Willem alberts
Pieter-Steph du Toit
Springboks Pieter-Steph du Toit and Willem Alberts are back training with the Sharks after long injury layoffs.
Lock Du Toit missed much of last season with a serious knee injury, while loose forward Alberts was laid low after a back operation last July.
The duo are back in training as the Sharks start their preparations for this year’s Super Rugby competition. Both have been training well and showed no discomfort from the injuries.
There was however less good news for lock Stephan Lewies, who will reportedly remain sidelined with injury for an extended period.
Sport24
With Director of Rugby Gary Gold still tied up with commitments in Japan, former coach Brendan Venter has taken charge of training in the interim, along with the rest of the coaching team of Brad MacLeod-Henderson, Sean Everitt and Paul Anthony.
The Sharks will start their pre-season with a training game against a team made up of various Durban clubs in two weeks, before heading overseas to face the French and European champions, Toulon on 5 February.
They start their Super Rugby campaign at home against the Cheetahs on 14 February.
@ Stormersboy:
He did work on my nerves though in the ways that he got out after looking good in the early part of his innings’. It was as if he was “looking” for ways to get out.
In other news, I see that young Gihan Cloete (of the Knights) scored a 100 against the England Lions today.
Since he hails from my part of the world, before his parents moved to Kimberley, us locals take a keen interest in the development of his cricket career. Hope that it will be a sign of even better things to come in future as he is apparently the 3rd youngest SA player (after Cullinan and G. Pollock) to score a 1st class 100.
Well done boy!
Nama wrote:
I think that we can agree that there is a quota system in the national cricket team, it has been spoken about many times and has been in obvious practice for many years now.
Now I am not saying that any non white player is purely a quota and doesn’t deserve to be there, we all know that won’t wash.
I do think that certain players get more chances because they are non white, because if they get dropped the coaches have to re balance the squad.
The infamous Charl Langerveld incident (whom I greatly admire as a player btw) is one very shameful example. Costing us a player not close to retirement age.
I think Alviro long overstayed his welcome because of this very fact.
He may have played well initially, but as you say, if he scored an average of over 40 in his first 37 innings’ then he must have performed dismally over the following 27 innings to lower his average from 42 to 34. That would need an average in the low 20s.
Which is my point.
@ Nama:
Yep, Alviro was pretty much always batting for his spot in the team in the public’s eyes, which wasn’t always fair on him.
Nama wrote:
Great stuff!
robzim wrote:
There’s an example of a quota selection. Never had an average of over 40 in any aspect of the game, never took any number of wickets to speak of, but he’ll pack his bags for Oz.
Maybe I am feeling a bit sensitive about the whole quotas thing, but after our President’s speech over the weekend, I am getting a little gatvol of the ignorance, reverse racism and often stupidity that is happening.
If you want to yellow card me over that statement, so be it, I think I am just verbalizing what many are thinking.
Anyway, on that bombshell we end our show for tonight! Goodnight!
Off to watch the Cowboys play the Green Bay Packers.
212b> @ Nama:
Wait he is 22 yo, didn’t AB score a hundred by then?
216 @ Stormersboy:
Shame, even poor Jan van Riebeeck was misunderstood by Zoomer
Attachment:
@ Stormersboy:
If there is a quota system in place, then it is working in our favour. Strange that we only got to no. 1 now that we consistently have 4/5 players of colour as 1st choice players in Amla, Duminy, Vern, Alviro (before he retired), Tahir.
Before that, we struggled to perform consistently well with only Gibbs/Ntini in the team as 1st choice.
I did not see you or others complain when Jaques Rudolph was recalled and didn’t perform. Why, when a player of a darker hue does not perform consistently well, there is immediate talk about “quotas” but when it is one of “us”, he is just in bad form.
@ MacroBull:
Read again. I’m not saying that about the 100 that he scored today.
When he scored his 1st 100 a few years ago, he became the 3rd youngest century maker in SA.
Nama wrote:
I think you wouldn’t have the foggiest idea or recollection of whether I complained or not about Rudolph.
You are making the assumption that because I am white that I didn’t complain. that says more about you and me unfortunately.
We complain plenty about players white and otherwise who get selected without possibly deserving their place.
you *than me.
@ Stormersboy:
The problem with Behardien is that he consistently perform, season after season, at franchise level in the shorter versions of the game. He therefore gets selected because of his “form”. Not because of his colour. Again an example of someone who cannot translate his franchise form into international cricket.
In the Momentum Cup this year he scored 229 runs in 5 innings (4 n/o) which gave him an average of 229 at a s/r of 121 with 1 x 100 & 1 x 50.
Now, there are quite a few players who scored more runs than him but most are openers. They should compete with Amla/De Kock for an opening position and I don’t see them (Puttick/van Wyk/Cook etc) replacing those two at the top of the order anytime soon.
@ Stormersboy:
No, I am not making an assumption. I speak from our encounters at Keo and now here on RT. If you read my comment again, you will see that I said that “I did not see…“.
I know how things rolled back then. When Rudolph failed as an opener, he was moved to the middle order. Again, not many complained about that as long as he was given all the chances to come right. Now imagine if Alviro was moved to no. 6 when Duminy injured himself to give him an opportunity to come right. You would’ve shat yourself.
“Behardien was talked about as a possibility for higher honours early in his career and made numerous appearances for South Africa A but found himself underrated, especially in the longer form of the game. He was not selected until the end of the 2011-12 season, a period where he made a considerable impact. He averaged over 45.66 in the domestic limited-overs competition and 66.60 in the 20-over version, where he ended as the tournament’s fourth-highest run-scorer. He was named the South African T20 player of the year at the 2012 awards, a label that helped push him through the door and into the national side.”
Chaps, I’m going to close this Article for comments now, so that we can move up to a more recent one on the Home page.
So, do not see it as an attempt at sabotage or subversion… just move your butts higher on the Home Page, please.
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