Hollywoodbets Sharks coach John Plumtree gave such good reasons for moving Springbok skipper Siya Kolisi to No 8 for Saturday’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship game against Munster that listeners should have been left wondering why it hasn’t happened before.
Kolisi has of course played off the back of the scrum before.
He played there for the Stormers and Western Province at the start of his career, and John Dobson played him there when his own Stormers stint as coach started with what became the ill-fated Covid interrupted 2020 season.
The memory is clear of Kolisi leading the Stormers to a comprehensive Super Rugby win over the highly rated Hurricanes, coached by Plumtree’s former coaching partner Jason Holland, at Newlands at the start of the first year of that World Cup cycle.
History reflects that fate intervened not just in the form of the pandemic but also a slew of injuries that forced Dobson’s hand, and then, after the Sharks’ current American owners had their overtures rejected by the WP union, they took Kolisi with them to the Sharks.
One of the players that was displaced by Kolisi’s arrival in Durban was James Venter, an ace traditional openside flank who was making big waves in a team coached by Sean Everitt that at the time Covid arrived was top of the Super Rugby log and in the games watched by restricted crowds that came after rugby resumed.
Everitt told the media he would always go for a ball scavenger mould No 6 as it suited his game-plan, but he was not to know then that the team’s owners were so keen to bring Kolisi to the Sharks that it over-road all other considerations.
Kolisi, although outstanding for the Boks at openside flank, was not of the traditional fetching mode, and was more of a carrier and when he did turn opposition ball over it was invariably through the counter-ruck route.
Judging from what he said at the team announcement press conference on Thursday, Plumtree’s decision to move Kolisi away from No 6 appears to have Venter’s valuable contributions during the recent Carling Currie Cup and early stages of the URC in mind.
The coach said that he had revisited the situation around the Sharks’ loose-forward stocks, and saw the value of having Kolisi and Venter, plus the fit again Vincent Tshituka, start in the same combination.
“I think there is a lot of potential there. They are three big, physical loose-forwards,” said Plumtree.
“I think playing at No 8 will free Siya’s running game and let him use his excellent off-loading skills. And often No 8s get opportunities to poach the ball because they can be the second arrival at the tackle.
“I am very interested to see how these three go (as a combination). We also have Emmanuel Tshituka and Phepsi Butheleze (both dropped this week, Tshituka from the match day squad and Buthelezi to the bench) playing well. They both stepped up last week, so there is nice pressure and competition building in that loose-forward area.”
From a combination point of view a partnership of Venter, Tshituka and Kolisi in the role Plumtree envisage him fulfilling certainly makes a lot of sense and will add an extra angle of interest to Saturday’s game against the 2022/2023 URC champions.
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'PERSONAL ISSUE'
Of course, Kolisi has been in the news for reasons away from rugby this week, and divorce is never a happy subject of conversation regardless of who it affects.
Understandably, Plumtree was treating it as a personal issue, but said what needed to be said, which was how the off-field situation that had developed might impact on Kolisi’s role as a rugby player.
“Siya is fine and he is looking forward to the weekend. He has trained well and he is looking forward to playing at No 8 for the first time since his days at the Stormers. His personal business has nothing to do with us. We have many players who occasionally need help with their personal lives and when they come to us we go deep into it to help them.
“It is a sensitive thing for Siya and it is best that we stay out of it, but we are here for him (if he needs us),” added the Sharks coach.