The crowd turnout at the Hollywoodbets Sharks’ opening home Vodacom United Rugby Championship game was disappointing but if there’s a better weather prediction for Saturday’s clash with Munster there should be good reason for Durbanites to turn out in their numbers.
While the Sharks’ 28-24 win over the Glasgow Warriors, came in a high quality game, the atmosphere lacked a bit of fizz considering the home team was playing against the URC champions.
Perhaps there’s more of a need for the URC to do a proper sell to South Africans than may be thought, or maybe it was the notoriously fickle Durban attitude when it comes to weather expectations, with some forecasters predicting day for the day of the game, but the Hollywoodbets Kings Park was well below the 28 000 that watched the DHL Stormers beat Munster later in the day.
However, according to Sharks coach John Plumtree, the home team should be even better against Munster than they were against Glasgow. There were snatches of really impressive play from the Sharks, but also moments in the game where the rust showed.
The process of returning players to the team, even star quality players like the Sharks’ Springboks, is always more difficult to do in practice than it is in theory, which was one of the reasons that Plumtree was relieved to get the win after a week that was made particularly fraught by the previous week’s big defeat to Benetton in the Sharks’ final tour game.
Like Plumtree's counterpart at the Stormers, John Dobson, the defeat the week before put his team in a situation where defeat in the home game could have proved a negative watershed in the season by heaping the pressure on in the battle for favourable log positions.
For both coaches, victory over Glasgow and Munster respectively eased some of that pressure.
“It has been a pretty nerve-wracking week,” Plumtree admitted after the game.
“Obviously the Boks were a bit rusty after three weeks off, while at the same time we wanted to give some of the guys who were on tour a break. We tried to bring everyone together and get the balance right, but that is not always easy to do.
“Glasgow are formidable opponents and they contest in every facet of the game. At times we built up impressive momentum, but at other times we were definitely a bit rusty. But we will have more time for everyone to settle in so we should be better against Munster.”
DETERMINED MOOD
Munster, the 2022/2023 URC champions, will arrive in Durban in a determined mood after they were beaten 34-19 by the Stormers in a game where, unlike Glasgow, they failed to pick up any log points.
Ultimately the failure to pick up a four try bonus point that looked on at one stage coupled with them leaking two to their opponents was the only real blemish on an otherwise very positive day out for the Sharks.
“You know me, I wasn’t happy with some of our play towards the end and although Glasgow deserve credit for the way they fought we gave them two log points unnecessarily. We are going to have to look at those things to ensure we are sharper in that situation in future,” said the Sharks coach.
Plumtree heaped praise on Eben Etzebeth, who led the team well and was prominent as a ball carrier, but he was particularly enthusiastic about the performance of the man of the match, Aphelele Fassi.
“Fassi is one of our newest Boks and he has really grown as a player, I was really impressed with his performance,” said Plumtree.
The return of Fassi to the last line of defence meant that Jordan Hendrikse displaced Siya Masuku in the No 10 jersey, and that went well too. Although he did make the odd mistake, Hendrikse controlled the game well.
Where Plumtree might face a decision ahead of the Munster game is at scrumhalf, where the other Hendrikse, Jaden, was okay but not quite as suited to the tempo game that the Sharks should be looking for than replacement scrumhalf and fellow Bok Grant Williams is.