Johannesburg — For the second year in a row, the Sharks have crashed out of the United Rugby Championship at the quarter-final stage. Is all lost at the Sharks? Has John Plumtree joined a sinking ship?
IOL Sport’s Mike Greenaway looks at the pros and cons of another failed campaign.
• SuperSport inadvertently helped out suffering Sharks fans by screening the Currie Cup match between the Durban team and the Bulls on the main rugby channel and showing the Leinster game elsewhere. The Sharks won at Loftus and it was their third Currie Cup win a row. Their backup players are gelling nicely under one of the country’s best-emerging coaches in Joey Mongalo. Also on Saturday afternoon, the Sharks Under-19s beat WP away, so it would seem the ingredients are there for a recovery at the Tank.
• Director of Rugby Neil Powell has said he has a long-term plan with the youth at the Sharks Academy that is doing well in the Currie Cup and at age group level but in the short term, the Sharks have problems with their recruitment. The flyhalf position is a massive concern. Against Leinster, Boeta Chamberlain struggled, not unexpectedly as he has been playing fullback most of the year. He was standing in for injured Curwin Boach who is infuriatingly erratic. The other flyhalves in the system are pensioners Lionel Cronje and Fred Zeilinga while a reported new recruit is the Siya Masuku who is 26 and Okay but is not shooting the lights out for the Cheetahs. In the most important position on the field, the Sharks have a whole lot of ordinariness.
• Exploring the recruitment issue further the Sharks have too big a gulf between their first-choice players and the next-level guys. So when a top guy gets injured or goes to the Boks, the player stepping in is not nearly as good. Hence the Sharks’ inconsistency over the course of a season. Take Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Jaden Hendrikse and Bosch out of the team to play Leinster and your chances of winning plummet.
• Before I hear howls of outrage from Grant Williams fans because I said the loss of Hendrikse was a problem, let me explain. When Hendrikse was fit, the Sharks had the best of both worlds — Hendrikse controlled the game superbly for 60 minutes and then Williams would come on and score match-winning tries.
• Against Leinster, the Sharks had two attacking weapons — the brilliant individualism of Williams and their dominant set scrum. On attack, there was nothing else going on. If you compared what Leinster did with the ball and what the Sharks did with theirs, it was almost embarrassing. The good news is that the highly-rated attack coach David Williams is going to be one of Plumtree’s assistants. Williams coached the attack when the Sharks were playing great rugby under Sean Everitt, prior to Covid-19, but left for Europe soon after.
• Going back to the other Williams, Grant, Powell said this after the match in Dublin. “Grant has shown again and again what he can do. He is brilliant, he always asks questions of the defence, especially around the breakdowns. He reads the game well and gets into a position to create for others. He is definitely good enough to be in the Bok jersey and go to the World Cup.”
• Pick Rohan Janse van Rensburg. So many Sharks fans have been mystified as to why the burly Bok has been benched behind Aussie veteran Ben Tapuai. The latter has now left the Sharks to play in France so hopefully, Van Rensburg will now be properly utilised.
IOL Sport