The Sharks Argentinian flyhalf Juan Martin Hernandez has been ruled out of the 2010 Super 14 because of a back injury.

He was due to join up with after

It could be a blessing in disguise for the Sharks as he is the one player I felt inhibited the Sharks chances. The other that strongly helps the Sharks cause, provided he plays flyhalf is Ruan Pienaar.

It may force coach John Plumtree to play Pienaar at flyhalf as he will only have Monty Dumond (at least initally as young Guy Cronje recovers from foot surgery) as backup.

There are many who don’t believe Pienaar should play flyhalf, but last year I felt although Pienaar was more solid than spectacular, it was no coincidence that once he was injured the Sharks lost their direction on the field and began their slide from number 1 log position to also rans.

With Hernandez fit, I believe Pienaar would have struggled to get game time as a flyhalf and was being considered as a scrumhalf. Hopefully we’ll be forced to see Pienaar play at flyhalf and South Africa’s best interests taken to heart.

He’ll be aided by the guidance of one of Natal”s great fullbacks Hugh Reece-Edwards (the new backline coach) who has been lured back into the coaching ranks by John Plumtree. Reece-Edwards was unceremoniously dumped after the disastrous Super 12 campaign in 2000. As one of the great running fullbacks, hopefully we’ll see his influence on the Sharks backline which I feel has become too lateral and needs some straight hard running to utilise the wonderful talent they have in the ranks.

The early prediction I had of the Bulls and Stormers carrying South Africa’s Super 14 hopes may just have added another contender!