Mike Greenaway
After the high of beating Clermont in the Challenge Cup semi-final at the weekend, the Sharks turn their attention to the relatively mundane matter of a home United Rugby Championship fixture against Benetton.
But given their lowly position of 13th on the URC log, it is not rocket science that the Sharks will use their remaining three matches to get themselves into the best possible state to beat Gloucester in the final of the Challenge Cup on Friday, May 24.
The Sharks lost 10 of their first 11 games in the URC to relegate themselves to the position of targeting the Challenge Cup to achieve redemption.
Long gone are their hopes of qualifying for the top eight of the URC and participation in next season’s Champions Cup, but they have seized the wild card given to them of making the Champions Cup by winning the Challenge Cup.
For rugby supporters battling to understand the difference between the Challenge Cup and the Champions Cup, the football equivalent of the former is the Europa League. That is where the Sharks are, but if they can beat Gloucester in the final, they will gain automatic entry into the Champions Cup.
Strangely enough, the team they play this weekend in Durban, Benetton, is the Italy side that lost 40-23 to Gloucester in the second Challenge Cup semi-final. We can be certain that coach John Plumtree will use this weekend’s match and next week’s home game against Cardiff as warm-ups for the Challenge Cup final.
For the Sharks, it is all or nothing against Gloucester. If they win, it will be champagne and fireworks and the season will be recalled as a memorable success, but a loss will mean the Sharks achieved nothing.
And for three-quarters of the semi-final against Clermont, the Sharks seemed destined for failure. They had been kept in the game because of the accurate boot of Siya Masuku, but otherwise, they had been outplayed.
The try that sealed the Hollywoodbets Sharks' spot in the #ChallengeCupRugby final 🏉 pic.twitter.com/plv87w568s
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These are moments we live for! Thank you for making The Stoop #OurStoep🇿🇦
— The Sharks (@SharksRugby) May 5, 2024
#ChallengeCup #SHAvASM #Twickenham #Twickenhamstoop #saffasabroad #rugbyleague #rugbyunion pic.twitter.com/3pMWROVHi1
At 31-18 three minutes into the second half, the Sharks seemed destined for the scrap heap. But something magical happened. The leaders in the forwards, notably Eben Etzebeth, exploded into life and the Sharks’ intensity shot up into the stratosphere.
Plumtree said his speech at half-time was calm.
“I knew there had been character building in this team for a few weeks, I knew we were better than how we had performed and I asked the guys to take it up a level and to change the narrative.
“We had been on the back foot and I knew that if we could change it around and start attacking Clermont, the game would change. Our mindset had to change. It did and the attacking opportunities came.”
The Frenchmen scored three tries with ease in the first half and the Sharks remained on the game on the scoreboard because of the poise shown by Masuku with the boot. The former Free Stater has grown into the talk of the town after Plumtree six weeks ago made the big call of replacing Curwin Bosch with Masuku.
“He’s still going to get better,” Plumtree said of a flyhalf who has scored 62 points in his last four starts.
“His skill set can improve, his passing can improve, he can improve as an athlete. He hasn’t reached anywhere near his ceiling yet. He’s a confident little player.”
Masuku kept the Sharks in the game with his boot, while the French side looked capable of scoring each time the ball went wide.
"We were making mistakes in our own 22 around kick receipts. We gifted Clermont too many easy opportunities in terms of access to our tryline,” Plumtree acknowledged.
"Four kick-off receipts were inaccurate, and we missed a scrum and a line-out, we just allowed them to build pressure. We didn't get much opportunity to play with the ball because they kept on conceding penalties."