The Hollywoodbets Sharks appear to have the perfect plan in place in the buildup to their EPCR Challenge Cup semifinal against Clermont-Auvergne in London, but it probably won’t help the quest of their countrymen who have ambitions in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
On the face of it, Sharks coach John Plumtree faces a bit of a dilemma before his team’s historic first ever semifinal in a European competition. The Durban side has picked up impressive momentum with four successive wins spread across both the URC and the Challenge Cup.
Plumtree was always quite clear that the URC games before the Challenge Cup round of 16 clash with Zebre were about building momentum and confidence for the one competition where the Sharks remained in the hunt for silverware. Their chances of making the top eight, which signifies playoff and Champions Cup qualification, are gone, but beating Ulster and then Edinburgh in the URC did build confidence and erode the losing habit they’d fallen into.
The question is then - do they risk losing that winning habit now? Judging from what Plumtree has said since his team won 36-30 in the Challenge Cup quarterfinal against Edinburgh at Hollywoodbets Kings Park, he is prepared to do that by going understrength this week against Glasgow Warriors in their first tour match.
It makes perfect sense because the Sharks then have a game against Scarlets scheduled for a week later in Llanelli. And with that falling just a week before the Sharks play their “home” semi at the Stoop in London, the big artillery can travel to the UK a week after the other players and then set up base there for the two weeks building up to the playoff game.
EYE ON THE SEMIFINAL
“We’ve got a couple of big games before we get to the semifinals but certainly we will have our eye on the semifinal as we build our game in the meantime,” said Plumtree after the quarterfinal win.
“There’s probably going to be some changes next week, we’ve had a few guys who’ve had a big workload. So we will freshen up and then start our prep.”
In other words, the Sharks could be travelling to Glasgow this week without their Springboks, with the big guns set to join the team ahead of the Scarlets game as Plumtree prioritises the need for a fresh squad.
Why that is bad news for the two South African franchises looking for top-four positions, but particularly the Vodacom Bulls, who are in a duel with Glasgow for second spot, is that this was arguably a game where the Sharks could have hurt their rival team’s quest. Glasgow are currently second on the log, four points ahead of the third-placed Bulls.
The Warriors of course, as that table indicates, have been in excellent form and have grown a great deal under the coaching of Franco Smith so the Sharks would be hard-pressed to win even at full strength, but they might have had an outside chance. An under-strength Sharks team will be up against it in Glasgow.
It does make perfect sense though for the Sharks to take this route because the Challenge Cup is their only route into next season’s Champions Cup, and they desperately need to be part of the premier European competition. Plumtree is also right - his top team have played four consecutive tough games and the players need to be managed ahead of a game that he hopes will be the final stepping stone to a final at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 24 May.
'HAPPY FOR THE FANS'
“I’m just happy for the fans. They haven’t had a lot to cheer about but now they’ve got something to look forward to, and it’s us playing a semifinal in London,” said Plumtree.
“It’s a big stage against a quality French side, so that’s something for us to really build towards.
This was always going to be a tough challenge, playing Edinburgh again two weeks later, and I’m really proud of the coaches who’ve been working really hard.
“And the leaders too, the way they adjusted in the second half (after trailing at halftime), so I’m really pleased. We were turning the ball over and not playing well and we looked like our confidence was taking a bit of a bash, and we had to do quite a bit at the beginning. I think we had 38 per cent of the territory and 38 per cent possession.
“We had no ball, no territory so it was pretty much what we did to them last time out and they were now doing it to us, so we had to win the referee over by being more disciplined. And we needed to believe in ourselves so that we could tidy up some of our skill sets and also get improvement out of the backs and forwards in our quest to get on top of them.”
The Sharks succeeded in that quest and although there were only six points in it at the end, the visitors conflated their score with two late consolation tries in a game they never looked capable of winning once the home team had overturned the 16-14 halftime deficit and taken command of the game.
