Newly appointed Hollywoodbets Sharks permanent head coach JP Pietersen spoke in a media interview with a Durban newspaper about his first meeting with the team after John Plumtree had moved aside to give him an opportunity to prove he was the man to take them forward.
Pietersen said that the first time he spoke to the team he asked the players to describe the team’s identity and culture and he was shocked when all that came back was silence.
“They could not answer me. That was a worry, but also a good sign because I had something to work with,” said Pietersen.
The former Springbok wing and long time Sharks stalwart, who was appointed to the permanent role this week after just over two months of a relatively successful stint as interim coach, wasn’t the first Sharks coach to have that experience.
From memory, Plumtree had exactly the same experience when he walked back into the Sharks team room two and a half seasons ago after a decade away.
Sean Everitt might well have said the same thing, for he certainly had a similar experience when he took over from Robert du Preez in 2019, and generally the apparent lack of identity and culture at the Sharks has been a talking point ever since 2013, which was when Plumtree’s first departure coincided with that of the long serving and successful CEO Brian van Zyl.
WHAT IS THE SHARKS’ IDENTITY?
Allow a confession: Even now, when listening to the 39-year-old Pietersen saying that the Sharks have always had their own culture and own identity and different way of playing, and having done a long interview with him myself back in September when he was still the Currie Cup coach, I am a bit non-plussed about what the Sharks’ supposed identity is.
Yes, the Sharks had the running identity built up in the 1960s under the coaching of the legendary Izak van Heerden, who died as long ago as 1973, and Ian McIntosh was the most successful Sharks coach of all time with what at the time was an innovative brand of rugby known as “direct rugby”.
But if the Sharks were to try and sell themselves now as the running franchise there’d be others, such as Saturday’s opponents in their 11th round Vodacom URC derby at Ellis Park, the Lions, who might rightly point out that over a period of time they’ve done that a lot better.
And ditto the DHL Stormers, who maybe overdo the talk of DNA but do have a clear identity and bring a lot of bling to their game when they get it right. And that has been the case with the Cape teams, be it the Stormers or Western Province, for many decades. The Toyota Cheetahs too.
The Sharks certainly did entertain in the year they played under Harry Viljoen (as Natal in 1993) and then the later years of McIntosh, when Andre Joubert, Henry Honiball, James Small and Pieter Muller were in their pomp and they had superb rangy No 8 Gary Teichmann, the powerful but also athletic lock Mark Andrews and the mobile loosehead Ollie le Roux in their mix.
They also did in the initial Plumtree years, meaning from 2008 and when he took over from the very attack orientated Dick Muir until he was sacked in 2013.
There were some stellar attacking players who were most firstly introduced by Muir such as Frans Steyn, Ruan Pienaar, Odwa Ndungane and…and here we stumble on what Pietersen might be referring to as the Sharks’ identity…the World Cup winning wing JP Pietersen.
JP IS LOOKING FOR THE STYLE HE PLAYED
Pietersen was still a teenager when he was first thrown into senior rugby but whether it was as a wing or occasionally as a fullback he had to sink or swim because there was a lot of emphasis on ball in hand rugby in those years.
I can remember Nick Mallett, in his role as Supersport analyst, dubbing Plumtree’s team “SA’s offload kings” during Plumtree’s finest season, which was 2012, when the Sharks travelled the world in the knock-out phases of Super Rugby, winning a quarterfinal in Brisbane and then a semifinal in Cape Town, before eventually the travel caught up with them and they came second to the Chiefs in the final in New Zealand.
That is most likely where Pietersen wants to take the Sharks, what he refers to as the pre-existing identity he has tried to inculcate in the team he is now in charge of. He has said you must always play to your strengths, and when you look at the current Sharks much of their strength is at the back where you find gifted Springboks like the regular skipper Andre Esterhuizen, Ethan Hooker, Aphelele Fassi, Edwill van der Merwe and Grant Williams.
SUMMER RUGBY MAKES IT HARDER TO FORGE A RUNNING IDENTITY
Indeed, when Plumtree returned after his 10 years spread between Ireland and New Zealand he was clearly looking at those strengths as he made it clear he wanted his team to play ball in hand attacking rugby.
