The magnificent 7 sale sharks sent to Springboks training ground

Steve Diamond has revealed that Sale Sharks will send seven players to join the Springboks training team, minus the injured Lood de Jager, which will affect his team for the start of the Gallagher Premiership and the Heineken European Cup next season.

Diamond has recruited heavily from South Africa and with Springbok assistant coach Felix Jones now based in Dublin to monitor European players, his form has seen an unprecedented call from Sale, who is second in the Gallagher Premiership.

However, World Cup winner Lood de Jager will not travel back to South Africa as he prepares to find out how long his latest shoulder injury will keep him out of the game. De Jager was injured in a 40-31 win over Leicester and will have another scan of his shoulder today to reveal the extent of what is believed to be ligament damage.

Diamond agrees that he will have to operate without those seven players during the November testing period, but is confident his team can still be competitive in the Premiership and Heineken Champions Cup games to be played. The seven are; Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Faf de Klerk, Coenie Oosthuizen, Akker van der Merwe, Dan, Rob, and Jean-Luc du Preez.

Diamond said: “There will be seven players minus Lood who will join the Springbok team. Lood will have his scan this afternoon and the X-rays are positive and there does not appear to be any discomfort, but we will wait for the MRI and take him to see one of the specialists. I’m pretty optimistic, but he won’t be playing for the next ten days and there appears to be no structural damage, but there may be some ligament damage.

Sale Sharks Springboks lock Lood by Jager (Photo by David Rogers / Getty Images)

“Rohan is playing well and is on the Springbok’s radar because he has been called up for the team to enter their training camp at the end of our season or after the play-offs. Every South African I have, except for Cobus Wiese, has been called up, including Akker and Coenie. We don’t lose them until the end of the season and as Rob Baxter said (about the start of next season) we have two league games and two European games and something has to give.

“Likewise, my Dirty Dozen, as I call my midweek team, came out and beat the Wasps who are beating everyone right now. I have a good squad that will stick in those first two games if I don’t have the South Africans. “