It’s being regarded as a trial and will be contested over four chukkas so no teams have been announced, but the Sharks’ pre-season clash with the Boland Cavaliers on Friday night will nonetheless provide some areas of intense focus for both coaches and spectators alike.
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With Beast Mtawarira out injured for at least half the Super Rugby campaign no Sharks fan will need reminding that the front-row battle will be of particular interest. The Cavaliers do have a solid scrum, and Sharks coach John Plumtree will welcome that as he runs his eye over the potential replacements, with young Dale Chadwick currently the favourite to wear the No 1 jersey at the start of Super Rugby.
As always rugby is presenting itself as a sport full of great irony, and while the Sharks are eager to embrace a new era and new culture after the retirement and departure of some of their stalwarts of the past decade, what wouldn’t Plumtree do now to have the problem he faced last year, when there was so much debate over the relative merits of Springbok skipper John Smit and the Sharks’ first choice hooker Bismarck du Plessis.
Smit, who is now with English club Saracens, could of course play anywhere in the front-row, and he would have been a useful alternative at loosehead now that Beast is sidelined.
But it may not be the front-row that will attract the most focus from Plumtree. He is pretty much aware of what most of his forwards are capable of. The backs have been much more of a concern in recent Super Rugby campaigns, and it is there that most of the recruitments have been made in recent seasons.
Springboks Meyer Bosman and Marius Joubert moved to Sharks country during the course of last year, as did Cheetahs/Bulls flyhalf Jacques-Louis Potgieter, who has subsequently headed overseas. When it didn’t go so well for the Sharks in the initial parts of the 2011 season, with Bosman and Potgieter failing to make the impact that had been hoped for, they sent out an SOS to Frenchman Frederic Michalak.
With Patrick Lambie moving to fullback to facilitate Michalak in the No 10 jersey, it worked a charm in the most important game of last year’s campaign, and both players excelled as the Sharks hit their attacking stride in beating the Bulls at Loftus in the last Super Rugby league match.
X-FACTOR
But even though Bosman started to come through in the Currie Cup, you do get the impression the Sharks are still short of something at the back, and it explains why they have continued to recruit, with the arrival of Tim Whitehead from Western Province offsetting the loss of veteran Stefan Terblanche. Riaan Viljoen has moved down from Griquas to bolster the options at fullback, where Lambie is the incumbent Springbok No 15 and Louis Ludik is also a very capable player.
Given the search for the magic that has been missing from the Sharks back division during a five year period where they have lost players such as Brad Barritt, Frans Steyn and Ruan Pienaar, it shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise when Plumtree said that he would be trying JP Pietersen at outside centre on Friday night.
Pietersen is of course the first choice Springbok wing, but Plumtree’s contention that he has the presence to play outside centre has merit. And it’s not as if the Sharks are short of wings, with Lwazi Mvovo not always getting a game last year when Pietersen and Odwa Ndungane were both fit.
“We have been experimenting with JP in the midfield at training and we think we could be onto something there,” said Plumtree.
“JP’s got a lot of experience, he’s a big presence in the middle of the field, both from a defensive and attacking viewpoint. To be a success at centre he will just need to up his work-rate. He’ll get an opportunity in the trials at No 13 and we also have Tim Whitehead who has played in the position. Paul Jordaan, a Sevens Bok, excites us with his X-factor.”
Another area the Sharks coach will be looking at closely is scrumhalf, where back-up No 9 Conrad Hoffmann is out for the first half of Super Rugby after tearing a pectoral muscle in the gym. It could mean that Michalak plays more games at scrumhalf this year as outside of Charl McLeod the Sharks look thin in this area.
With the Sharks having decided against participating in the annual pre-season series in Cape Town this year — partly because they have a poor record there and also partly because they are playing the Stormers early in Super Rugby — Friday will be one of only two opportunities for Plumtree to assess his options. The Sharks complete their preparations against the Kings.