Sharks without Patrick Lambie in Super XV
With history in making as for the 1st time Southern Hemisphere teams will be playing in the Northern Hemisphere where later in the week Sharks will be playing the Crusaders at rugby’s very own Twickeham.
With Sharks losing their last match of the fifth match they have already played during the season to the Chiefs, facing the Crusaders without their Patrick Lambie will be a daunting task.
Patrick Lambie without doubt has been the player for the sharks during the Super XV whose presence in the team was reflected by the final scorecard. Even in their last unsuccessful campaign in New Zealand, Lambie’s form has kept the tourists in the game
against the Chiefs and gave them a stiff challenge.
Patrick Lambie was diagnosed with a figure injury after their game against the chief and is currently with the team in Durban where the team will be looking forward to the Doctors to understand the serious of the injury.
Lambie has been best performer for the Sharks this season with scoring in each game of the season. While starting slowly against the cheetahs by scoring a sole penalty in the game he shows the glimpses of his skills in the 14-point victory over the Blues.
However, the game was contested and hadn’t it for the offensive and open rugby exhibited by Blues. Lambie finished scoring a try, two conversion and four tries that also allowed sharks to bag a bonus point. Against Western Force the players also came well
but it was Lambie again who with his 21 points the stand was again alone among the sharks.
Lambie out forced the Western Forces by scoring two penalties, Four Conversions and a Try. Lambie continued to carry his fine form against the Rebels and scored two penalties and four conversions that in the end made the difference in the tight encounter
with final scorecard reading 34 – 32. Against the Chiefs, for Sharks it was again Lambie whose three penalties keep the visitors in the game.
Lambie so far is the highest point scorer in the Super XV with a total of 74 points followed by O Connor of the Western force who has 64 points to his name. With him battling the figure injury and likely to miss the upcoming match the Shark needs some major
rethinking to do. It is very unlikely that his probable replacement Jacques – Louis Potgieter would be fitting in his shoes in a crunch game.
His importance to the sharks can be evident from the fact that the Lambie in the five games so far has scored Two Tries, 11 Conversions and 14 penalties and without his contributions in the tight games with Rebels and Chiefs the results for sharks could
be alarmingly different.
Sharks will start as favourites in presence of Lambie later in the week however in his absence the Crusaders would definitely be eyeing to bag some bonus points and to nullify the effect of their earlier defeat against the hands of the Blues in this first
ever historic encounter of Southern’s in Northern Hemisphere.
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