French 'lack' conditioning

Durban - Sharks coach John Plumtree believes the conditioning of rugby players in France is below a professional standard.

One area of concern for the Sharks coach in the Currie Cup is his centre pairing of Meyer Bosman and Marius Joubert.

Both again looked below the pace against the Leopards in Durban last week, especially new recruit Joubert, who arrived from French club Clermont Auvergne prior to the season.

"One of the things that are pretty evident to us now is that players that have got back from France have been poor from a conditioning perspective," said Plumtree.

"They're good footballers, but they’re just down on their strength and we need to improve that."

Plumtree also indicated that he will drop Joubert for their clash against the Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday.

"We probably will take him out and give him a conditioning block to get his strength back up," said Plumtree.

"We've noticed with his weight, his speed, his power and his contact that he's down on where he normally is.

"We've got to get him up to speed. We did a similar thing with Meyer last week, took him out for a week and he benefited a lot."