a tighthead option that dashed Janro van Niekerk’s tour hopes… Yet there’s seemingly been no movement at all since.
The only possible explanation is that Herbst might not be as bad as initially feared and might be fit to bench this weekend – if that is the case (high risk option though it may be), then why is van Niekerk not already flying over? Or if Wors cannot play, then we surely must get Nick Schonert or Allan Dell onto a flight immediately, since it’s already getting very late in the day…
Come on, Sharks! Pull finger please!
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Rob, did you see Ioane has been suspended?
Hopefully we are not becoming the new WP have all the centers in the country and have to have uncontested scrums 😈 I couldn’t believe it on Saturday that it was the Sharks team with an uncontested scrum!
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 2) : Sad thing is, with all the resets and different interpretations come scrum time, the uncontested scrums didn’t bother me as much as it should have. 🙁
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 2) : ja, that was said, but still, we’ve had a freakish injury toll
@vanmartin (Comment 1) : Yes you did! 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 4) : If I were the Sharks I would fly over 2 props. Yes Herbst might recover but he also may not and then to fly another prop over if we get an injury wud disrupt the team again. Who would be the 2 props though? Dell and Schonert?
“pull finger gentlemen” man,just got reminded of my geo teacher and deputy headmaster of Queen’s..Mr Boy! You know someone that it gets pretty bad once you leave high school,I really miss Queen’s. Plum should think about flying that prop out already,whether it’s Schonert or Dell.
@SheldonK (Comment 6) : you realise that it costs money to fly players to Aus? And that there’s a limit to the total number that can tour?
I mean, sure it’s tempting to fly the entire Sharks XV squad out there, just in case, but that’s hardly practical, is it?
It is worrying that we havn’t heard anything, yet…if Herbst ends up playing this weekend i will not be surprised to see uncontested scrums at some stage in the game.
Waratahs have a solid scrum, we don’t want our props to be on the edge of fitness when we scrum.
@JJR (Comment 9) : so maybe uncontested scrums is what we want? 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 10) : Has Rassie come to the Sharks by any chance? Planning uncontested scrums? 😉
@robdylan (Comment 10) : Yes, it would be 🙂
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 11) : Exactly what i was thinking about…what really stops teams from planning uncontested scrums and getting away with it?
Breaking news Schonert is on his way to Sydney!
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 14) : Yes, dunno why sharksworld taking so long to get it up 🙂 Schonnie won’t let us down in the scrums, that’s for sure, hardly ever see him go backwards.
@JJR (Comment 15) : Just relieved that I wont have to see Wiehan go on the field with crutches, and it may only be my perception, but since his marrige Doc DuPlessis is a bit of a teddy bear! We need a prop again!
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 16) :Ha Ha, was saying the same just a little while ago…there are actually quite a few players that go off form after their weddings, wierd 😆
Jannie did look better last week, though.