The Hollywoodbets Sharks go into recess this week as the Vodacom URC breaks for the international window, but it is understood that it is going to be a critical period of the field for the Durban franchise with changes set to be made to the management team.
Although his team won 29-19 against Scarlets and picked up a full house of log points to bring a bit of stability to their challenge, Sharks coach John Plumtree did not look like a happy camper when he arrived at the post-match press conference at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.
While it was a winning performance, it was clear his team still hasn’t gelled and he said so: “We still look a little bit like a side that hasn’t fully gelled. We’re not totally collective at the moment.”
After only having his Springboks back, and they make up the core of his team, for three days before the previous week’s loss against Ulster, the week together before the Scarlets game did lead to an incremental improvement. But it was only marginal, for while there was some attacking shape in the first half, they appeared to lose it again in the second.
Plumtree acknowledges the problem, and says it will take time to fix. The challenge he faces is that after getting his Boks back for two games, they are unlikely to be on duty against Connacht in the next game in Galway on 29 November as the national team plays Wales in Cardiff in an outside the international window game that day.
“We’ll have to prepare for Connacht without the Boks, and use them only if they’re available and lightly raced. This time of year up north can be tough so we’ll see how each individual copes,” Plumtree said.
A CHANCE FOR A RARE ‘MINI’ PRE-SEASON
However, this may be a time when, for once, Plumtree can do without his Boks as the selection of the latest Bok squad and the imminent return from injury of a few stalwart players in the coming weeks means he will have something he didn’t have in the pre-season - sufficient numbers at training.
“We’re getting Jason Jenkins back, we’re getting Emile van Heerden back, we have a few experienced players who were not selected for the Bok tour, so this is an opportunity over the next five weeks to get the work in that we need to on our game,” said the coach.
Just which coaches will be overseeing the buildup to the Connacht game though is a matter of speculation, and Monday is going to be a big day for the Sharks as a meeting is scheduled for staff members who have been told to report to work with written explanations of what exactly it is they do at the union/franchise.
That applies apparently to assistant coaches and other backroom staff, it is not known if it applies to the head coach.
What is clear is that changes will be made, with the director of rugby Neil Powell having reported back to the coaching group last Monday that changes would be made to the management.
Whether that means it is Plumtree’s career at the Sharks that is on the rocks or a shake-up to the assistants, or perhaps even a change to Powell’s designation and a revamp of the contracting department, something which many who are close to the Sharks feel is necessary, we will only know as the situation unfolds in the coming days.
The name of Brendan Venter, who coached the Sharks for a few months when Plumtree was axed by the then CEO John Smit in 2013, has been circulated for a role somewhere in the system. Venter has always been reluctant to take on a head coaching role as he has a medical practice in the Western Cape and it will be interesting to see if that has changed.
EGO-CONTRACTING CREATES A TOUGH CHALLENGE FOR ANY COACH
Whatever the case, a new coach would have a tough task as the core of the Sharks’ problem is the ego-contracting that the American consortium embarked on when they first arrived as equity partners.
Having too many current Springboks on your books at a time when they are committed to a 12 month season but have no pre-season with their franchise coach is not the advantage it used to be in the Super Rugby era, when there was no overlap between franchise and international rugby.
The problem of gelling what effectively at the Sharks is two distinctly different teams, with the players who work together during the pre-season months and in the early parts of the season having to be reintroduced to the Boks when they return, was evident long before Plumtree arrived and was effectively what cost one of his predecessors, Sean Everitt, his job.
Everitt had no hand in contracting and, after starting out on a building phase with a young team, was suddenly landed with a team of marquee players, some of whom did not fit his playing template.
But if you have big names on your books who are paid millions you have to play them, and it broke down the culture that Everitt had been building and there is a science to contracting that people who don’t have a proper feel for the sport are perhaps oblivious to.
As so often happens in professional sport it is the poor management and poor decisions of the people who now get to decide on Plumtree’s future that have effectively led to the failures that they are trying to address.
PLUMTREE SHOULD HAVE TAKEN JOB ON HIS TERMS
One of the knee-jerk reactions to defeat of previous Sharks CEO Eduard Coetzee was to create the director of rugby position to oversee Everitt, but it has led to a fudging of leadership roles that led Victor Matfield recently to ask who is actually in charge at the Sharks.
My dealings with Powell have only been on the subject of youth rugby and the pipeline of talent, and that appears to be working well at present, and there’s been no cross-over into any other lanes. But maybe more clarity is needed on who does what. If his jurisdiction is youth rugby, why do we frequently see Powell in the coaching box when the senior team plays?
Plumtree’s biggest error when he agreed to take the Sharks job was to not insist on doing it on his own terms, meaning that he be the sole leader and also that he get to appoint his assistants. Perhaps that would be the wise way forward for the Sharks now - tell Plumtree he is the leader, he makes all the decisions from now on and only him, and if that doesn’t cut it then he’s out the door.
But there has been way too much turnover of coaches at the Sharks over the past 12 years for the failures at the union to all be the coaches fault so hopefully this week we are not going to see another repeat, with the real more deep rooted problems at the franchise once again being ignored.
There it is ✅
— The Sharks (@SharksRugby) October 25, 2025
BP win at the Tank.@Vodacom #URC #SHAvSCA pic.twitter.com/W9eihCejR5
