New Cell C Sharks Director of Rugby Neil Powell hasn’t even been in the job for a month yet, but already he is feeling the weight of expectation that hangs over the big-spending province.
And while the team have a wealth of experience, many of whom return to the field this weekend for the showdown with Irish powerhouse Ulster, Powell has a wider mandate and much more to look at.
For one, his mandate is to get the structures of the Sharks right, so that they don’t continue to be a big-spending province forever but rather produce their own world-beaters that come through a system to compete.
BUILDING THE BRAND
Powell’s view is more long-term, and while there is a lot to gain in the short term in terms of success and making the Sharks the brand they want to be, the spectre of underperforming hangs over the team at the moment.
“At the end of the day it is all about building the brand and the team are only going to do as well as we built the success on the field as well as off it. In my personal view, the short term thing is to get the academy right so that we can invest in juniors that we can bring through the system to play the Currie Cup and onto the URC so that we don’t have to buy players from outside, and if we can do that our long-term plan will be more successful,” Powell said.
“In terms of our structures in coaching and player-wise on the senior level there is always room for improvement, it isn’t just a one man show, and I will elicit opinions from guys like (CEO) Eduard Coetzee and everyone else to ensure we do the best for the brand.”
CONTINUITY THE KEY
Asked why the Sharks perennially underperform, and the difference in terms of the coaching structure that has already seen tweaks to the game plan and performance on the field, Powell said it was all about getting the structures aligned.
“There is a big focus this season on continuity and coaching. Perhaps that is what the staff and players lacked a bit over the last few years - continuity. If you think about it we had three different defence coaches over 12 months, and sometimes they had different philosophies.
“Warren Whiteley, who is coaching the defence at the moment and John McFarland, who was there before him were on opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to coaching defence.
“Continuity is key with the coaches and philosophies need to be aligned and I think it showed in the last few outings that the foundations are a lot better. We will need to identify week to week on how we can improve on that.”
Powell did admit the team had changed their style a bit over the past few weeks, and the initial performances were pleasing.
“Part of any team’s review process in the off-season is that there were areas that we identified as our weaknesses in our game and we had our first pre-season in three years. That helped us improve again and gave us time to implement those pre-seaosn plans and map the defensive system, and drill it accordingly to be successful in the URC.
“We know we aren’t where we want to be yet, but there are a lot of areas in the game htat we can be betterat, but we are building in the right direction.”
SEVENS SKILLS
Powell wants to transfer a lot of his knowledge from the HSBC World Sevens series into the Sharks set-up, and specifically what makes a lot of Sevens players so valuable in the 15s game.
“The core skills that the Sevens players have are incredible. We get to spend a lot of good quality time with those guys to develop their skills - a guy like Werner Kok, for instance, he has good intensity and knows how good his reactions are on defence and attack and at the breakdown,” Powell explained.
“In the Sevens system you get to spend a lot of time on that, and you see that in a guy like Kwagga Smith and Cheslin Kolbe, who makes tackles on a lot of players who are bigger than him.
“It is a core skill, and you have to be good at everything. You can’t just be a good attacker, but also need to be good at defence as well. If you miss a tackle against Fiji thats seven points behind. You need a holistic approach.”
Powell’s work has just started. He knows the ambition that the shareholders of the Sharks have and what they want to accomplish. He also knows that he has a lot of work to do transitioning to the fifteens game and that the stakes are not only higher but a lot more difficult.
But if there was someone who can make that transition, and who has the work ethic to succeed, it is Powell.
He has his work cut out for him, but if he gets it right, the Sharks can be the worldwide brand of success they want to be.