I wasn't sure if I was still asleep and having a nightmare or actually awake and watching the 3am broadcast. Alas, my hope that it was a horrible nightmare from which I'd awake to find my Highlanders in good health and winning by miles proved wrong.
Baloody hell . ..
I had a bad feeling all week about that game, I was in no way confident that we were going to pull off the win; in fact, I was pretty sure we weren't (is it sacrilegious to admit that?).
The Sharks may not be the showiest of teams, but they have some darn good players and are capable of putting in solid performances. I've thought for a while that Bismarck du Plessis was one of the best players in world rugby. If Peter de Villiers had started him in the world cup, the South Africans could very well have found themselves in the final.
With "The Beast" back in the starting lineup, it just felt that the Sharks were going to come together for that game and they did. Bismarck was his usual self, wearing the number 2 jersey but playing like someone with a 7 on his back.
The eternally baby faced Pat Lambie was the typical golden boy, scoring every one of his team's points and looking like he could keep on doing it all night long.
If only those few line breaking, space finding runs we were able to conjure up had resulted in tries rather than in critical, game-ruining errors. Ball possession and territory control don't matter a wit at games end if you can't turn them into points on the scoreboard.
Anyway...
Back to the injuries. Good thing Crosswell seems ready to be back on the field and hopefully is in the same kind of playing form he was at the start of the season. It won't be the same as having a true flanker, but Hoeata, Crosswell and Bekhuis are all strong players and if push comes to shove, which it has, can step it up and cover that spot.
I don't know much about Hale T-Pole, but for better or worse it looks like I will be finding out about him.
However, now with Tim Boys just recently included in the squad, the open side flanker conundrum could be solved.
If Boys' form proves true, maybe Haskell will be relegated back to the bench at suspension's end where he can have a nice long think about whether throwing punches is worth it. By the way, it's not.
My thoughts on the backs and their injuries are this: thank goodness we've got Burleigh who can fill in for Treeby. Tamati, take it easy and let that knee get better.
And to everyone else, stay injury free, play with all your heart, and win the rest of your games.
Yours sincerely, Me.