The expectation of a highly physical game in the Super Rugby derby against the Stormers at Newlands on Saturday could prompt Sharks coach John Plumtree to return Jean Deysel to his match 22 quicker than anticipated.
Deysel has not played for the Sharks for almost a year after suffering a knee injury at the end of the last Super 14 season, but he has been making his way back in the Vodacom Cup and Plumtree has clearly been impressed with his progress for he was initially intending to reintroduce Deysel only after the Sharks’ next bye in a couple of weeks.
Deysel, a driving loose-forward in a similar mould to Willem Alberts, is precisely the sort of player that Plumtree would want in what both coaches are predicting will be a war of attrition with the team that wins the physical battle probably being the one that takes the crucial log points on offer.
“There is certainly a lot of temptation for us to take Jean with us to Cape Town as he would be a useful guy to have in what we expect to be a highly physical game,” said Plumtree.
“It just depends on whether he is ready or not. We will have a close look at him and then make a call. Whatever happens we don’t want to rush him unnecessarily and thus jeopardise his comeback.”
Should Deysel play he will come off the bench, with the momentum he could bring in the last quarter of the game being what is tempting the Sharks to make the selection. They are already almost assured of having another important player, hooker Bismarck du Plessis, back in action against a team he has always done particularly well against in the past.
Of course, should Du Plessis be cleared of the bruised shoulder that kept him from playing the Hurricanes last week it will create a selection dilemma in the front-row. Springbok skipper John Smit, given a first opportunity of the season to play hooker, showed that he is at last picking up some momentum after a slow start to the Sharks’ campaign which was complicated by the calf strain that kept him out of the opening fixtures.
The problem for Plumtree though is that while he can easily shift Smit back to loosehead prop in order to accommodate Du Plessis, the incumbent in the No 1 jersey, Beast Mtwarira, was the man of the match against the Hurricanes.
Alistair Hargreaves is also expected to return at lock this week, so Plumtree has plenty of options open to him at forward, with both Jannie du Plessis and Eugene van Staden doing well at tighthead last week and Ross Skeate playing perhaps his finest game since returning to South Africa from Toulon.
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