Why the Sharks’ return to type is unlikely to be repeated

Siya Masuku © Gallo Images

One of the reasons why those of us who have doubted the Hollywoodbets Sharks in the past are calling them the best South African team in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship is because of what has changed since their disastrous 2023/2024 season.

First, head coach John Plumtree has clearly exercised a more decisive hand in the contract process than some of his predecessors were permitted to. Having gotten to know the players and his coaching staff in his first season as coach, Plumtree is now more familiar with his players and, crucially, in addition to the smart recruitments that have been made, he has also gotten rid of several players he thought were dead held wood or excess wood.

The turnaround in the Sharks’ fortunes arguably began when Plumtree replaced Curwin Bosch at flyhalf with S Hollywoodbets Sharks, with the former free stater playing much closer to the gainline than Bosch, who now plays overseas. The other change in the second half of last season, aside from Masuku’s more styled play, was the culture that began to take hold.

When the Sharks won the EPCR Challenge Cup to sneak through the back door into that season’s prestigious Investec Champions Cup, the culture that Plumtree had described as a major challenge when he arrived clearly prevailed. That day, the Sharks stood firm and decided the game late when they played La Rochelle in the Challenge Cup semi-final in London.

That day, they effectively reversed the tendency to find ways to lose that had characterized their URC campaign and instead found a way to win. and they have carried the new trend of finding ways to win into the new season. At least in the pre-season, which was the playoff phase of the Carling Currie Cup for the Sharks.

GALWAY was back to its old ways

They won both the semi-final against the Vodacom Bulls and the final against the Fidelity ADT Lions in thrilling fashion when they seemed dead and buried. So it would have been a disappointment for their fans if they appeared to be back on level terms in the URC’s opening game of the new season in Galway against Connacht.

The Sharks led 27-7 at one point but allowed their opponents back into the game after half-time and once Connacht got going they were difficult to stop. The Sharks seemed to have faded in the final stages and this time it was all about finding a way to lose after their early dominance.

There really shouldn’t be any cause for concern, however, as the Sharks’ defeat is entirely explainable when you look at the tough rugby they played in the Currie Cup in the two weeks leading up to the URC, particularly the 100 minutes they still had imminent to win the semi-finals. If coach Plumtree were honest he would tell you he never wanted to reach the final and he was a big critic of the timing of the national competition, but once his team was there he was obliged to rise to the occasion and give it his all out of.

Then of course there was the emotion of the final victory, coupled with the old specter of the URC era, something that just still can’t seem to get sorted, what with the crippling (for South African teams) logistics.

Flying over the Middle East and Maputo doesn’t help

It is assumed that the Sharks did not fly from Durban directly to Europe last Monday, but first to Maputo. There they spent an hour and a half on the tarmac before flying to the Middle East and then on to Ireland. It was probably what Sharks captain Vincent Tshituka was alluding to when he mentioned the “factors” that contributed to the defeat.

“Obviously it wasn’t a good second half for us. There were some factors that contributed to this but we won’t pay too much attention to that because we know we are expected to deliver,” Tshituka said in a cyber press conference in Cardiff, where the Sharks are based prepare for the game next weekend with the dragons.

The Sharks striker said Connacht rallied impressively after half-time and attacked the Sharks on the break. He did not want the 4G pitch at the Sportsground in Galway to be used as an excuse as the team had trained sufficiently on the ground during the week.

WHITELEY SATISFIED WITH EARLY INTENSITY

Assistant coach Warren Whiteley agreed that Connacht were really good after half-time and had increased the intensity, while it was the Sharks who had the intensity in the first half.

“We were happy with the intensity in the first half. “Connacht started well and we struggled to get off the ball, but once we started to get off the ball and become more precise we scored some good tries and played with high intensity,” the former Springbok No.8 said.

“But in the second half we just couldn’t keep up with the intensity. They targeted our breakdown and of course we weren’t happy with our fist defense when it came to set pieces.”

He said those are aspects the Sharks are working on ahead of Saturday’s game.

“The only thing good about this week is that we are here all week. It’s the first time in a long time that we didn’t have a shortened week. We didn’t have to travel like we did last week, so we have a whole week to prepare.”

The unspoken words there would be that the squad is probably much fresher with the long trip to Wales a thing of the distant past. The Sharks are likely to be much calmer and have a more sustained period of intensity against the Dragons than the Durbanites managed in Galway, where fears that Currie Cup success could backfire on them were well founded.