The mystery surrounding the absence of flyhalf Butch James during the Sharks’ run of warm-up games has been solved.
Speaking to the Sharks website this morning, John Plumtree confirmed that James, who has had numerous knee problems throughout his career, recently underwent a scope to remove bone fragments from his knee.
The coach reckons he’ll be fit to play again in roughly a fortnight, meaning he’ll definitely miss the opener against the Cheetahs, but should come back into selection contention for the following clash against the Stormers, or shortly thereafter.

Thanks Rob..
Clears up the confusion..
What are your thoughts on the flyhalf position. I know Pat is first choice and all, but are we going to stick with Bosman on the bench as cover? I suppose James can cover both flyhalf and centre as well.
But looking forward, is it too early to give Zeilinga a run? He also covers two position..
No-one can claim to be very surprised about this. 🙄
I think Du Preez may be the next Sharks fh
@Talent (Comment 3) : down the line that is
@Talent (Comment 4) :
I just hope we can hold onto him and Venter – could be a great halfback pairing that!
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 5) : hope so ,Ive heard so much about Urengerer but haven’t seen him play at the Sharks, may also be one to watch for the future?
Rob should make a video page where people could post and comment on Sharks related videos! Obviously like article theyd have to go through admin before being posted!
@Talent (Comment 7) : That is a pretty cool idea.
@Talent (Comment 7) : where would the videos come from?
@robdylan (Comment 9) : The Stork? Or the birds and the bees?
@robdylan (Comment 9) : just like articles ,people upload them -from whatever source youtube or homemade
@FireTheLooser (Comment 10) : youch 🙂 Not THAT sort of video, I hope 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 12) : why it would need to pend for admin approval
@Talent (Comment 11) : ok, so the problem is, you need to be really careful about copyright.
But I’m always more than willing to post any videos that won’t get me into trouble… if you happen to find any, just mail me.
Thx for the approval Rob. One more though 😉
@robdylan (Comment 14) : ah I see , will do
@robdylan (Comment 14) : Rob, I believe you ca have YouTube embedded on one of your pages. Not quite sure how it works but it solves the headaches around storage space, ownership etc.
We could also have a look at how rugbydump does it – they have many videos on their site.
So much for the incredible depth the Sharks have. Amongst the props you are an injury away from a vodacom Cup front row. Flanks are getting thinned out a dime a dozen, with Alberts having a dodgy shoulder, KD out for at least 6 weeks. Yes Mthembu and Kleynhans are good prospects, but, as yet untested.
Centres, the Sharks are an injury away from Bosman and Joubert reuniting. I like Bosman, but he has taken some abuse from Sharks fans.
Now Butch is also rickety! Oh my word!
@KingCheetah (Comment 18) : Ag it’s just a forced rotation policy, it boils down to us having the depth when we really need it, which is midway through the season.
SR has become a marathon, anyone can sprint that first 100m, but it’s during the middle 30 – 65km that you really need to show some character. 😉
At least now the tjietas will feel that they can compete with us on a level playing field, no excuses! 😈
@FireTheLooser (Comment 19) : We are always able to compete with anybody! You forget, in the CC, we had an unbeaten run against the Sharks for 5 years! Top that. Yes in Super Rugby, we haven’t beaten you guys as often, but the Bulls are the only side in SA that really beat us with regular monotony! We always fancy our chances against the Sharks.
@KingCheetah (Comment 20) : Well I was kinda referring to the bigger picture – being the SR trophy….once off victories here and there kinda resembles doing one push-up per day and convincing yourself that you had a workout 😈
@King Shark (Comment 17) : Embedded YouTube videos is very easy. Simply embedded HTML code. If you want to do it, let me know and I can send the code. You can make the playback the size you, allow full screen viewing or not, etc.
Ummm…. thanks for the tips, guys, but I already know how to embed YouTube videos 🙂 How do you think I got the video footage of the Leopards match onto the site?
@robdylan (Comment 23) : 😆 Oh I thought Maria did that. 😉
Damn…..
Bismarck
Willem
Marcel
Keegan
Butch
Tim
……?
Damn….
@FireTheLooser (Comment 19) : lol… The tjietas will definately fancy this. But well still whip them by 15. Youngsters will come through and put up their hand.
@SharksRTB (Comment 26) : Pumas by 10 ha ha