OPINION: Sharks need to show growth by doing another first in the URC

The Sharks won two tournaments but performed dismally in a third last season. They are headed the same way in terms of mixed results now, and while players say they are still in a building phase as a team, they need to prove there is growth.

Head coach John Plumtree’s first year at the reins in 2023/24 came with a strong showing in the Challenge Cup, where they won seven games, beating Gloucester fairly comfortably 36–22 in the final in London.

They also won the Currie Cup through a last-minute, 59m penalty-kick from Jordan Hendrikse against the Lions in Johannesburg (final score 16–14).

However, their United Rugby Championship (URC) campaign was abysmal. The Sharks won four games and lost 14, finishing 14th on the table, not coming anywhere close to qualifying for the play-offs. The Durban outfit lost all its local derbies and finished last in the tournament’s South African conference.

Sharks getting better?

Much of the Sharks’ success last season was due to the millions spent on bringing high-profile players in, with Plumtree giving direction to a union in need of strong leadership after Sean Everitt’s departure and Neil Powell’s interim tenure.

The Sharks have continued to attract players and were expected to perform better this season.

They have certainly done so in the URC. While securing more than half of their victories through seven points or less, they did enough to guarantee themselves a home quarter-final with a game to spare.

In the end, they finished the league phase with 13 wins, tallying 62 points, though only 10 were bonus points – tied the fewest in the top eight with Scarlets and fewer than two sides that did not progress to the play-offs.

Yet in the process, the Sharks won the SA shield for the first time.

It’s a season highlight, one the Sharks needed after crashing out of the Champions Cup with one win from four pool games. They dropped into the Challenge Cup but instead of throwing everything at defending this title, Plumtree fielded a second-string side that lost poorly to Lyon in the last 16.

Chance for vindication at Kings Park

The team have been hampered by injuries this season, but many Springboks should have been picked for the Lyon game. Fans had been scathing in their critiques of the Sharks all season but increasingly flooded the union’s social media pages at that point.

The squad is just about at full strength now, and they will want to do another first for the club: progress past the URC quarter-finals.

They are on a four-game winning streak as they prepare for the knockout Munster at Kings Park Stadium in Durban on Saturday. They will surely silence their critics and prove progress if they even just reach the semis.