Durban - Regardless of who the Sharks play in this week’s Heineken Cup quarter-final, they are sweating over the fitness of Bok enforcer Eben Etzebeth, who did not come out for the second half of the 50-35 defeat of Munster at the weekend because of a shoulder injury.
The concern is compounded by what looked like a serious shoulder injury to Etzebeth’s replacement in the same game, the up-and-coming Emile van Heerden.
On Sunday, the word from the Sharks’ camp is that the two locks, as well as scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse, were going for scans on Sunday — all have shoulder problems — and that there is no clarity on the severity of the injuries.
“We will assess the injuries and plan accordingly,” director of rugby Neil Powell said. “It is obviously not ideal to finish a game with two locks injured but hopefully they will recover in time. They are big players for our team. If they do not recover it will be an opportunity for the next guys.”
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At the risk of being a pessimist, I can’t see Etzebeth recovering from a shoulder injury in the space of a week and the likelihood is that Vincent Tshituka will move to lock for the quarter-final and partner Gerbrandt Grobler.
The backup lock on the bench would then be Reniel Hugo or possibly Hyron Andrews.
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Hendrikse appeared to pop an AC joint in the process of scoring his excellent try but there is at least a like-for-like replacement for him in Grant Williams.
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Meanwhile, Powell gave credit to his players for turning around their form from the Scarlets game but said elements of the performance were not good enough.
“Credit to the players, they pulled together and acknowledged they had to be better,” Powell said.
“We were excellent on the attack but we set high standards for ourselves and in that last 20 minutes the defence was not good. We will have to fix that if we want to go further in this competition.”
The Sharks blew Munster off the park in a stunning third quarter and Powell said this was down to a chat at halftime.
“We had fallen away a little in the second quarter,” he said. “We spoke about coming out with renewed energy and really attacking the breakdown.”
The Sharks certainly got that right and it was interesting to hear Munster coach Graham Rountree’s take on this.
Rountree said: “The Sharks were hot at the breakdown, in fact, that is the hottest breakdown we have encountered this season — they had a second wave hitting us and the pressure caused us to concede crucial turnovers and penalties.”
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