Ken Borland

The return of Jeandre Rudolph to the Cheetahs team turned around their Currie Cup fortunes in midweek and the loose forward was here, there and everywhere in their victory over Western Province in Bloemfontein, causing the Sharks to effectively pick two openside flanks for when they travel to meet the Free Staters on Saturday.

The 100kg Rudolph gave a glorious display of chasing after the ball, he was plucky in defence and carried the ball with authority as well, confirming earlier impressions that he is one of the Cheetahs’ stars. His ability to strangle teams at the breakdown and the effective partnership he forms with Junior Pokomela and Aidon Davis marks him out as a key man for the Sharks to contend with.

And the Sharks responded on Thursday by naming both Dylan Richardson and James Venter in their starting loose trio.

“We’re fortunate to have two guys who can fetch and they are both in world-class form at the moment, they both did exceptionally well against the British and Irish Lions. They’re both very good ball-carriers and have a very high work-rate, so we decided to experiment a bit with Henco Venter out with concussion and Thembelani Bholi and Celimpilo Gumede needing to cover lock.

“The Cheetahs are playing better now that they have some players back from injury and Jeandre Rudolph had a massive game against Western Province. You never go to Bloemfontein and get easy points, I asked the guys how many of them had won against Free State in Bloemfontein before and not many of them had, and none of them more than once,” coach Sean Everitt said on Thursday.

Everitt said his young Sharks team had learnt a lot in their two matches against the British and Irish Lions and he hoped this would result in increased maturity, leading to his team playing like full-grown adults in the Currie Cup and not the kids many of them are in terms of age.

“We’ve created a great vibe in the camp by giving everyone an opportunity against the Lions and we now need to build on that experience we gained and take it into this weekend. We want to play at high intensity for 80 minutes. We need to put in a performance similar to the one in the first half of the second game against the Lions, because the Cheetahs are desperate to win the Currie Cup and they have a point to prove.

“We’ve had two weeks rest, although one of those weeks was pretty tough mentally with food shortages, but the focus now is on ourselves and our intensity going forward. We have seven Currie Cup games left – this one against the Cheetahs and then the second round of six matches – and hopefully from now on there will be no more disruptions,” Everitt said.

Sharks – Anthony Volmink, Marnus Potgieter, Werner Kok, Marius Louw, Thaakir Abrahams, Curwin Bosch, Grant Williams, Phepsi Buthelezi (c), Dylan Richardson, James Venter, Reniel Hugo, Le Roux Roets, Khutha Mchunu, Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu. Bench: Dan Jooste, Mzamo Majola, Lourens Adriaanse, Thembelani Bholi, Celimpilo Gumede, Cameron Wright, Lionel Cronje, Jeremy Ward.

The spotlight is once again on the Springboks’ Covid protocols and the amount of lux shining on them will only be higher this time as Lood de Jager has now returned a positive Covid test, causing the team’s training on Monday to be cancelled and the entire squad returning to isolation.

SA rugby issued a statement on Monday confirming that lock De Jager, who is currently rehabilitating from a broken tibia, had tested positive and had had close contact with several members of the squad, leading to the complete shutdown of activities, pending the results of further PCR testing and a review by the Medical Advisory Group.

Monday’s positive test follows three players suffering the same fate the previous weekend. One of those tests – that of scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies – was later shown to be a false positive and he played off the bench in the first Test against Georgia, but Vincent Koch and S’bu Nkosi both had to go into quarantine and close contacts such as Lukhanyo Am and Makazole Mapimpi were ruled out of last weekend’s match.

But on that occasion the Springboks were able to resume training on the Monday afternoon.

De Jager is one of the overseas-based players and was meant to be making progress in his rehabilitation to the extent that the management expected him to return to full training soon.

The desperately unfortunate 28-year-old will now have to be kept apart from the team he has worked so hard to rejoin.

The Springboks are meant to be playing the second Test against Georgia on Friday night, with the series against the British and Irish Lions starting on July 24.