Shep returns as a force at fullback

[blueandblack]

JUSTIN CHADWICK
April 27, 2010 - 11:19AM

Cameron Shepherd will return to his preferred position at fullback when the Western Force take on the last-placed Lions in Saturday's Super 14 clash in Johannesburg.

Shepherd has improved in each of his three outings since returning from a nine-week injury lay-off.

The 26-year-old has played on the wing since his return from a torn quadricep muscle but will replace Mark Bartholomeusz at fullback against the Lions, with regular fullback James O'Connor still out injured.

The Force will take a 26-man squad to South Africa, with O'Connor (shoulder) and prop Tim Fairbrother (ankle) included in the travelling party despite being unavailable for the first game of the three-match tour.

Scott Staniforth returns from a calf injury and is expected to start on the wing.

Coach John Mitchell was confident his team could defeat the Lions, Cheetahs (Bloemfontein) and the Sharks (Durban) after last week's stirring victory over the Crusaders.

"It's important we continue the momentum and we back up after the performance on the weekend," Mitchell said.

"It's important that we finish the season on a high in terms of our performance.

"We are looking to avoid performance drop off.

"We've had three wins out of the last four and the performance in Auckland (against the Blues in round 10) was too much of a drop off for our liking.

"We are focusing on how we can maintain our attitude and be really sharp in our preparation."

[chiraag]

Looking forward to Shep being back at 15. Hopefully he'll put in a few outstanding performances there in the last 3 games and push for the wallabies spot. I'm tipping a Shep hat-trick this weekend against the hapless Lions!

[Burgs]

That's some seriously good news re Shep and Stanners to be the replacement on his Wing!
Lions to be torn a new one!

[blueandblack]

That's some seriously good news re Shep and Stanners to be the replacement on his Wing!
Lions to be torn a new one!

and the other two.

[sandgroperrugby]

That means Dunning will start at tight head then............Groan groan groan

The guy can’t hold up a scrum to save his life and constantly gives penalties to the opposition which is immediately turned into pressure and more often than not points to the other team. Then he argues with the ref, ummm der not a good move.

Against the Blues the other week Sharpie actually gave him the shoulder and said some nasty things to him after repeated penalties. Am i alone in thinking this or are others out there groaning when he replaces Fairbrother?

[zimeric]

i know sometimes when i played badly i used to take it out on others because i had the shits withmyself.. willing to take a bet that Dunning knows hes not playing well and is filthy for it... problem is there is no such thing as "give him time" at this level... if you dont perform youre dropped!

[Sheikh]

Can we not have Pek and Henderson as our props? Pek can play either side. Then have Longbottom on the bench - he needs game-time this season, and he's not going to get a much easier game than against the Lions.

[jargan83]

Shep returns as a force at fullback

Justin Chadwick

CAMERON Shepherd will return to his preferred position at fullback when the Western Force take on the last-placed Lions in Saturday's Super 14 clash in Johannesburg.

Shepherd has improved in each of his three outings since returning from a nine-week injury lay-off.

The 26-year-old has played on the wing since his return from a torn quad, but will replace Mark Bartholomeusz at fullback against the Lions, with regular fullback James O'Connor still out injured.

The Force will take a 26-man squad to South Africa, with O'Connor (shoulder) and prop Tim Fairbrother (ankle) included in the travelling party despite being unavailable for the first game of the three-match tour.

Scott Staniforth returns from a calf injury and is expected to start on the wing.

More Here

[blueandblack]

That article looks very suspiciously like a copy/paste from this one: http://twf.com.au/showthread.php?t=26008. Same author too.

Chadwick working for Fairfax and News Corp maybe?

[pieter blackie]

Not to sure if this was covered in another thread so I posted it here

Cameron Shepherd will return to his preferred position at fullback when the Western Force take on the last-placed Lions in Saturday’s Super 14 clash in Johannesburg.

Shepherd has improved in each of his three outings since returning from a nine-week injury lay-off.

The 26-year-old has played on the wing since his return from torn quadriceps but will replace Mark Bartholomeusz at fullback against the Lions, with regular fullback James O’Connor still out injured.

The Force will take a 26-man squad to South Africa, with O’Connor (shoulder) and prop Tim Fairbrother (ankle) included in the travelling party despite being unavailable for the first game of the three-match tour.

Scott Staniforth returns from a calf injury and is expected to start on the wing.
Second part of the article
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/un...0427-tpky.html