Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Sharks lining up Springbok and Cheetahs prop Nche - reports

Cheetahs' Ox Nche, in action in a 2017 Super Rugby match against the Chiefs, has been one of the Cheetahs most consistent players in the PRO14. (Photo by Johan Pretorius/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

It’s been a testing year for the Sharks, as the Durban-based franchise have had to say goodbye to a number of their most valuable players.

ADVERTISEMENT

The quintet of Coenie Oosthuizen, Akker van der Merwe and brothers Robert, Jean-Luc and Dan du Preez have all headed to Sale Sharks, with Steve Diamond having raided his club’s namesake in South Africa mercilessly this summer. Philip van der Walt is also off to Newcastle Falcons and Andre Esterhuizen is set for a stint in Japan.

Post-Rugby World Cup exoduses are nothing new to South African rugby, however, as the nation’s Super Rugby and Guinness PRO14 franchises have become accustomed to significant outgoings each season.

The news isn’t all doom and gloom in Durban, though, with the Sharks, according to Rapport, in the frame to sign Cheetahs and Springbok loosehead prop Ox Nche.

Nche has reportedly been tabbed as the long-term replacement for Tendai Mtawarira at the franchise and the Sharks will be helped out with his salary by SA Rugby, with Nche considered as a Player of National Interest under the new contracting model in South African rugby.

Per Rapport, Nche is only contracted with the Cheetahs until the end of October and the current Currie Cup season, and is not under terms for the upcoming PRO14 campaign.

Losing Nche will come as a major blow for the Cheetahs, with the 24-year-old having established himself as one of their most important players over the past couple of seasons. The move would also highlight the problems that the Cheetahs and Kings have retaining players when the four bigger unions from Super Rugby turn their attentions towards players in the Free State and Eastern Province.

ADVERTISEMENT

Should the move to the Sharks go ahead, Nche could find himself partnering Thomas du Toit in the Sharks front row, with the pair having lined up together for the South African U20s in 2015, the year that du Toit made the move to tighthead.

Watch: Sharks coach Sean Everitt speaks to the media ahead of his side’s latest Currie Cup game

Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit
Search