These days rugby seems to be a constant roundabout with seasons flowing into each other, but seeing we are arriving at a Durban derby involving the Hollywoodbets Sharks and the Vodacom Bulls, it might be instructive to look back at what happened in the corresponding match in 2024.
That is particularly the case given what has happened to the Sharks since that Vodacom United Rugby Championship game, played on 21 December last year, at Hollywoodbets Kings Park. For when it comes to perceptions around the Sharks’ commitment to the cause and passion for the jersey, that was very much a different time to the one we have reached 12 months later.
For the record, the Sharks won that Kings Park derby four days before Christmas 20-17. But the scoreline did not tell the full story, for the Sharks had been decimated by injuries sustained in an Investec Champions Cup win over the Exeter Chiefs two weeks before that, and with the Bulls coming to Durban full strength, the Pretoria team was clear favourites.
They would have become even more overwhelming favourites when during the game, like became a bit of a Sharks habit in games against the Bulls across both the URC and the Carling Currie Cup last year (remember that epic domestic semifinal that went to extra time), they lost players to yellow cards.
THERE WAS REASON FOR PLUMTREE TO BE PROUD
Jake White was still in charge at the Bulls at that time and would have been driven to frustration by the way his side butchered opportunities to win the game, particularly in the dying minutes, when they camped on the Sharks line but somehow, almost unbelievably, what by then had become a very inexperienced Sharks pack weathered the onslaught.
At the end of the season White should definitely have thought of that as one that got away, while immediately after the game the Sharks coach at the time, John Plumtree, saw it as what it was - a triumph for his team’s commitment and growing culture. He spoke about how proud he was, how proud he was with the players, how chuffed he was that it was all coming together after he’d gone through a difficult first season at the KZN franchise.
And he had reason to feel pleased too. The Sharks did get thrashed by Leicester Tigers away in the Champions Cup seven days before that game, but generally, when anywhere near full strength, the Sharks were on top of their game. They had beaten the reigning URC champions, Glasgow Warriors, and then thumped previous champions Munster seven days later, in October 2023, and had also scored their first ever URC win over the DHL Stormers in early December. The Sharks were winning the derbies, they were beating the champion teams. They were flying.
But arguably that Bulls game was also the last time that the balance of power and luck was in the Sharks’ favour. They did again beat the Bulls narrowly later in the season, and won a home URC quarterfinal against Munster when the scores were tied after extra time by winning a kicking shoot-out, but the narrative did swing completely in a different direction post that December win over the Bulls.
THE NARRATIVE CHANGED FROM CAPE TOWN ONWARDS
Their following game was the return URC derby against the Stormers in Cape Town, where they lost to a late Stormers try, and then came the defeat in the much hyped meeting with Toulouse, and Antoine Dupont, in the Champions Cup. A week later they were thrashed in Bordeaux by Bordeaux-Begles, and the gutsy win over the Bulls away came before a mighty crash against the Lions in Johannesburg.
Questions about the Sharks’ culture and playing style, in particular their lack of attacking shape, started to become the dominant narrative and making a URC semifinal, where they lost to the Bulls in Pretoria, didn’t change that narrative. It all culminated in the Sharks deciding in October that this would be Plumtree’s last as head coach, and then Plumtree himself deciding a few weeks after that to step aside with a view to helping JP Pietersen adjust to being head coach in an interim capacity but with the hope he would do well enough to make the appointment permanent.
After reading through the above and having the memories jolted, it might appear that the Bulls may be the team that brings the best out of the Sharks. There is certainly enough evidence of them winning against the odds, when undermanned and outnumbered, to suggest that is true.
As it turns out, the Bulls have slid a bit themselves since this time last year, and they too have undergone a change in coach. But they will still be coming to Durban with a strong team on paper, with their coach Johan Ackermann having rested his top players when the Bulls went to Northampton last weekend for a Champions Cup pool game.
If it is true that the Bulls are the adversity that brings together the Sharks’ unity, then maybe this is the perfect time for the Sharks to end an old cycle and begin a new one. It may have started last week, with the Sharks rallying around their captain Andre Esterhuizen and his midfield partner Ethan Hooker to hang on for a wet weather win over Saracens. That wasn’t a quality performance from the Sharks and they were lucky to prevail 28-23, but it did show elements of the tenacity shown by the Sharks in beating the Bulls 52 weeks ago. More of the same, and the same result, against a team their supporters love to see them beat and probably measure them against, might be just what the Sharks need if there is to be a turnaround of fortunes when the calendar changes from 2025 to 2026.
This might be the right game to create a juncture that delineates the old depressing circle started 12 months ago with a new, more optimistic one.