Stephanie back for the Sharks

Pieter-Steph in surprise Sharks return2015-07-27 21:12SHARE THISPieter-Steph du Toit (Gallo Images)Related Links

• Midfield headache looms for Heyneke
• Boks, ABs earn English praise
• Burger: Captaincy gave me motivation

Lloyd Burnard - Sport24

Cape Town - While all eyes have been on the recovery of Springbok captain Jean de Villiers in Cape Town, Springbok lock Pieter-Steph du Toit has quietly been going about his rehabilitation with the Sharks in Durban. 

The 22-year-old was released from coach Heyneke Meyer's squad at the beginning of the month before the match against the World XV in Cape Town, and it appeared then that his Rugby World Cup dreams might be over. 

But now, less than a month later, Du Toit has 

recovered from his knee injury and Sharks coach 

Gary Gold confirmed on Monday that he would play 

in Friday's pre-Currie Cup friendly against the 

Golden Lions in Pietermaritzburg. 

Despite being injured, Du Toit has been firmly 

in the headlines this month when the Sharks 

confirmed that theywill lose the player in 

October, and it's rugby's worst kept secret 

that the second-rower is heading to the 

Stormers for Super Rugby in 2016.

But now the focus will move back onto the field, 

and how Du Toit goes on Friday night will have a 

major say in whether or not he is included 

n the Bok set-up for next weekend's 

Rugby Championship Test against Argentina in Durban. 

"Pieter-Steph is playing this weekend. 

I have absolutely no idea how many games 

he is going to play. I don’t know what SARU’s plan is,

 but our plan is that he’s contracted to us at the 

moment and we’re going to play him this weekend," 

Sharks coach Gary Gold told media in Durban on Monday.

"I’m really excited to have him back and I’m going 

to play him as long as he’s with us. 

He’ll play until he gets called up to the SA team and anyone who gets left out the SA team will come back to us."

There was no word, meanwhile, on the physical state of Francois Steyn as he continues his recovery from a pectoral muscle tear.

A good player but more injury prone that Goosen to date. He has not done much at Springbok level yet- but he has also hardly played. 
His best performance to date was his man of the match in the Curry Cup Final that the Sharks won. He was not excellent in this years SuperXV  by any means.
Although now the traitor can hobble off to the Stormers. 

 Sh#t,  hope he stays playable for at least 10 odd games th is time afound! 

I hope the scotch tape holds. 

Wrong Shark he was bloody fantastic for the Sharks in the games he played this season before his injury......what rugby were you watching huh?

 I doubt not that Meyer asked the Sharks to give Du Toit some game time this weekend - since there is no RC matches.  This is based on what Meyer said in his post match interview on Saturday when discussing the lock situation.
Mozart is wondering about the scotch tape - but not about the functioning on the field of play.  Normal on his part.  He is one who wished for players to be injured when they are a thread to the useless Matfield.   Did he not clearly expressed the wish that Du Toit should be out of rugby for the year despite what the specialists said about the issue?  
Like all his favourites, Matfield's deficiencies are ignored and some mystical cloud 9 daydreams about him is set down as facts.  What a farce.   However, what is really unbelievable is that Mozart does not hesitate to lie about things to denigrate threats to Matfield of players like De Jager and Du Toit to justify his standpoint.  When those are exposed he comes up with statements that it is his opinion - not lies - but then continue repeating his opinion as factual.  
The question remains - how can logic ever be exp ected from Mozart?       

Great news!!!! Our lock situation is dire at the moment. Flip illustrated that this weekend. Our locks going to the WC should be Etzebeth, Lood, Steph and cough, Matfield. Matfield can play the kind of role that Skinstad did in the 2007 World Cup. 

 bluebok
The WC squad would not allow for including three locks.  Players can be called up in the case of injuries - but the initial selection would be confined two 3 players.   Meyer may have an escape mechanism and that it to take Matfield along as a type of player-coach.
Whether that will be allowed is indeed questionable since - as I understand it squads are limited to 31 players of which each team has to have 6 props, 3 hookers and 3 scrummies. That leaves 19 vacancies for the remaining 11 positions.  Normally those are made up as follows:-
*   3 locks*   4 loosies*   3 centers*   3 wings
That leaves six players to be distributed to the positions of flyhalf and full back and in those two cases preference are given to players that can play in both positions.  I think that the situation was that four of the six vacancies will be used to serve the two positions - leaving two optional vacancies.
The two will probably go one to the backline and one to the loose-forwards, focussing mainly on players that can play in alternative positions in matches.  In the case of the forwards it would be a player that can play in both lock and loosie positions.  That cuts out Matfield completely - but Du Toit can play in both positions - which means Matfield can be included.  It would not be wise to do that though, since Matfield is a passenger in the Tight 5.         

 No place for the useless matfiled.locks should be:eben, Lood, Du Toit and Willemse.
Like to see Du plessis in the mix covering 7 and lock.
Sharkbok appears alittle peeved at this great young player joining us. What alock pair Steph and eben would make. enough to make the sharks oaks as green as poor rooitwits jalepeno!Congrats to Gold for rising above mere provincial concerns and sharkbok could follow his example. Its good for the Boks that Eben is partnered by Du Toit. 

 "Meyer may have an escape mechanism and that it to take Matfield along as a type of player-coach."

Wrong. Go read the rules about players and the sizes of squads. The squads of 31 players has to be submitted to World Rugby on or before 31 August. You cannot have a player/coach on standby. An injured player may be replaced and he can return to the squad and carry on remaining with teh squad but he cannot play again in the remainder of the tournament. In addition there is a stand down period for a called up player. So a player cannot be called up to arrive in the UK today and play in a game tomorrow. IIRC, it is something like 3 days, after arrival, before he can play.

Ceradunce 
What is wrong with what I said about Matfield - I said Meyer can try that - but in the very next sentence said it may not be allowed - so are you nuts again?
Thanks for the rest of the info.  One thing is clear there is no room for a passneger in the squad - so no room for Matfield.