Sharks dealt injury hammer-blow as Springboks duo face long spells out

The Hollywoodbets Sharks are set to be without front row duo Bongi Mbonambi and Vincent Koch for the next three months after both picked up injuries at the World Cup with South Africa.

Following a destructive performance from the bench in the World Cup semi-final against England, tighthead prop Koch missed the final the week later as the Springboks were crowned world champions for a record fourth time. He is now set to be out of action for three months.

While Mbonambi made the final, his match only lasted a matter of minutes before a dangerous clearout at a ruck from the All Blacks' Shannon Frizell forced the hooker from the field with a knee injury. Sharks head coach John Plumtree said on Wednesday that the 32-year-old could potentially be out for the rest of the season with the knee injury.

“Vincent is out, he will be out for about three months, and Bongi is out for longer than that, possibly for the rest of the season,” Plumtree said, as reported by SuperSport, who said it is understood that the hooker will be out of action for six months.

While the Sharks have been dealt that damaging injury news, elsewhere in the squad another World Cup winner, Eben Etzebeth, is champing at the bit to play again, although he must wait until his rest period is over.

“I’ve spoken to Eben and he is keen to play and looking forward to it, although obviously I am not bothering him too much at this point,” said the Sharks coach.

Plumtree was also critical of the blanket rest that has been enforced by the Springboks management, saying it should be done on a player-by-player basis depending on how much action they saw in France.

“With someone like Eben," he said. "I can understand, and obviously Ox Nche and others who played a bit part in the key games at the World Cup too. Those guys do need a rest because of their heavy work load recently. However, I think it should have been done on an individual rather than on a blanket basis as there are some players who really need to be playing after not being utilised much.

“An example is Jaden Hendrikse (scrumhalf), who hardly played at the World Cup and in the warm-up games, and was out of rugby before that after being injured in March. How is it helping Jaden’s rugby for him to be off the field when he has already been out for a long time. These decisions need to take the individual players’ needs into account.”