Will the Bok cavalry save the Sharks?

The bad news is that Bongi Mbonambi is expected to be out for 6 months and Vincent Koch for around 3 months. The only other two Boks what will bolster the pack at some point will be Ox Nche and Eben Etzebeth. The remaining Boks that can add zip to the back line is Jaden Hendrikse, Grant Williams and Makazole Mapimpi. That is the makeup of the available cavalry unfortunately. There are a number of players out injured that can certainly add value to the squad.

I have made a summary of the entire squad starting with the players that featured against Connacht (information about caps have been obtained from itsrugby.co.uk. The Sharks Rugby website does not have consistent info). The stats are for the start of the 23/24 season.

Player	Age	URC / Super Rugby / Heineken Cup / ERC / EC	Starts	Rank
Ntuthoko Mchunu	24	35	13	2
Dylan Richardson	24	26	14	3 (2)
Coenie Oosthuizen	33	129	101	2
Corne Rahl	20	2	1	2
Emile van Heerden	23	7	5	3
James Venter	26	29	23	1
Phepsi Buthelezi	23	60	37	3 (1)
Sikhumbuzo Notshe	29	105	64	1
Cameron Wright	29	49	10	3
Curwin Bosch	25	94	81	1
Aphiwe Dyantyi	28	29	25	2
Francois Venter	32	88	78	1
Lukhanyo Am	29	90	90	1
Werner Kok	29	40	33	1
Aphelele Fassi	24	51	45	1
Daniel Jooste	24	22	5	4
Dian Bleuler	24	13	2	3
Hanro Jacobs	23	5	2	3
Jeandre Labuschagne	24	16	8	2
Tino Mavesere	25			3
Zee Mkhabela	29	12	2	5
Boeta Chamberlain	23	36	28	2
Rohan Janse van Rensburg	29	80	54	2
Jaden Hendrikse	22	29	22	1/2
Grant Williams	27	46	19	1/2
Ox Nche	28	111	86	1
Eben Etzebeth	31	78	73	1
Makazole Mapimpi	33	87	83	1
Hyron Andrews	28	74	44	4
Diego Appolis	23			4
George Cronje	22			3
Lionel Cronje	34	38	22	3/4
Muller du Plessis	24			5
Nevaldo Fleurs	24	3	1	3
Gerbrandt Grobler	31	68	46	1
Francois Hougaard	35	111	100	4
Reniel Hugo	33	59	39	2
Eduan Keyter	27			4
Murray Koster	24	3	2	3/4
Siya Masuku	27	7	5	3/4
Fez Mbatha	24	17	7	3
Khwezi Mona	31	9	3	4
Yaw Penxe	26	64	55	2
Ignatius Prinsloo	26	4		4/5
Marnus Potgieter	24	18	13	2/3
Vincent Tshituka	25	51	47	1
Kerron van Vuuren	28	70	35	2
Anthony Volminck	33	46	38	4
Vincent Koch	33	66	41	1
Bongi Mbonambi	32	114	82	1
Le Rouz Roets	28	22	7	2

If all players were fit, I would think this would be a probable starting 15 (vs last starting 15):

1	Ox Nche	Ntuthoko Mchunu
2	Bongi Mbonambi	Dylan Richardson
3	Vincent Koch	Coenie Oosthuizen
4	Eben Etzebeth	Corne Rahl
5	Gerbrand Grobler	Emile van Heerden
6	James Venter	James Venter
7	Vincent Tshituka	Phepsi Buthelezi
8	Phepsi Buthelezi	Sikhumbuzo Notshe
9	Jaden Hendrikse	Cam Wright
10	Curwin Bosch	Curwin Bosch
11	Makazole Mapimpi	Aphiwe Dyantyi
12	Francois Venter	Francois Venter
13	Lukhanyo Am	Lukhanyo Am
14	Werner Kok	Werner Kok
15	Aphelele Fassi	Aphelele Fassi
16	Kerron van Vuuren	Dan Jooste
17	Dian Bleuler	Ntuthoko Mchunu
18	Hanro Jacobs	Coenie Oosthuizen
19	Emile van Heerden / Jeandre Labuschagne	Jeandre Labuschagne
20	Sikhumbuzo Notshe / Dylan Richardson	Tino Mavesere
21	Grant Williams	Zee Mkhabela
22	Boeta Chamberlain	Boeta Chamberlain
23	Rohan Janse van Rensburg	Rohan Janse van Rensburg

The tight five will definitely be strengthened, the loose trio less so but most of the back line will be made up of the same crowd now playing there. So the team will have an improved set piece and tight exchanges, but the same errors will still hamstring the results.

IMO if Plum wants to get the Sharks to play expansive rugby the franchise as a whole will have to put in a major effort to measure and improve the skill levels of all players in the senior and junior squads. The number of silly errors made per game are not good enough for this level.

The only alternative is to find a game plan / playing style that can produce results with the current average skill levels in the squads.