11 January 2011 (11:45) – With a little over five weeks of preseason preparations remaining before the inaugural 15 team Super Rugby tournament kicks off when The Sharks host the Cheetahs at The Shark Tank on Saturday 19 February, the squad looks to be in pretty good shape for this time of the year.In previous seasons, there have been injury issues lingering over key personnel or key positions posssibly not boasting the depth the coaching staff would like. Last year, The Sharks went into the Vodacom Super 14 having lost the services of Juan Hernandez to a back injury. Steve Meyer was recruited back to Durban from France but wouldn’t play a role in the campaign which necesssitated looking elsewhere – in the form of English flyhalf Andy Goode who joined up with the squad a month into the tournament.

Gerhard Mostert was injured in the first match while his former Lions team-mate Louis Ludik (the pair, along with Willem Alberts were signed for 2010 and onwards) was in rehab for an horrific knee injury sustained in 2009. Patrick Lambie and Lwazi Mvovo were yet to make their mark and the squad possibly didn’t have the depth or settled feel about it as it does now.

Ross Skeate starting training with the team yesterday according to coach John Plumtree, confirming the good news. “He had his first run while Meyer Bosman who also had a groin operation is also with the team.”

Jean Deysel is likely to be the only player not available to The Sharks at the start of the Super Rugby tournament.

As part of their annual preseason campaign, The Sharks are off on a training camp next week where they will be traveling up north. “We will be taking 27 players to Rustenburg next week for their preseason camp,” explained the coach.

This means that the squad is slightly smaller than in December. The training squad comprised 33 players before Christmas, which was then trimmed down to 28 which is likely to make up the core of The Sharks Super Rugby campaign.

The Sharks boast quality depth in every position, although aside from Lwazi Mvovo, JP Pietersen and Odwa Ndungane, wing might be viewed as a little thin. “Stefan Terblanche and Louis Ludik are options out wide should there be an injury scare,” confirmed Plumtree. “We also have Mark Richards who is with the Springbok 7s squad at the moment and he will be coming back soon. He’s very capable and almost played in the Currie Cup Final when Odwa Ndungane was initially doubtful.”

Plumtree is satisfied that everything is on track with where they would like to be. “The players are getting there in terms of their conditioning and although we have a few guys who need to lose a bit of body fat before the start of the season – a few of the big forwards – the way we are training, they will get that off. Naming a squad of 28 with 15 forwards and 13 backs means we have lots of depth outside a starting 22.”

Compared to this time last year, he admits that things are a lot more settled. “It’s been a bit more seamless in terms of squad selection.”

Each year, the players know that the intensity in preseason training will be upped, levels of fitness raised a notch to try and gain an important edge over the opposition. “The players know they have to be fitter so we have done a lot of conditioing.

“Getting the Boks back after a month off means they aren’t yet where they need to be. But there are also some players who did a massive conditioing block before Christmas; Stefan Terblanche has put on about 6kgs of muscle and added like 0.1% body fat, so that gives an idea of where he is at.

“Louis Luik is also in great shape as is JP Pietersen. John Smit is also looking really good, he’s got about 2 kgs to go before being back to his best condition. He’s worked really hard because he has a huge year in 2011. By the time the Neo Africa Tri Series starts, he would have lost about 7 or 8kgs – that’s after having had a neck op last year.”

Looking ahead to the three team series taking place in Cape Town at the end of January into early February against the Stormers and Lions, Plumtree shrugs off the results in 2010 which saw The Sharks lose to the Force and Stormers.

“The Tri Series is not really about results, but more about giving players game time, giving them an opportunity to get some contact. Last year, we lost both warm-up games but when it came to the actual competition, we beat both teams.

“So no, we won’t be putting a big emphasis on winning the games, not by any means. We want to give every player one and a bit games and putting whatever structures we need to in place for those games.

“We will then see how we are after those two games and if we need anything else, we’ll do something with the Vodacom Cup squad.”