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Cape Town – Whereas the Stormers have found themselves struggling with serious injury losses before the Vodacom Super Rugby season even starts, their main coastal rivals, the Sharks, have enjoyed a much smoother build-up to next week’s kick-off, supersport.com reports.
The Sharks did lose loose forward Keegan Daniel in their opening warm-up fixture win over the Cheetahs, but there have been no other serious injuries, although prop John-Hubert Meyer is due to undergo a scan after limping off the field during the 53-7 win over a Bulls XV at the Northwood Crusaders club last Friday.
Both warm-up games were won comfortably by the Sharks, though it needs to be noted that the Bulls game was against effectively a third string team as the Bulls’ Super Rugby squad was in Australia at the time.
Sharks’ coach Robert du Preez pronounced himself happy with the performance ahead of Sunday’s departure to Australia, where the Durbanites start their Super Rugby campaign against the Reds in Brisbane the following week before travelling to Canberra to play the Brumbies.
“It was good match practice for the squad and I was pleased with the attacking mind-set shown,” said Du Preez.
“There were a lot of handling errors due to the humidity on the day, but that is exactly what we will face in Brisbane. It’s our last week at home before the competition starts and this week is going to be another tough week of training with a big emphasis placed on ball retention.”— Supersport
Online Reporter