There seem to be some media people preoccupied with the fact that the Hollywoodbets Sharks are the reigning EPCR Challenge Cup champions and who expect this week’s visit to Bayonne for the round of 16 to be a big date in their season, but the reality might be quite different.
“We’re ambitious, we want to win it. We want to win a big trophy and right now, we’re still in it,” was what Sharks coach John Plumtree said after his team’s disappointing 10-7 defeat to Leinster in a 14th round Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash in Durban at the weekend.
The “it” that Plumtree was referring to was not the Challenge Cup. He was referring to the URC. The “big trophy” he feels that needs winning is also not the Challenge Cup, but the URC.
And here is the crux for anyone who feels the Sharks should be duty bound to go all out to defend the Challenge Cup - to do that would compromise the URC challenge.
“We just have to make sure when we get back into the URC, which is a tour to Ulster and Edinburgh away, that we play really good rugby over there,” said Plumtree with reference to what he sees as his next biggest challenge.
The URC tour comes two weeks after this week’s trip to Lyon. Win there and there is a chance they could come home to play the quarterfinal, with their opponents being one of the Ospreys or Scarlets.
But if they do that it would mean a logistical nightmare for the later more important challenge of trying to win the away URC games against Ulster and Edinburgh, by no means easy on the Sharks’ current form. It would mean they fly home across the equator and then back again.
If the Sharks win in Lyon and get to play the quarterfinal away, at least they would then stay in Europe and not have to deal with the disadvantage of all the required flying. But it would also mean their tour extends to four games (two EPCR and two URC).
And those two URC games are more important to Plumtree because it is a bigger competition.
THEY DON’T NEED EPCR SUCCESS THIS TIME
There was joy in Sharks country that they won the Challenge Cup last season, but that was just because it was a means to get into the prestigious Investec Champions Cup, a road that had been blocked off to them through the URC due to their poor form in that competition.
The reality of the Challenge Cup is that unless like the Sharks last year you need it to qualify for something else, it is a consolation competition, competed for by the teams that aren’t good enough to be in the Champions Cup.
The Sharks dropped into the Challenge Cup when they failed to finish in the top four of their Champions Cup pool. That sums it up, winning a trophy because you weren’t good enough to compete in the knockouts of a higher competition would be a weird thing for a team with so many World Cup winning Springboks in it to celebrate.
Plumtree has already won the Challenge Cup, just like he also at the start of the season won the Carling Currie Cup, and doesn’t need to win it again. He's after bigger trophies. His team’s place in the top eight of the URC, meaning qualification for next season’s Champions Cup, is secure.
Despite the negativity around the Sharks’ recent form blip, they have still made a massive improvement in what Plumtree has referred to as the primary competition, and they have a chance of winning that "big" trophy.
To do that though they need to finish in the top four, and their chances of doing that will be seriously disadvantaged by the logistical hoops they’d have to jump through if they also tried their best to win the Challenge Cup.
So expect a second string team to go to Lyon this week, with the full strength squad, which expects to have Eben Etzebeth, Aphelele Fassi and Lukhanyo Am back in tow, to go to Edinburgh and Ulster two weeks after that.
That there is going to have to be a lift in performance is a given, so it will be a timely return for that star trio if indeed they are back for the tour. The Sharks weren’t as bad against Leinster as some are making out and Leinster are certainly not a bad team.
Full marks then to Plumtree for retaining a sense of perspective at the post-match press conference, where he didn’t behave like his team had just lost to the Leinster second string team - they had lost narrowly to Leinster.
RIGHT CALL FROM KOLISI
And it was a loss that wouldn’t have happened had skipper Siya Kolisi elected to kick for posts with a kickable late penalty rather than kick for the corner.
“I don’t like losing so I would have been happier had Siya elected to kick for the posts (to secure the draw) but it was his decision and he was obviously going for the win,” said Plumtree.
It was the right call from Kolisi if you consider the relative value of what could have been gained from the two decisions. A draw would have given the Sharks just one more point in their quest for a top four spot and in the chase for top two, whereas a win would have given them three.
The Sharks weren’t as bad as they were against Zebre. If they were that loose against this Leinster team, they’d have lost by a bigger score. As Plumtree matter-of-factly put it, in a tight game, made significantly tighter by the magnificence of the Leinster defensive effort and Plumtree can thank the Jacques Nienaber influence for that, it was about taking opportunities.
Leinster took one more than the Sharks did. Because of that, winning games on the forthcoming URC tour has become all important. Secondary to winning what is effectively the EPCR Plate competition.