Ken Borland

Sharks coach Sean Everitt has warned that South Africa’s top rugby players could be facing 12 months of non-stop action which is why the current preparation series has seen all four of the bigger franchises fielding second-string line-ups.

The Sharks play the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Wednesday and Everitt, for the second week running, has left more than 60% of the 23-man squad that featured in the Currie Cup final at the end of January on the sidelines. The Bulls, Western Province and Lions have similarly rested their leading stars.

“There’s not going to be too much time for a pre-season and we could be playing rugby for the next 12 months, so that means we won’t be able to top up the players in terms of strength and conditioning. So the Currie Cup guys can’t just keep on playing, we need them to try and develop more resilient bodies to prevent injury later on. We also need to grow our depth and prepare for the Rainbow Cup.

“Our motivation in these matches is slightly different to that of the Cheetahs, so we’ve split our squad into two groups of 33 and 12. The 12 are doing strength and conditioning work and at the end of the Free State game, those 12 will come back into the playing squad and another 12 will go into the conditioning camp. So when we play the Lions away from home it will be a vastly different starting line-up,” Everitt eplained.

Everitt said the plan in the opening two weeks of the preparation series was to give all the fringe players an equal opportunity to impress.

“We’re trying to balance selection because I would like everyone to have had equal game time after the first two matches and then we will rotate the bigger group. The preparation series is an opportunity to see where we might need to add some depth. We have explored some options already to bolster the squad, but we have nothing definite to announce to the public.

“Siya Kolisi has come along very well and went straight into team training. He’s found it a bit difficult with the severe heat on the coast at the moment, but it’s been tough on all the players. He’s also provided good leadership off the field, as you’d expect of the Springbok captain. At the moment we are building something really special here,” Everitt said.