Marne Coetzee has been praised by both friend and foe for his performance for the Sharks under-19s against the Leopards in Potchefstroom last Saturday. The Sharks lost the game 29-8 but according to coaches from both the Sharks under-19 and the Leopards under-19 teams, Marne was a shining star for the time he was on the pitch. Normally a successful transition from schools rugby to junior provincial rugby is not easy especially for a forward, especially a front-ranker. Marne proved to be one of the few things the Shark camp had to smile about over the weekend. With news filtering through that Sharks frontrow anchor Richard Palframan will be heading overseas shortly, it has also come as a relief to the team that SA Schools 2011 player Marne has settled in this quickly.
Having reached the halfway stage, the Sharks under-19 team finds themselves in a familiar position on the log, fifth and out of playoff contention. Head coach Etienne Fynn has acknowledged that there is “much work in store.” The Sharks teams of 2010 and 2011 pulled themselves out of the fire so to speak during the second round of the ABSA under-19 competition, producing pleasing performances. Although neither year’s team was successful from an overall competition point of view, their improvement in the second round was evident, allowing the Sharks to achieve one of their main objectives of age-group level rugby, which is to develop players capable of representing the senior team in Superugby and the Currie Cup down the line.
@beet,just read an article on sharksworld about the guy, and the role he will play,can’t believe somebody beat you to it?getting old are you
@QC86: Haha. I wouldn’t mind having an easy job on the coaching staff tho just to see a game very weekend. With games no longer being shown on TV its become almost impossible to gauge who the form players are. I have all the details on the new guy now after asking around but promised not to blog it until tomorrow.
@beet,sounds like you were right about the Hilton scrummy,are you sure you aren’t the coach,lol,if you are please use your bench earlier,new lock in ,shorter lock to the back of the lineout??
@beet,i was just looking for a place to blog you about it when i saw your post,SA schools guy from the cape,i hear, have you got any facts about this guy as the saying goes,be careful what you wish for,or should i say the gods are smiling on us,couple of good losses last saturday,keeps the log tighter,i feel a little turn around on the cards,we live in hope
@QC86: I’m hearing there might be a major surprise at lock – the enforcer type we were looking for
@beet,sounds like they are going for the rob at 9 plan,really missing Meyer just like you, and you are so right about a big lock,i am so despondent with this season,it started so well against the Cheetahs,never knew what a big part of the game injuries are.
@QC86: I think this will pave the way for Cameron Wright from Hilton. Also heard that Jean will be back very soon. Good news. Sad that we lost Richard tho. Apparently the Sharks released him from his commitment. The depth would have been nice to have. I really think 1 tall enforcer type lock is what’s missing now. Johan would have been the go to guy for carrying it up and a decent tail option in the lineout. The Sharks should really have asked Paul Anthony if he had an unwanted or unutilised player on the books to come down and play 4 for us.
@beet,no ,from a short mate of his,sounds like our no9 is out for 4 weeks,sad ,but no8 that hurt his knee against the lions is back,thats good news
@QC86: Hi. Did you also hear this from AllyCat :smile: ???
@beet,Elton Jantjies seen in Durban yesterday??
@beet,most definitely need to give a coach the oppertunity to gain knowledge and experience,the similarities of the bench useage were so obvious that i took it for granted it was the same oke,i apologize,maybe the coach needs to be paired with an older more experiened coach and use the u19 team to build players as well as coaches?but without suffering so many unnessary defeats,Ian Ardendolf might be one for the future
@QC86: It’s an interesting point about the bench being used. Ryan Strudwick who now coaches Maritzburg College was the u19 coach last year. The Sharks tend to play musical chairs with their coaching staff in the juniors and I wonder if this lack of continuity perhaps results in some of the acquired knowledge of a campaign that would otherwise have been used to improve the system the following year being lost
@greenhopper.2011 played 12 lost 7,go to a website called sa rugby and click onto u19 results and then click onto any result that shows the sharks game and a break down of the game will comeup and then study the use of his bench and then compare that year [2011] to 2012 use of the bench virtualy identical,very seldom that he will replace a forward before the 59th minute,and remember that you are allowed 5 forward replacements,i am not talking about a blood bin or an injury,on saturday the u21s had used their whole bench by the 42 min and some forwards came on and off twice and at that altitude and heat kept them in the game,boggles my mind,that we had players not used and some put on with only minutes left to play,
Great stuff for Marne
this is what it was always about – Marne to ultimately play for the Sharks – this was the first step
@QC86: what is Etienne Fynn records results with this side?? doesnt sound good when its a familiar position??
@beet,nice touch beet,very deserving