Sharks may have to rely on loans from Lions

THE Sharks are assessing Golden Lions pair Andries Coetzee and Jaco Kriel, whom they want on loan for the remainder of the Super Rugby season, as they aim to plug holes left by a growing injury list.

Fullback Louis Ludik’s competition seems over after he required surgery on his injured shoulder and the same can be said for flanker Jacques Botes, who broke his arm against the Crusaders last Friday.

Winger Odwa Ndungane, who tweaked a hamstring on Friday, is expected to be passed fit for this weekend’s clash against the Stormers in Cape Town on Saturday.

The Stormers, who are equally ravaged by injuries, are under pressure to get a positive result from the game, which will prevent the team from falling further behind SA’s conference leaders, the Sharks.

“I’ve got Kriel down from the Lions at the moment and he’s just visiting and trained with us (yesterday) afternoon. Coetzee is here as well, so we’ll have a look at them,” Sharks coach John Plumtree said.

“We are not getting one- or twoweek injuries, we seem to be getting more of the bigger ones. Maybe the collisions are getting heavier.

“We’ve seen some horrible injuries in this year’s competition, like Jaco Taute’s (knee injury) last week. It shows you what type of squad you need and it is certainly a bonus if you manage to avoid having this number of injuries. We certainly haven’t been able to avoid that this year.”

Despite the quality of casualties in the sanatorium, such as Willem Alberts, Bismarck du Plessis and Lwazi Mvovo, the Sharks have done well to stay on top of SA’s conference table. Their most notable victory was Friday’s 21-17 win over the Crusaders.

Plumtree believes the Stormers have enough quality to put up a solid fight at Newlands, in spite of their injury “crisis” and desperate lack of winning momentum this season.

Taute’s season is over after the horror knee injury he suffered in the loss to the Cheetahs last weekend, while flyhalf Elton Jantjies is sidelined for this weekend’s game after also hurting his knee.

“Both sides are probably in double figures in terms of injuries, which is a bit alarming. (But) there are still household names within most of those boys that are playing and they’ll probably look at us and say the same thing — barring one or two positions,” Plumtree said.