They say a week can be a long time in rugby so it goes without saying then that a month can feel like eons. Just ask Hollywoodbets Sharks coach John Plumtree, who on this day in December was waking up flushed with satisfaction following his team’s passionate and emotional win over the Vodacom Bulls the day before.
The Bulls had come to Durban rated by many as favourites by virtue of the fact that the Sharks were severely under-strength, yet the new found culture in the Sharks camp, something that was first evident in the EPRC Challenge Cup semifinal win over Clermont-Auvergne last May, had shone through.
The Sharks had hung on to win against South Africa’s best performing Vodacom United Rugby Championship team of the moment.
Although a second string side had lost heavily to Leicester Tigers at Welford Road in the Investec Champions Cup group match the week before, which he would have anticipated when he made his selections around the logistical challenge of playing a crucial URC derby in Durban seven days after a game in England, winning momentum was with the Sharks.
Since returning from their overseas tour in October, they’d scored good wins over URC champions Glasgow Warriors, had thumped the previous year’s champions Munster so comprehensively that the Irish team changed their coach, and they’d also scored their first ever URC win over the DHL Stormers.
But here we sit one month later and the Sharks haven’t won again. They lost a close return game to the Stormers just after Christmas, were beaten by Champions Cup title holders Toulouse in Durban, and in the most recent game they were humiliated by Bordeaux-Begles. That’s three losses in succession, and gone is any talk of the Sharks having a winning habit.
IMPORTANT JUNCTURE IN THEIR URC CAMPAIGN
Now comes their next challenge - getting back on the horse after conceding 10 tries in the 66-12 defeat at the Stade Chaban-Delmas by beating Cardiff at Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday in what amounts to the game that takes them to the halfway point of their URC challenge.
With the Champions Cup gone from their schedule, and let’s face it the Sharks should finish in the top eight in the URC this time so they don’t really need another Challenge Cup title, winning the URC has to become the main focus. To do that it is important to finish in the top four on the final log table, as that guarantees a home start in the Finals Series.
To that end, the Cardiff game is of critical importance, not just because the Sharks need to get back some winning form, but also because Cardiff have been the surprise package in the competition this season and have emerged as challengers for a top four spot.
A year ago Cardiff were languishing, but after nine games they are third on the log. Admittedly the South African teams have a game in hand on them, which cues a point - both the Bulls and the Sharks can leapfrog Cardiff if they win at the weekend and Cardiff lose.
For the Sharks it’s simple, they have 24 log points after eight games to Cardiff’s 28 after nine. A win while denying Cardiff a bonus point will put them level with the Welsh side, while a bonus point win will put them ahead.
The Sharks will then be styling in the competition. Conversely, however, a defeat will leave them dropping out of the top eight. The 10th-placed Stormers, who admittedly face a really tough away outing at the weekend against log leaders Leinster, who are unbeaten in the competition this season, are just three points behind the Sharks.
The 12th-placed Emirates Lions, who will play the Sharks twice in derbies over the next month, are five behind - and have a game in hand.
So a win at a venue where South African teams have an up and down record is imperative, and a bounce back from the darkness that would have descended on the team post Bordeaux is crucial for more than just the need to prevent their three game losing sequence becoming four.
MORE INJURIES MAKE IT HARDER
The problem for the Sharks, aside from the fact that Cardiff will be fully loaded and waiting, is that their injury situation didn’t become any easier either after the Bordeaux defeat.
Not only is Hakeem Kunene, the young fullback, facing a disciplinary hearing for his high charge that saw him yellow carded earlier in the game, he left the field injured and is unlikely to play even if he is cleared to by the EPCR DC that will take place on Wednesday.
And it goes further that according to Plumtree’s quotes after the Bordeaux game: “There’s not much to be happy about. More injuries, to Lood (Corne Rahl), Ox Nche and Hakeem. We also had a tough week with James Venter going back to Durban due to injury.
That’s on top of the injuries that prevented Eben Etzebeth, Andre Esterhuizen, Aphelele Fassi, Vincent Koch, Jordan Hendrikse and others from making this two game overseas tour.
What will be important then is for Plumtree to get his team to shake off the psychological impact of the Bordeaux experience, and return to the passion and drive that got them over the line one month and one day ago against the Bulls and which kept them in the game for the last minutes when they faced stiff odds against the Stormers in Cape Town a week later.
COMPARTMENTALISATION CAN BE A STRENGTH
It may be easier said than done, but then Plumtree will be taking a philosophical view and this may be a time where he can get compartmentalisation to be a strength. In the sense that the URC and Champions Cup are different competitions - and he needs to get that point home to his players. The only game they’ve lost in their last five tough URC fixtures was the one in Cape Town.
The Sharks have always been the one local franchise that has spoken publicly about their ambition to win the main European competition. The then CEO Ed Coetzee stressed that his team would be in the hunt for the Champions Cup title, seeing it as the ultimate prize, when he spoke at a Sharks media weekend in Durban in early 2022.
But if you spoke to Plumtree or for that matter the head of the American consortium that effectively owns the Sharks, Marcos Massotti, at the start of the season, they might have told you that while the Champions Cup was the main goal, it might be a year or two soon.
And realistically the Sharks’ chances were severely inhibited this year by the Pool they found themselves in, which included not only the two French powerhouse teams Toulouse and Bordeaux-Begles, but also the past challengers from Ireland, Ulster.
The competition in that group was so hot that once a swathe of injuries cut through the team and claimed not just star players but also some important rank and file stalwarts, Plumtree would have accepted that this was a season where going deep in the Champions Cup would be a bonus rather than an expectation.
But they do expect a good return from this URC campaign, in which case Saturday evening’s game is one of high stakes.