 |
According to team Doctor, Ewoudt van der Linde, “Beast has an ankle fracture sustained in Friday’s training session when he went over after being tackled. His expected return to play is three to four months.”
Although he will be able to keep training in other ways where there is no pressure on his ankle after a few weeks, it is tough for The Sharks to lose a crowd favourite who formed an all-Springbok front row together with the du Plessis brothers, Bismarck and Jannie.
“We’ll put feelers out there for cover,” explains coach John Plumtree. “He’ll probably be training in six weeks’ time (dependant on recovery and the type of training possible), he’ll get fit quickly. We have a lot of confidence in some of the youngsters here, but we will probably need someone else to help out because we’ll have to tour without Beast. We’ll look to see what cover there is available, it isn’t easy to find a prop at this time.”
In the meantime, The Sharks will be focusing on a different event, their internal trial match this Friday night at Mr Price KINGS PARK at 6pm.
“We have a few little niggling injuries and we’re trying to get those boys right so we can have everyone available,” explains The Sharks coach. “There will be a few blokes who won’t play – Jannie du Plessis is getting married on Saturday, I’ll look after him and Bismarck du Plessis this week - but generally everyone will get their opportunity. Kyle Cooper is having a scope on his knee this week so we’ll bring in Monde Hadebe [Sharks Under 21 hooker in 2011] to share the hooking duties with Craig Burden.”
The game will take place on the main pitch and the public is welcome to come and watch.
“There is plenty to get out of the trials, he adds. “But it’s not what I want to get out of it, but what the players want to get out of it. There is competition for spots and we’d like to be able to see if our combinations work nicely. It’s really just to see who is in early form and see if we can pick 28 from that for the Boland game.”
The game will, most likely, be played over four 20 minute chukkas to afford the coaching staff the opportunity of trialling different combinations.
“The teams will be evenly-matched, the way the squad is looking there are a lot of even matches. The way I see it, it could be a very competitive game.”
One area of possible interest is at lock where Plumtree believes The Sharks are well-covered. “We have plenty of competition in the second row with youngsters like Jandre Marais and Anton Bresler, and Steven Sykes is back now, it will be good to see where he is at.
“I’m not quite sure what front row we will have this week because of injury and Jannie not being there. Hopefully we’ll have everyone available for the following week.”
