Alistair Hargreaves. Image © sharksrugby.co.za

31 August 2010 (15:02) - At a media conference on Tuesday afternoon, Sharks coach John Plumtree confirmed that they had a mixed bag on the injury front to contend with, but that there is plenty of depth to cover every eventuality.

“We're not in too bad shape,” he said, “probably better than last week. Louis Ludik responded to rest and is available this week. Alistair Hargreaves (pictured) didn't train on Monday and we're hoping he will train today and hopefully will be much better by Thursday and available for the weekend, but it's still a concern for me. With Ross Skeate, we're not overly-confident that he will be ready to play this weekend.”

Gerhard Mostert played club rugby over the weekend and will be coming back into the equation although Plumtree confirmed that his level of conditioning is still being raised to play at Absa Currie Cup level rugby. Michael Rhodes and Anton Bresler are other options.

Bismarck du Plessis rolled his ankle in the Griquas match but he has responded well to treatment according to Plumtree. “He's done all the right things since he injured it so we're hoping he will be all right, we will see how he does by putting him in cotton wool this week.”

The Sharks coach added that a lot of confidence was taken out of the Griquas result. “Our intent was outstanding but we still let ourselves down at times. We got a bit loose and allowed them to stay in touch of our scoreline, that was a bit disappointing. But we played some outstanding rugby and it would have been nice to be more accurate. There is always something to work on, but there was some good football, definitely.

“Making errors on attack are based on decisions, but we're not always making the right ones and we have to tidy up there. When you get those opportunities, you want to nail them and we weren't quite accurate enough. We could have possibly had the bonus point by half-time if we were a little bit more accurate.”

Andre Pretorius is another player who got game time on Saturday (for his club, Crusaders) and could be in the reckoning for the Blue Bulls game.

“I watched him play club rugby on the weekend - he did all right – and he could play some part in our match 22 this week. I'm not quite sure how I will use him yet. He's worked really hard to get back to full fitness and I want him to enjoy himself now and we'll see what he can offer us as a group, he's got a marvellous skill set and a lot of experience.”