It was no surprise to hear Hollywoodbets Sharks coach John Plumtree doffing his cap to the contribution of his franchise’s equity partners after his team completed the turnaround from some awful seasons in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship by clinching the South African Shield.
The narrow 25-22 win at Hollywoodbets Kings Park not only avenged the big defeat they suffered to the same Emirates Lions opponents in Johannesburg the week before, it was also enough for them to edge out the DHL Stormers in the race for the local Shield. As was the case last season, the Shield winner is determined by the results of the derby games, which explains why the Stormers were in it even though they are only 12th on the overall log.
The Shield win is significant for the Sharks because of where they’ve come from - last year they didn’t win a single derby game, and it was one of the reasons they finished second last on the URC log. This year they won four of six games, with the Stormers and Bulls each winning three games and the Lions two.
“It is a good indicator that we’re heading in the right direction,” said Plumtree of winning the Shield, which the Sharks can add to a Kings Park trophy cabinet that already accommodates the EPCR Challenge Cup trophy and the Carling Currie Cup.
It was a tough first season for Plumtree, with the disappointment of doing so poorly in the URC surely only partially sated by winning the Champions Cup, which is only a secondary competition in Europe akin to the old Plate event that used to be competed for by teams that did not get through the group phase in Sevens tournaments.
However, the Sharks’ equity partners, MVM investments, headed by former Amanzimtoti schoolboy Marco Masotti out of New York, have been even more long suffering, with the initial years of their partnership with the Sharks being blighted by the consequences of several years of poor contracting and management before they linked up with the Durban franchise.
UNDERPERFORMED
Given the marquee names on their books, the Sharks have underperformed, and they arguably still are if you consider they were knocked out of the Champions Cup after the group phase. However, as Plumtree says, the silverware does represent concrete evidence of progress as there were a lot of cobwebs that would have had to be swept out of the trophy cabinet when it was first unlocked to accommodate the Champions Cup last May.
“I think Marco Masotti will be very proud tonight and having a beautiful bottle of red wine in New York somewhere. He’s done a lot of work and put a lot of time into this franchise, and he loves the South African people, so just a shout-out for him, because it’s not easy.
“We’ve had a lot of injuries this year, there’s been a lot of struggle, and we’re not there yet, but hopefully in the next year or two, we’ll get the right group that will go forward and maybe challenge for some higher honours. I do think we just need to get some bodies back on the field.”
Plumtree’s mention of his ongoing injury crisis aside, there’s no need to prolong the expectation of higher honours to “the next year or two”, for the win over the Lions has left the Sharks comfortably in a top four on the overall log that now has daylight between it and the rest of the field.
Top-four finishers get home ground advantage in the first playoff game, but a top-two finish is even more coveted as it means a team can be at home until the final. Leinster are runaway log leaders but it is not them the Sharks and, for that matter, the Bulls will be chasing. Second placed Glasgow Warriors, the reigning champions, are just three points ahead of the Bulls and five points ahead of the Sharks - so a top-two finish is still very possible for the Sharks.
ETZEBETH SHOULD BE BACK SOON
With the influential figure of Eben Etzebeth expected back when Zebre and Leinster come to Durban later in the month, and the explosive potential of a backline that attacks with good shape likely to come even more into its own once the summer and the humidity that makes running rugby almost impossible is behind them, the Sharks have reason to feel optimistic.
The Shield is a good measure of their progress, but the Sharks will be aiming to turn it into the stepping stone it turned out to be for their coastal rivals, the Stormers, in the inaugural season in 2021-22.
Plumtree knows there is one thing that is in the Sharks’ favour that wasn’t before - their fighting spirit and character.
“A week is a long time in rugby. I’m very proud of the boys. They’re a proud bunch and last week our pride got really dented. I’m just proud of the boys for the way we responded to last week; emotionally it’s been a big week for us.”
The Sharks’ next game will be against Zebre at Kings Park on 22 March and it will be interesting to see what players come back into their system in the interim.
“It was a war of attrition,” he added. “One thing written on the board this week was, ‘Who is prepared to go the hardest for the longest?’ And I’m pleased that we hung in and found a way.”
“They score, we find some territory and they make a mistake and we capitalise on that mistake,” said Plumtree. “It was great work from Nick getting over the line, he’s a good young player coming through.
“I love those moments. You get a big game like this and you’ve got a good young player for the future who scores a crucial try, so well done to him. The forwards did a really good job off the bench today.”
FINAL SA SHIELD LOG
1. Hollywoodbets Sharks 19 points
2. DHL Stormers 18 points
3. Vodacom Bulls 17 points
4. Emirates Lions 10 points
URC Standings after all teams have played 12 games:
- Leinster 57 points
- Glasgow Warriors 44 points
- Vodacom Bulls 41 points
- Hollywoodbets Sharks 39 points
- Munster 33 points
- Cardiff Rugby 31 points
- Edinburgh 30 points
- Emirates Lions 29 points
- Connacht 29 points
- Scarlets 28 points
- Ospreys 28 points
- DHL Stormers 28 points
- Benetton 28 points
- Ulster 27 points
- Zebre 25 points
- Dragons 8 points.