Sharks suffer Steyn and Mtembu blow for tour,,,

The Sharks lost 25-22 to the Highlanders but the loss comes at a further cost as Steyn has suffered a suspected broken leg while Lubabalo Mtembu injured his shoulder.

The Sharks have played two matches already on tour and have matches against the Reds, in Brisbane on Friday and the the Western Force before they return to South Africa.

Sharks coach John Plumtree has lamented his team's shocking injury toll which has left last year's finalist pretty thin in back line stocks.

"Our injury situation is not good. Our backs are decimated," he told AAP.

"We've just got to keep going. We've got to get some fit guys organised in time and just get on with it."

The Sharks loss to the Highlanders leaves them in a difficult position as it was their fourth straight loss.

Coach Plumtree refused to knock his players after they repeatedly turned down opportunities to kick for posts which could have drawn the match and insted pushed for the try.

The Sharks became the first team to lose to the Highlanders in 11 matches as the Otago men last won in May last year.

"The boys wanted to get four points. Time was up on the clock and we wouldn't have had time to get back down into their territory and win the game," Plumtree said.

"It's disappointing. We looked good when we had the ball and kept it but we had too many little opportunities that we didn't nail."

"You can't doubt the boys' effort but the changing room is a mess."

No wonder Steyn had a leg injury - it must be a terrible strain on his legs to carry that lard he is playing with - and then he tries to run with it as well.   I think Steyn had two average matches this year thus far - bat his defence has been putrid.   Yesterday he made seven tackles and missed three.  Not at all acceptable from a center.  

No real loss - his contribution was very little - but the Sharks now has a very real problem in the center situation.   May have to call up other Lions players to help out.

Someone like Prof  Noakes needs to take a look at why the Sharks and Stormers have had so many injuries this year.Could be avery interesting study.  Is it just really bad luck or is it poor conditioning or what. Is that now 19 sharks  players out and hatters still complaining about the Sharks performance!!!   

Terrible bad luck as possibly our two strongest teams have had their chances severely dented. 

We now have 4 quality sides whereas previously we had 3. We need to sort out the fifth Union. 

I do not hink it is a broken leg - it is newspaper conjecture.  If it was he would not have been sitting amongst the replacements - they would have taken him to hospital for X-rays and for a cast for his legs. 

I tried to make a joke of it -but admit it was in bad taste.   Howevr, his performances this year was far from satisfactory - even the slight increases in the last two matches was barely satisfactory.

In any event - I wish him a speedy recovery.

You may have a point as to injuries to players.  Some injuries are freak injuries - but others may have to do with the conditioning of the players themselves.   Take for instance Steyn.  He came back from France in a condition that did not look acceptable - he clearly was overweight.   He did not produce much in the seven games he played in - but before the eighth game he suffered a serious injury in practice.    Now it is known this year that his conditioning is not up to standard and the Sharks was working with him on that one.  

The other thinh that baffles me is the number of injuries suffer during training.  Two examples are Goosen and Jordaan.  Both had serious knee injruies during training sessions.  I think they need to investigate the conditions - especially the field conditions used for training purposes.   If the conditions of the playing fields on which training is to be done are not satisfactory - they should dmand that training is shifted to another field.  I actually suspect that the training fields used have something to do with those two injuries - because they happened without hard training being done.

However, I agree that Prof Noakes should look at this aspect and hope it is done as a matter of urgency.