That never quite worked out, partly because of another obstacle that Pietersen is well aware of - when Pietersen was playing and Plumtree was coaching the Super Rugby season only started in the last week of February and much of the Sharks’ season was played in the mild, temperate KZN winter, as it would have been in the McIntosh and Van Heerden years.
These days much of the season coincides with summer, which in Durban means humidity and a slippery ball. It is hard to forge a running identity when you are playing in those conditions and games usually tend to be stop start.
Plumtree discovered that, and he also found that he was biting off more than what he was expecting to have to chew thanks to a Sharks contracting model that made them the franchise with the most Boks. It meant he only had a skeleton squad to work with in pre-seasons, and no real pre-season with the top players.
There was also the fatigue element faced by Boks who effectively play rugby year round and it was he who came up with that memorable quote after his team lost to the Stormers in Cape Town in his first season - “The players are not robots”.
It wasn’t a coincidence that the Sharks won the two most recent games against the Stormers at the end of a period where the Stormers, because of their full commitment to the Investec Champions Cup, had mostly played with their full strength team, whereas the Sharks rested when the January Champions Cup games were played.
SHARKS SELECTION MAKES IT EASY FOR CASH TO MOTIVATE LIONS
And here is the rub for Pietersen when it comes to Saturday and what amounts to his first game in charge as permanent head coach - he’s having to rest the Boks, like his captain Esterhuizen and Hooker, who did so well against the Stormers and he has a team that looks more like the one that Plumtree was struggling with from late September through to November.
There has been an undeniable shift in attitude at the Sharks, the team, regardless of who pulls on the jersey, appears to be playing with more energy. There’s commitment, which equals cultural correction. The Sharks also played clever rugby against the Stormers without quite bringing through the attacking shape that for so long has been glaring for its absence.
The Johannesburg game is the start of a critical seven days for Pietersen, who will have to take his team back to altitude the following week to play the Vodacom Bulls in Pretoria. Is he resting his top players for that game?
Regardless of the answer to that question, his opposite number in the Lions set-up, Ivan van Rooyen, will be well within his rights to motivate his players for Saturday’s game by saying “See, the Sharks respect the Stormers and the Bulls, but they don’t respect you”.
HOSTS ARE A MUCH BETTER TEAM THAN BULLS RESULT REFLECTS
For the Sharks team does look very different to the one that beat the Stormers, and indeed the Bulls before Christmas. The Lions did get thumped by the Bulls last time out but everyone knows they are much better than that performance indicated, and the Sharks in particular should know that as they are the last team the Lions won against (in Durban on 3 January).
Selecting an under-strength team for a 2pm kick-off at altitude in summer against what should be a very hungry Lions side has given the Sharks a bit of a mountain to climb. The bookies had the Sharks as slight favourites earlier in the week, but that was before they would have seen the team that Vincent Tshituka will lead onto Ellis Park.
It’s going to be hard for the Sharks, but at the same time it might be the perfect opportunity for Pietersen - if this Sharks team can win then it will underlines the gains in both depth and culture that have been made since Pietersen took over the reins. In the corresponding game last year, when the Sharks were coming off a win over the Bulls in Pretoria, they selected an almost full strength team and were thumped by 40 points.
These next two games are crucial given the timing of the announcement of Pietersen’s annexation of the permanent role. The wins over the Stormers inspired confidence. Two defeats could see the Durbanites heading back towards square one. There’s a lot on the line both in Johannesburg and in Pretoria a week later.
Lions v Hollywoodbets Sharks (Johannesburg, Saturday 2pm)
Teams
Lions: TBA
Hollywoodbets Sharks: Aphelele Fassi, Edwill van der Merwe, Francois Venter, Jurenzo Julius, Jaco Williams, Siya Masuku, Jaden Hendrikse, Thomas Dyer, Vincent Tshituka (captain), Tino Mavesere, Jason Jenkins, Corne Rahl, Hanro Jacobs, Fez Mbatha, Phatu Ganyane.
Replacements: Eduan Swart, Cameron Dawson, Vincent Koch, Emile van Heerden, Phepsi Buthelezi, Ross Braude, Jordan Hendrikse, Yaw Penxe.