Resurgent Sharks look for creative solutions to loose forward injury crisis

The Sharks ended the Stormers' undefeated United Rugby Championship run with an impressive 30-19 victory at a humming Cape Town Stadium this past weekend. It was a dominant outing from the Durban franchise, who've enjoyed an uptick in form since Pietersen took over the coaching reins.

But now the coach is counting the cost of victory. Aside from Springbok Bongi Mbonambi injuring himself in warmup, loose forwards Siya Kolisi, Phepsi Buthelezi and Manu Tshituka all suffered blows in the physical encounter. It led to Springbok Swiss Army knife Andre Esterhuizen packing down at flank in the second half, something that may very well happen again this week.

"I must just go check if I've got players left," quipped Pietersen after the game.  

"I think I lost all three loose forwards, so firstly I must go check if there are players available. But that's a South African derby. It's physical and hard, and we love playing it.

"Bongi suffered a calf injury. He's in contention for this weekend again, but we'll make a call later in the week.

"Siya from what I've heard hurt his hamstring, Manu rolled his ankle, and Phepsi injured his toe. I don't know the severity of Phepsi's toe and Manu's ankle.

"Matt Romao is also out. He injured his shoulder, so we lost four loose forwards in two weeks.

"We'll look at the stocks. We've got Tino [Mavesere] that's back, Corne Rahl that's there, and we've got Andre Esterhuizen and maybe Ethan Hooker."

Pietersen is all too aware that the Stormers will be out for revenge in the return match this Saturday in humid Durban.

"The turnaround will be short, we'll refresh and recover on Monday," he said.

"At least we're playing the same team, so we don't have to change a lot of the game plan, but maybe just make a couple of tweaks here and there.

"We'll give it a full go again. The Stormers will want to come up to prove a point. The challenge in rugby is always if you can double up [a good performance]."