Netted: Sharks forward Willem Alberts is tackled during the Currie Cup semifinal between the Sharks and Blue Bulls in October. The Sharks won 20-3
With the June international window having closed in South Africa and New Zealand, the focus returns to Super Rugby.
That’s not the case in Australia, where the British and Irish Lions have two more Tests to play against the Wallabies. The Lions tour has created large anomalies in Super Rugby, where the five Australian franchises have now all played two more games than their Sanzar partners.
It has given a lopsided look to the log, where the Bulls, who lead the South African conference, are apparently being pressed by the Reds in the overall standings because both teams have 54 points. In reality, however, the Bulls have two games in hand, against the Kings and the Sharks, and both will be played in Pretoria.
The Reds, in fact, have just one log game left, away to the Waratahs, and it is quite possible that they will not gain another log point. Nevertheless, the champions of 2011 look certain to make the play-offs, with just two teams having an outside chance to unseat them from the top six. Of those two, the Hurricanes can largely be discounted, since they would need bonus-point wins in all of their remaining games just to draw level with the Reds.
The Blues, currently eighth on the log with 43 points, offer a slightly more potent threat but they also need to win their last three games — against the Sharks, the Cheetahs and the Chiefs. That is probably asking too much, although it would be a brave pundit who wrote them off in Durban this week against a franchise that has spent much of the past three months shooting itself in the foot.
The nadir arrived on Tuesday when a meeting at Kings Park resulted in the end of the line for John Plumtree. The genial New Zealander has been involved with the Sharks for a decade, the past six years as head coach.
Under his guidance, the Sharks finished in the top six of the Super Rugby log every year bar 2010, with the loss to the Chiefs in the 2012 final the highlight. Plumtree’s sides won two Currie Cups and reached the final every year except 2009. During that time, the Sharks have been at the forefront of rugby teams in this country. Wherever they played, they were feared and respected because of the great players they could put on the park.
Young and gifted stars like Pat Lambie, Marcell Coetzee, Lwazi Mvovo and Pieter-Steph du Toit benefited hugely from Plumtree’s coaching. The structures he helped to put in place remain and it is surely pertinent that his two assistants, Grant Bashford and Hugh Reece-Edwards, have been put in charge for the last three log games in Super Rugby.
But the fallout from Tuesday’s meeting may continue for some time. The Sharks announced that they had concluded an agreement with Plumtree but refused to say what it was. Outgoing chief executive officer Brian van Zyl is said to have given a verbal assurance of a two-year extension of Plumtree’s contract earlier this year. It was Sam Goldwyn who said “verbal agreements aren’t worth the paper they’re written on” but it is likely in this case that the Sharks have done the decent thing.
Whether it will save the union from an ignominious slide remains to be seen. Several players have already signed for northern hemisphere clubs and no one would be surprised if the Du Plessis brothers, Jannie and Bismarck, do likewise. The rumour mill suggests that Brad MacLeod-Henderson will be in charge for the Currie Cup. If so, the former Sharks flanker had better prepare to blood a few youngsters and hope for the best, but expect the worst.
At least the Sharks can still call on inspirational captain Keegan Daniel this week while three of the other four franchises will be without their first-choice leaders. Jean de Villiers was patched up for Test duty but, with the Stormers out of the running for a play-off place, he has been diplomatically rested by coach Allister Coetzee. Elsewhere Kings captain Luke Watson is out for the rest of the season, as is Pierre Spies of the Bulls.
The two last-named teams have contrasting times ahead, something that may well be put into perspective when they meet at Loftus this weekend. The Bulls represent South Africa’s best chance of winning the tournament this year. They have a hard core of experienced Springboks to call on and have brought good youngsters into the mix in a shrewd manner during the course of log play. A strong finish could yet see them top the combined log ahead of the Chiefs and the Brumbies.
The Kings, on the other hand, are about to discover that the honeymoon is over. They finish against the Bulls, the Stormers and the Sharks, with only the middle game to be played in Port Elizabeth, and they will inevitably feature in the promotion/relegation match against the Golden Lions in late July. With the Lions having run into a bit of form while the Kings were cooling their heels in June, this fairy tale doesn’t look like ending happily ever after.