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Durban - Sharks loose forward Willem Alberts still needs to pass a fitness test to be cleared to play against the Stormers at Newlands on Saturday.
Earlier reports indicated that Alberts, who was struggling with a shoulder injury, was cleared for the Stormers clash.
However, Sharks coach John Plumtree said Alberts's participation on Saturday is still in the balance.
“Willem’s been training with us this week and taken some contact but we’ll only make a decision on him on Thursday once he’s finished a big working week," Plumtree told Sharks website editor, Michael Marnewick.
Wing Odwa Ndungane, who picked up a shoulder injury in the build-up to last week's game against the Bulls, ran on Monday. A late call will be made on him as well.
The focus for the Sharks in this week’s training sessions is on accuracy to ensure that they make good ball available from which to attack.
“We have to make sure we are accurate at set-piece and then we can build some pressure,” explained the coach.
“Defences are pretty much all the same, some are a little bit better than others, but at the end of the day, if we get quick ball from rucks, with the backs that we’ve got, we know we can do some damage.”
Plumtree admitted that there were harsh lessons learned in 18-13 loss to the Bulls.
"We weren’t happy with the lesson we were dealt on the weekend. We weren’t happy with the way we received contestable kicks, stopping the drive in particular wasn’t good enough and we will be faced with the same threats this weekend and will have to look after that. It’s easy saying that but harder doing it.
“Last week our lineout failed and that was a big part of our problem. We lost five attacking lineouts so we couldn’t get our game going, and you can’t afford that.”
With the problem areas identified, this week’s preparations for the Stormers game in Cape Town centre on making sure they aren’t repeated.
“We’ve addressed the issues from the Bulls game, we knew we got caught behind the advantage line and at times our ball-carrying into contact was a bit high too, so there were a few little things we’ve talked about.
“The Bulls were probably a little bit more aggressive at the counter ruck, from a physicality point of view, they got one up on us and we can’t afford for that to happen. We pride ourselves on our physicality and on the weekend it just wasn’t right on the mark, we have got to make sure we improve in that area.”
Teams:
Stormers:
15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (captain), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Gary van Aswegen, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Nick Koster, 7 Duane Vermeulen, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Substitutes: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Frans Malherbe, 18 De Kock Steenkamp, 19 Nizaam Carr, 20 Louis Schreuder, 21 Peter Grant, 22 Gerhard van den Heever
Sharks:
TBA
Referee: Mark Lawrence
Earlier reports indicated that Alberts, who was struggling with a shoulder injury, was cleared for the Stormers clash.
However, Sharks coach John Plumtree said Alberts's participation on Saturday is still in the balance.
“Willem’s been training with us this week and taken some contact but we’ll only make a decision on him on Thursday once he’s finished a big working week," Plumtree told Sharks website editor, Michael Marnewick.
Wing Odwa Ndungane, who picked up a shoulder injury in the build-up to last week's game against the Bulls, ran on Monday. A late call will be made on him as well.
The focus for the Sharks in this week’s training sessions is on accuracy to ensure that they make good ball available from which to attack.
“We have to make sure we are accurate at set-piece and then we can build some pressure,” explained the coach.
“Defences are pretty much all the same, some are a little bit better than others, but at the end of the day, if we get quick ball from rucks, with the backs that we’ve got, we know we can do some damage.”
Plumtree admitted that there were harsh lessons learned in 18-13 loss to the Bulls.
"We weren’t happy with the lesson we were dealt on the weekend. We weren’t happy with the way we received contestable kicks, stopping the drive in particular wasn’t good enough and we will be faced with the same threats this weekend and will have to look after that. It’s easy saying that but harder doing it.
“Last week our lineout failed and that was a big part of our problem. We lost five attacking lineouts so we couldn’t get our game going, and you can’t afford that.”
With the problem areas identified, this week’s preparations for the Stormers game in Cape Town centre on making sure they aren’t repeated.
“We’ve addressed the issues from the Bulls game, we knew we got caught behind the advantage line and at times our ball-carrying into contact was a bit high too, so there were a few little things we’ve talked about.
“The Bulls were probably a little bit more aggressive at the counter ruck, from a physicality point of view, they got one up on us and we can’t afford for that to happen. We pride ourselves on our physicality and on the weekend it just wasn’t right on the mark, we have got to make sure we improve in that area.”
Teams:
Stormers:
15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (captain), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Gary van Aswegen, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Nick Koster, 7 Duane Vermeulen, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Substitutes: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Frans Malherbe, 18 De Kock Steenkamp, 19 Nizaam Carr, 20 Louis Schreuder, 21 Peter Grant, 22 Gerhard van den Heever
Sharks:
TBA
Referee: Mark Lawrence
