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Keegan Daniel will resume the captaincy of the Sharks for tomorrow’s Absa Currie Cup clash with Western Province at Kings Park (7pm).
Keegan Daniel will resume the captaincy of the Sharks for tomorrow’s Absa Currie Cup clash with Western Province at Kings Park (7pm), although spectators who have watched his animated interaction with referees will wonder if he has in any case been back in the role since he returned from Springbok duty a few weeks ago.
He was officially named captain yesterday in place of Jean Deysel in a team that shows a number of changes to the side that lost to Griquas last week.
“The decision is one made for the team as well as for Deysel’s benefit,” said Plumtree.
“Because of the way we have to rehab Jean’s body after each game because of the high impact role he plays, with the number of collisions he is involved in, he often misses team work which has to happen in the time that we are looking after his body.
“For that reason, my |decision is to go back to having Keegan as the captain, there is no other reason behind this. Keegan is more than happy to captain the side, he is the Super Rugby captain, and that change will be from this weekend.”
Daniel captained the side to the Currie Cup final last year, and the Super Rugby final earlier this year.
In changes to the team, |concussed Paul Jordaan is |replaced by fit-again Tim Whitehead, who has not played since the semi-final against the Stormers.
“Tim Whitehead is back, and that’s good news. He’s built a bit of extra muscle in the time he had off, he’s worked hard to get back and it was almost like a nice little pre-season break for him.”
Along with the return of Whitehead to action, lock Pieter-Steph du Toit and hooker Kyle Cooper are not expected out for much longer, and will boost the Sharks in the second round.
“It would be nice to get some reinforcements back, and hopefully that will happen in the near future when some guys get back from injury,” said the Sharks coach. “But the boys are still keen and ready to go; we’ve just had a few unfortunate injuries in some key areas.”
Looking ahead to the game tomorrow, Plumtree said he believed Western Province had improved from their first-round loss to The Sharks at Newlands.
“Everyone has gone better since then, but it’s still tricky to pick the winners and the losers in this competition.”
In changes to the Sharks pack, veteran Pieter Dixon starts ahead of Monde Hadebe, who takes his place on the bench. In an unenforced change at scrumhalf, Cobus Reinach comes in for Charl McLeod, while on the wing Rosko Specman and S’bura Sithole swap places.
The two sides met in the opening weekend of the tournament, with the Sharks emerging narrow 25-23 victors in a match where Province got off to a good start, but had no answer to a powerful second-half performance from the Sharks, as they scored 22 points to Province’s 10.
This is a huge game for both sides who, along with the Lions, have amassed 15 log points.
