It had to happen - just two days after the Hollywoodbets Sharks brought a small shard of promise of better things in the future in an otherwise meaningless match, the Vodacom Bulls came up with the announcement that tempered the new wave of positivity.
The 46-7 win over Benetton in the penultimate match of the league phase of the Vodacom URC season was a dead rubber in the sense that it was between two teams out of the running for a top eight finish and playoff qualification.
There were eight tries and a pleasing sign of attacking shape that has been lacking for so long, something that may have been attributable to the flatter line of attack of the 18-year-old Zekethelu Siyaya, who was playing his first game at flyhalf.
Jurenzo Julius, who has been around a bit longer but is also a young player, thrived off that and contributed handsomely to the win with his hat-trick of tries.
Jaco Williams, one of last season’s Junior Boks, further built on the promising signs he showed when he was part of the Sharks’ high point of the season, which was the two wins over the DHL Stormers in mid-season, and someone like loose-forward Matt Ramao looks to have a bright future in the game.
BULLS SIGNINGS THROWS MAIN FAILING BACK INTO SPOTLIGHT
But when the Bulls announced on Monday that 19-year-old Luan Giliomee was among a clutch of new signings for next season, it immediately threw into the spotlight one of the Sharks’ major failings, something that was apparently highlighted in the recent audit that was conducted at Kings Park but which has yet to be acted on - recruitment.
Siyaya, who made the SA Schools team last year while at Westville Boys High, is of course a product of the Sharks’ schools system so there shouldn’t really be kudos to the recruitment department for his emergence.
It would have been seen as a big miss if, like was the case with Vernon Matongo, who is a Northwood old boy but is now doing well for the Stormers (currently injured), they had not recruited him.
Seeing as Giliomee is from Ceres there was some good initial work done in the talent spotting department in bringing him to Durban, only for him now to be heading to the Bulls. How did that happen?
If it was an isolated instance you could possibly turn a blind eye to it but it isn’t. Flanker Bartho Hlekani, who outside of Hashim Pead was probably the most impressive member of the Junior Bok winning team last year, was on the Sharks’ books when he played his part in last season’s Under-20 World Cup triumph.
Hlekani is now at the Fidelity SecureDrive Lions and is doing quite well there. Someone was clearly fast asleep at the Durban club to allow that to happen and given the way the Sharks’ eco-system works, which is a bit different to say the Stormers, where John Dobson is more hands on in recruitment, that brings the recruitment department into focus.
PRETORIA FRANCHISE BECOMING A SHARKS OLD BOY SOCIETY
Giliomee is not the only Sharks old boy on the list of the latest Bulls announcements. They’ve recruited wing Thaakir Abrahams from Munster. Before he spent his two seasons in Limerick, Abrahams was a Sharks player. And then there’s Curwin Bosch.
Yes, he had flaws in his game and hopefully his stint in France has toughened him up and he will be more inclined to defend than he was in his years in Durban, which were effectively all his post-school years (he was at school in Port Elizabeth).
In Bosch’s case the initial move to recruit him was justified but he was probably mismanaged by some of the Sharks coaches. As in he was arguably, given that he clearly still had so much to learn when it became to aspects of his game outside of his undoubted sublime kicking skills, pushed too early into senior rugby.
Gary Gold was the Sharks coach when he made his debut the year after he left school when maybe he’d have been better off learning to boss games playing with and against his contemporaries rather than playing against senior players. Not that it means Gold should be blamed for that, and maybe in time we will find out Siyaya, or for that matter Giliomee, was pushed too early.
Gold’s successor was Robert du Preez, who was accused of holding back Bosch’s development by backing his son, also Robert, ahead of him for so long and giving him so little chance to develop.
There may though have also been a misalignment around Bosch between the recruitment department and the coaching department, and now that he has signed for three years at the Bulls those of us who saw his promise writ large at the 2015 Craven Week in Stellenbosch will hope he finally confirms his potential by showing his France experience has made him more all rounded.
Another Sharks player who not long ago was being talked about as a star of the future and who was excelling in the Currie Cup, was young fullback Hakeem Kunene, will also be on the Bulls books from July.
Of course you can’t keep everyone and we shouldn’t forget that when he is fit, the Bok first choice fullback Aphelele Fassi wears the Sharks No 15 jersey.
And the number of marquee players on the Sharks’ books, even though they don’t get to play all the time because of their Bok commitments, may play a role in the outflow of younger players seeking playing opportunities elsewhere.
RECRUITING GOOD YOUNGSTERS IS MEANINGLESS IF RETENTION IS POOR
However the really good ones like Giliomee appears to be, and Sharks coach JP Pietersen must have thought so or he wouldn’t have blooded him so young, and Hlekani too, need to be kept in the system or there really is no point in putting them through the development process at the embryonic beginning of their career.
The strides that Pietersen has appeared to have made in bringing a youthful rejuvenation to the Sharks’ outlook, as was showcased to such telling effect against Benetton, will become meaningless if the people charged with recruitment aren’t on the ball - with retention being as important if not more so, because you spend money on every player you develop, than recruitment.
That the Sharks were playing only for pride against Benetton can be sourced in where this season really went pear-shaped for the Durbanites - in the weeks building up to it when the then coach John Plumtree only had eight fit players to work with in pre-season training.
The lack of science in the Sharks’ recruitment process was largely to blame for that. And poor retention is what undermines the creation of the depth necessary to be competitive across two fronts in Europe.