There will be a boost for the Sharks this week in Melbourne in the form of flyhalf Curwin Bosch, who is rejoining his teammates for their match against the Rebels after having been granted personal leave because of a family bereavement.
The Sharks went down 38-22 to the Hurricanes at the weekend and while their backs coped admirably despite the absence of Bosch and the injury to his replacement, Boeta Chamberlain, after just 20 minutes, the return of Bosch will be heartily welcomed.
The Sharks had to play three-quarters of the match with replacement scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba at 10 and while he did an incredible job, that scenario was way off the ideal the Sharks would have wanted for the second half of a game, which would be Nohamba at No 9 and Bosch at 10.
To be fair, in the 20 minutes Chamberlain was on the field, he looked very sharp and it was a huge pity that a wonderful try he created for prop Juan Schoeman was disallowed because of a forward pass much earlier in the play.
The Sharks also lost tighthead prop Thomas du Toit to injury before the game but that can only to a degree mitigate against the Sharks’ woeful performance in the set scrums. They were also poor in the line-outs.
That helped give the Hurricanes the platform to score 21 unanswered points in the third quarter of the game to continue their 14-match winning run at home against South African teams.
“We’re very disappointed in the result,” coach Sean Everitt said. “We’re not looking for excuses but we had disruptions that didn’t help. Thomas pulled out with injury, and Boeta Chamberlain and Makazole Mapimpi went down early as well (both head knocks), yet the guys did well to stay in the fight.
“Individual errors cost us four tries but these are youngsters and they will learn that mistakes like that at Super Rugby level will be punished,” Everitt continued. “But I am very proud of the courage they showed - the guys fought until the final whistle, even though we had senior players off the field.”
The Sharks scored the last try of the game (their third) and there was plenty of entertaining, attacking rugby from them, so it is hardly doom and gloom.
“We certainly aim to bounce back against the Rebels,” Everitt said. “We’re hoping to soon have clarity on our injury list - Boeta and Makazole are struggling with concussion and we are monitoring their concussion protocols.
“Curwin will also be back and that will be a boost for the team. In saying that, Sanele playing at flyhalf for the first time at Super Rugby level did a fantastic job (when replacing the injured Chamberlain).”