FRANS STEYN RETURNS
The Cell C Sharks will be able to call on the services of 2007 Rugby World Cup winning centre Frans Steyn who will return to action this Saturday for their second tour match.
“It’s wonderful to have a guy like Frans back,” admitted Director of Rugby Gary Gold from the team’s base in New Zealand as they prepare for their Vodacom Super Rugby clash with the Hurricanes.
“Jannie du Plessis and Renaldo Bothma are also back which makes a difference for us, although we’ve lost Cobus who has returned home. It’s cruel how sport is – when things are bad they’re particularly bad. We’ve had an injury crisis but it is an opportunity for young guys to step up to the plate. We have some big challenges ahead but other teams have also been in this position before and came out stronger.”
Looking back at the match against the Highlanders, Gold explained that, “It was obviously a very disappointing game on the weekend, for all involved and certainly not the result we expected.
“We made a very good team look outstanding by making so many errors. We counted about 15 times we lost the ball, coughed up possession at critical times and against a team with a backline like theirs, they’re going to hurt you. We have a new challenge this weekend and the guys have worked particularly hard around fixing the error rate.”
There has been deep introspection about fixing matters and above all is the desire to restore pride.
“The issue for us is that this is a matter of pride, of massive pride. We’ve let a lot of people down, we’ve let a lot of supporters down; the expectations were high for this team. I’m not about to provide any excuses for what happened in our performance, it was sub-standard and whatever the reasons are, we’ll investigate that. I take responsibility for it, I’ve said that before, but the bottom line is that we have to fix it.
“If we don’t fix it this weekend, we’re going to be on the end of another hiding and none of us wants that.”
So where to from here in terms of the tour and remainder of the season? Again, Gold points to dignity as a factor.
“It’s about gaining pride. Letting the supporters realise that we are hurting in this matter; for us, this is far from what we expect. We have three games to go and nowhere to hide – no-one wants to hide – and it’s about showing some incredible courage.
We want to show, as players, and to the supporters, that we have a lot of fight still in us. In the next two weeks, we’re playing two of the top teams in the competition, so we have our work cut out for us, but that’s what this sport does for us; it provides challenges that normal day-to-day life doesn’t.
“The unbelievable challenges with our backs against the wall. I have absolutely no doubt that we are going to learn a lot of lessons in the next few weeks and there are going to be some huge challenges awaiting us. From my point of view, this is a group that has to show that we want to fight for our pride and to show everyone what it means to us to be involved in The Sharks.”
Courtesy of The Sharks
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