John Plumtree reflects on tough, but improved season for the Sharks

The Sharks’ season came to an abrupt end over the weekend when they were dumped out of the United Rugby Championship (URC) at the semifinal stage by fierce rivals, the Bulls, at Loftus.

It ended a much improved second season at the helm for coach John Plumtree, but many critics were still unhappy due to the Springbok firepower that the union have at their disposal.

In the semifinal played at Loftus on Saturday evening the Sharks boasted a team featuring Rugby World Cup winners Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Vincent Koch, Siya Kolisi, Jaden Hendrikse, Andre Esterhuizen, Lukhanyo Am and Makazole Mapimpi.

They also had Aphelele Fassi and Jordan Hendrikse in the starting XV, and Ntuthuko Mchunu and Phepsi Buthelezi on the bench, who have all played for the Boks in the past year.

They were however missing their captain and Bok enforcer Eben Etzebeth, along with Trevor Nyakane and Grant Williams who would have added even more Bok firepower to their stocks.

Despite the wealth of experience and talent at their fingertips, the Sharks still finished third on the log and dropped out in the semis.

But it is still a major improvement after a disastrous previous campaign that saw them finish 14^th on the URC log, although they picked up the Challenge Cup trophy to slightly salvage that season.

Tough balance

Plumtree explained that even though they have immense talent in the group, it was still tough to get the balance right over a long season, in which they missed players on international duty at stages and had to rest them as well.

“It has been a tough season. I learnt a lot in what was my second season of the URC. There were really tough periods of the season, especially after the November internationals when we had tired Boks coming back,” explained Plumtree.

“How we can compete in the tournament with players who have just played 14 internationals is a challenge. And then after Christmas, they go through their Springbok resting, and it’s about navigating that period with the rest of the team.

“We also had 18, 19 injuries at one stage, which was a crisis. When you do finally get everyone back in, it’s about where you’re sitting on the log and how you can progress in two tournaments (the URC and EPCR).

Looking ahead Plumtree highlighted the need to build depth at the union, with players who will be able to adequately fill in when their star Springboks are unavailable.

“The key for us is to make sure we have depth in our squad to be able to do well without Springbok players. We showed that this year but it is going to be a continuing challenge for us to keep strengthening the squad,” said Plumtree.

“I think we have done really well with the players we had and we have managed to pick up points. Coaching the Sharks is not for the fainthearted and it keeps me awake at night.”