The Tongue is back and licking his lips for a new adventure in rugby. This week Sharks coach Dick Muir confirmed that former Springbok captain Bobby Skinstad has been training with the Durban-based team and has been included in their Super 14 squad for the upcoming season.
”[Skinstad] is ahead of where we expected him to be in terms of conditioning. We are very excited to have him in the squad and he has already added value to the team in terms of leadership and ability,” said Muir of the number eight, who has returned from a rugby-free three-year stint in Britain.
Muir believes that Skinstad — a consummate ballplayer with more flair than a coterie of drag queens on a sinking ship — will fit in with the stylish running rugby that characterised the Sharks’ previous campaign.
”His style is conducive to the style the Sharks want to play … he has presence, anything can happen when Bobby has the ball and that is what we want: him to be unpredictable and score tries from anywhere on the field.”
In England, the former Cats and Stormers player headed a sports-promotion division for Saatchi & Saatchi. Skinstad took a sabbatical from South African rugby in 2003 when he appeared to be an increasingly disaffected figure who had suffered a litany of injuries and vociferous public criticism.