The Sharks have backed their young guns to battle it out in the Currie Cup this season, which has led to some big early losses.
The Sharks have backed an extremely young and inexperienced team for this year’s Currie Cup, which has led to chastening opening defeats in the competition, 46-5 against the Lions and 64-0 against the Bulls on the Highveld.
It was an unfortunate draw that saw the young guns having to take on the two Highveld giants, who have gone with a different player strategy for the oldest club competition in South African rugby, with both backing fringe players with plenty of URC experience for their campaigns.
But throwing these youngsters into the deep end, while giving their senior players a proper break ahead of the coming URC and EPCR campaigns is exactly what the Sharks have decided is best, and it will thus be a baptism of fire for them over the rest of the Currie Cup.
Big push
Sharks forwards coach and former Springbok and Lions star Warren Whiteley revealed that the union were focusing on rebuilding their junior structures and giving these players game time in a big senior competition was key to achieving that.
“Neil (Powell, Sharks Director of Rugby) and Plum (Sharks head coach John Plumtree) have been really hard at work putting an academy back together. We lost the academy at the Sharks for over a decade,” said Whiteley.
“If you remember the Sharks of 10 or 15 years ago had a thriving academy where some of the best young players were developed. We had top coaches like Swys de Bruin, Ettiene Fynn and Ricardo Loubscher at the academy, bringing youngsters through the U19s and U21s.
“They were brought into competitions like the Vodacom Cup and Currie Cup, and although we know that our structures have changed now with the URC and Champions Cup the main focus, the recruitment and development of junior players is still crucial.”
The right talent
Whiteley explained that bringing in the right junior talent to the union was important and that it takes a lot of work to build the junior structures back up to the level it once was at, but that it would be well worth it in the long run.
“A player that comes to the province (at a young age) is more likely to stay in thepProvince. So Neil and Plum have been really hard at work over the last year or two, putting academy structures together, and bringing top coaches back in,” said Whiteley.
“We are now starting to put recruiting processes in place, and we know it’s not easy because there is a lot of competition out there for quality (young) players. We also can’t just go for talented players, but need to get the right players (to fit into our structures).
“It is important to get profiles on these players, to understand where they come from, their history, schooling and foundation. It is a process. And then hopefully what we will see is more players like Ethan Hooker coming through in the coming years. If we can do that, the Sharks will be in a really good place.”
The young Sharks team are at home to the Cheetahs at 5.10pm on Saturday.
