The Sharks weren’t too severely battered and bruised following their outing against the Leopards last Friday and with a slew of Springboks available for Saturday’s Currie Cup clash against the Lions, John Plumtree has his work cut out for him in naming his team.

Centre Andries Strauss took a knock to his hip, while hooker Craig Burden is still out with a shoulder injury, confirmed the Sharks coach.

"Juan Hernandez’s back is playing up a bit, he went for a scan on Monday but it’s an old injury, while Jean Deysel has a tear on his quad so he’s doubtful for the weekend. Swannie [Riaan Swanepoel] is still a bit sore but we’re hoping he’ll be available," Plumtree told the Sharks website.

He did confirm that all the Boks were available, although Johann Muller was to be assessed after training to see how his arm held out, how it reacted to a bit of contact.

With regards the captaincy issue, Plumtree suggested in humour that he was going to leave it to Stefan Terblanche, Johann Muller and John Smit to fight it out 'Ching-Chong-Cha' style.

"No, there is a fair chance that Stefan will continue as captain, they all have so much respect for each other and at the end of the day, Johann’s had an unfortunate campaign having broken his arm and struggled to come back, and John is the captain of the Boks, so he’s been in charge of one set of players and Stefan the other, so between the two of them, I’m pretty confident they’ll do a good job of leading the team."

Having scored 13 tries against Boland last weekend, the Lions - Saturday’s opposition - certainly got their attack right although it does call into question Boland’s defence. "Any side that can concede 88 points has some defensive problems," added Plumtree, "but we know a lot about the Lions, they’re big and heavy upfront and they’ve got some talent behind. We know they are playing for their lives this weekend so it’s going to be a big game.

"Looking back at the Leopards match, we could have scored three more tries in the second half that we didn’t, but mentally we slipped off a little bit once we had scored four tries."

With two rounds of the pool stages left, for The Sharks, each week is treated as a final as they look to maintain a hold on their log position ahead of the knock-out round and then the climax of the tournament. "We’ve reviewed that, and it’s a case of we haven’t got anywhere yet, the Blue Bulls can technically get a home semifinal if we don’t win one of the next two games. So at the moment we haven’t got any prize yet.

"The ultimate prize is the Currie Cup and winning that final, but we want to take it step by step and this week is about securing a home semi. The following week is obviously about a home final position if we’re good enough to win our semifinal.

"Because of the points’ difference, Western Province can still get a home final, so we have to make sure we win, and win well."

In preparing for Saturday’s game, Plumtree explained that it’s all about playing to win, and if they play well enough, then a five pointer is possible. "It is a big game for us this weekend, we have to make sure we win, but at the end of the day we want to play some rugby that hopefully gets us the five points. We’re certainly testing defences which is great."

With all the Boks back, there is a subtle shift in the way The Sharks will play this weekend, Plumtree admitted.

"We obviously have more power up front, we’re pretty much the same in terms of the back five, and I am really happy with the way Ruan and Juan worked together, they test the defences and we saw that a couple of times on the weekend, we have players good enough to play what’s in front of them and that’s important. A concern for us is that we want to start scrummaging better, we’re reasonably happy with the other areas."

With the injury to Jean Deysel, Michael Rhodes was picked in his place last weekend and Plumtree expressed himself pleased with that exercise.

"I was really happy with Michael, I thought he had a big game, he received the defensive award for the highest tackle count which was an area I have put a lot of pressure on him to do well in and he responded really positively."

365

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