Sharks sweating on Jordaan

The Sharks will wait till Thursday to see if Springbok Sevens star Paul Jordaan can pass a late fitness test.


Sharks coach John Plumtree confirmed that Jordaan is continuing to have problems with his troublesome hamstring strain.


"Paul [Jordaan] hasn't trained this week yet, but we're hoping he will be right for Thursday's training, that's really all," Plumtree said, when asked about the injury situation ahead of their Round Two Currie Cup encounter with the Golden Lions.


The good news is that Springbok scrumhalf Charl McLeod, lock Anton Bresler and utility back Louis Ludik are all back in contention after missing last week's win over Western Province.


After last week's disrupted preparations - with the bulk of the team returning from the Super Rugby Final very fatigued, Plumtree is able to get a full week into the build-up for before the arrival of the defending champions in Durban on Saturday.


And he will need it. The Lions got their campaign underway with a very impressive 43-20 win over the Free State Cheetahs.


"We trained well on Monday and Tuesday, we've gotten through a lot of content," Plumtree said.


"The Western Province game was a real icebreaker, just a start for us.


"We were just happy to get the points even though there weren't a lot of positives to take out of the game.


"Perhaps the real positive was the tenacity shown to hang on when it was really important, that showed a lot of character, but we're looking for a 40-50 percent improvement in all areas for the Lions game.


"The youngsters did well, Gouws Prinsloo didn't have a lot of work to do, but Cobus Reinach I thought was excellent, he had the ball in hand a lot and was about 94 percent accurate in his stats, so he had a pretty good all-round game, I'm very impressed. He's been around for a while now, we've been watching him and we knew he'd get an opportunity in the Currie Cup. He has started beautifully so I'm pleased for him."