The Sharks will field several of their returning Springboks in this week’s crucial Currie Cup rugby encounter against the Lions in Durban, coach John Plumtree confirmed on Tuesday.
Eight players are available again following South Africa’s exit from the World Cup on Sunday, among them captain John Smit.
The defending champions, who must win their final regular season match at Kings Park with a bonus point to secure a home semifinal, have struggled throughout the campaign with their lack of power and experience among the forwards.
“There’s a very good chance of seeing some of our Boks back,” Plumtree said on Tuesday.
“We trained really well today and we will assess how they get off the plane and how they’re feeling mentally and physically.
“All year we’ve struggled up front, and no disrespect to the guys we’ve had, but the opposition had bigger men.
“This week, things can change for us in that department, and if not this week, then next weekend.”
It means Du Plessis brothers Bismarck and Jannie, Tendai Mtawarira and Willem Alberts could all feature, while Ryan Kankowski, sidelined for more than a month with a thumb injury, may all return.
“We will go into games with more confidence knowing that we can carry some weight across the advantage line and more confident that we won’t be out-muscled at the collisions and at set piece times,” Plumtree said.
“That will definitely help our strategy if we know we can compete on the gain-line and get across the gain-line with our ball-carriers as well as having big defenders as well.”