Eben Etzebeth was a late withdrawal from the Sharks team to tackle Ulster in the United Rugby Championship with John Plumtree explaining his absence.<\/b><\/p>\n
The most capped Springboks of all-time has been a large chunk of the Sharks\u2019 season after sustaining a concussion in December before another setback during the Bok alignment camps.<\/p>\n
Etzebeth misses Sharks clash with Ulster<\/p>\n
However, he marked his return in the United Rugby Championship<\/a> victory over Edinburgh last week, captaining the side and was set to do so again in Belfast against Ulster.<\/p>\n But Etzebeth<\/a> withdrew from the match ahead of kick-off with Vincent Tshituka shifting into the second-row in his place.<\/p>\n That meant that Manu Tshituka came into the starting XV with Deon Slabbert added to the bench.<\/p>\n Speaking ahead of kick-off, Plumtree explained the reasoning for Etzebeth\u2019s absence, stating the lock was ill during the week.<\/p>\n \u201cEben got sick in the earlier part of the week and never really recovered really, just got worse,\u201d he told Premier Sports.<\/p>\n \u201cSo disappointing but Siya takes over and he is not a bad skipper.\u201d<\/p>\n Stormers v Benetton: Five takeaways as John Dobson\u2019s \u2018wrath\u2019 evident while Sacha\u2019s \u2018full house\u2019 guides ruthless hosts to statement victory<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Sharks boss added that he was hopeful that the Bok lock would recover in time for the match but the team did prepare for the worst.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cHe didn\u2019t train yesterday. I was a little worried about it last night and we made the call late. We had everything prepared for the worst case so here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n