Jannie du Plessis

Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira

Cell C Sharks boss Gary Gold said if he had the choice he would not be resting veteran Springboks Jannie du Plessis and Tendai Mtawarira against a formidable Lions scrum this weekend.

Gold has made a number of changes to the team that will travel up to Johannesburg to take on South Africa’s form team this weekend.

Some of these changes are enforced due to injury, some because of suspension and others the result of a selection rethink.

However, Gold seems least pleased about the fact that he needs to rest his key front row Springboks in accordance with SARU’s player management initiative.

“If I had an opportunity to play Jannie and Beast this weekend, I would,” Gold said ahead of the trip up to Ellis Park.

“These are decisions that were made at a higher level, and as bizarre as they are, they were made, and as much as I can stick to them, I am going to try and stick to them.”

A lot of questions were asked before Round 6 kicked off towards the end of March, when the Sharks selected Springboks Pat Lambie, Cobus Reinach and Marcell Coetzee for their 6th match in a row, in apparent contravention of SARU’s request to not let players exceed a 5-match stint.

However, Gold went on to rest the aforementioned players in Round 7 – against the Force – after 6 games in a row.

Jannie du Plessis was rested in Round 4, against the Stormers, following the birth of his child, while Mtawarira has not been given official ‘rest’, but did miss a number of games with a calf injury.

Gold said the absence of the 2 Bok props from this week’s team is part of honouring the agreement with the South African Rugby Union, rather than being dismissive of the Lions’ scrum.

“We have to rest Jannie and Beast, because of this SA Rugby thing. It is approaching a critical time for them, so we want to honour that agreement.” Gold explained.

Gold was adamant that he still respects the Lions’ scrum – which has not been as effective as last year, or in the Currie Cup for that matter.

“The timing of resting the props was not in my hands – those are the rules that have been made, and I want to make that abundantly clear,” the coach added.

“This is not an issue of disrespecting the Lions in any way, shape, or form.

“Their scrum is still a very good scrum, it is a tight unit and it is something we are very wary of.”

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