There were a smattering of Springboks on the Hollywoodbets Sharks’ list of injured players ahead of Friday night’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash with the Ospreys but none of them appear serious enough to bother either John Plumtree or national coach Rassie Erasmus.
The Sharks have one game to come in the league phase of the URC season after the Hollywoodbets Kings Park clash with the 11th placed Ospreys and then they head into the URC Finals Series a fortnight later, with their first opponents likely to be the DHL Stormers in the quarterfinal round.
In that bye week there is a Bok alignment camp scheduled, but according to Sharks boss Plumtree, the majority of the four players missing from Friday night’s selection - scrumhalf Grant Williams (neck), flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse (back), centre Lukhanyo Am (knee) and loosehead prop Ox Nche - should be available not only for their national duties but also possibly the Scarlets game that rounds off the league season.
Of that quartet, Williams has had the most long standing issue as he has been out for a few weeks and might be the biggest worry, but Plumtree’s approach to the scrumhalf’s neck injury appears to be guided by what is in the player’s interests going forward. After all, the Sharks do have another Bok scrumhalf on their books in Jaden Hendrikse, who will start against the Ospreys.
“It has been bothering him for several weeks now, so we just want to give him the best possible chance to recover,” said Plumtree.
“Grant doesn’t just have the playoffs for us coming up, he potentially also has a big international calendar to get through after that.”
ARTIFICIAL PITCH PROBLEMS
In the case of Am it appears another case of artificial pitches either causing injuries or aggravating injuries, something that is a concern among sports scientists and some sections of the rugby fraternity overseas but is ignored probably because of the money spent by the clubs over there installing their 4G or 5G surfaces.
Plumtree appeared reluctant to say anything that would be seen as condemnation of the artificial surfaces the Sharks played on against Edinburgh and Ulster, but he did admit that it had an impact on particularly older players.
“Lukhanyo has a little bit of swelling (on the knee), probably from playing on the 5G pitches and then the flight back wouldn’t have helped that,” said the Sharks coach.
“He’s had that treated this week, with fluid drained from the problem area, but we are hoping he will be available for next week’s game against the Scarlets. He will definitely be ready for the quarterfinal and whatever comes immediately after the Scarlets game (the national camp).”
Flyhalf Hendrikse might anyway have been under pressure for his starting spot at flyhalf for this game as he has been flatlining a bit recently, but Plumtree confirmed that he had been rested as a precautionary measure rather than being dropped from the team.
“Jordan has a back injury that affected his training this week and we chose to rest him.”
NCHE NOT A CONCERN
Plumtree appeared to indicate that if the game was being played on Saturday rather than Friday Nche would have been ready to play so it doesn’t appear there is any concern over the illness that will keep him out of his team’s penultimate league game of the season.
One thing Plumtree is not doing is underestimating the Ospreys, who represent the area around Swansea in south Wales, which is where Plumtree started his own coaching career in the second part of the 1990s.
He said he did not know as much about the Ospreys as he does about next week’s opponents, Scarlets, who he follows closely and supports when they are not playing the Sharks, as his son, Taine, plays for them.
But he said he knew they were a typical Welsh team in the sense that they are not intimidated physically and “they stay in the fight and don’t go away”.
What he hasn’t forgotten is that the Ospreys beat the Sharks the last time the two teams met at the Twickenham Stoop in London in early November 2023.
“We started the week with a kind of scene setter of what to expect and we showed what Ospreys have done and it was noticeable that some of the players sat forward in their seats. The Ospreys have beaten some top teams this season and with a bit of luck they could also have been hovering around the top four (on the URC log).”