Curwin Bosch: Sharks saviour or imperfect solution?

The distinct possibility that Curwin Bosch could finally be granted a long-awaited opportunity at flyhalf for the Sharks will be met with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Robert du Preez, head coach of the Durbanites, intimated strongly that rotation could be the name of the game in Saturday’s meeting with the Waratahs in Sydney, which includes his son, Robert jr.

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Du Preez jr has been under increasing pressure from critics for his inconsistency in the past few weeks, possibly due to being overplayed.

“Definitely (we’ll look at making changes),” Du Preez snr said from Sydney.

“There are quite a few players who have had a lot of games in the past few months. There are a couple of guys that have played 80 minutes every week.”

21-year-old Bosch’s form has been excellent since he carved out a starting spot for himself at fullback.

However, his supporters believes he could be used even closer to the action in the pivot jersey and potentially possesses an even better goal-kicking boot than Du Preez jr.

On the other end of the scale, critics argue that replacing Du Preez with Bosch is an imperfect solution.

Bosch is considerably smaller than his teammate and has a longstanding weakness on defence.

Given that the Waratahs would surely target his channel, picking him at No 10 has its risks.

Either way, the Sharks coaching staff will have to make a plan.

“We’ll definitely look at managing those guys at practices but also with game time, specifically.”

A complicating factor is that the Sharks don’t have as much flexibility in the backline in terms of rotation, but the picture is certainly rosier upfront, where the returns of Akker van der Merwe (hooker) Ruan Botha (lock) and Tyler Paul (flank) allow for others to be afforded a breather.

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