Hollywoodbets Sharks head coach John Plumtree is to leave that role after the Investec Champions Cup game against Toulouse on Sunday to do something that he already sounds very passionate about - help JP Pietersen become a successful replacement.
In a Zoom interview with supersport.com and the IOL’s Mike Greenaway a few hours ahead of the official announcement, Plumtree already appeared to be fitting seamlessly into his new role as, as he put it, the person who can help Pietersen pump air into his tyres by operating as a mentor in the background Pietersen starts out on a coaching stint that Plumtree feels will be a very successful one.
“The big picture really is that I want a Sharks man in charge in the future, it is something I am passionate about, and if we can make this work, and it becomes a successful venture, then we’ve done that,” said Plumtree from Toulouse.
“When the decision was made back in October, after the Scarlets game, that there will be restructuring, it got me thinking about what is good for the Sharks. I think JP is an excellent coach with huge potential, and with the right mentorship around him, I think he could thrive. So it makes sense for us to try this now, get JP into position and let him start now.
“It means there are six months for us to find out if JP is the right fit. If he does well, he can continue in the role. I feel like if we are going to do this, we need to do this properly.
"You guys know how hard I have worked for the Sharks for the past two and a half years. I know the support structure around the head coach needs to be very, very good. Without that, it is a really tough job.
“So I am going to be really, really passionate in helping grow JP as a coach, because I know what’s required. That’s part of the projected improvement going forward,” he added.
PIETERSEN ISN’T TOO YOUNG - HE’s THE RIGHT AGE
Pietersen is just 39, but Plumtree started his coaching career just after his playing career ended in his early 30s. Nick Mallett was a Springbok assistant coach at the age of 39 and was appointed to the Bok job when he was 40.
Another former Bok coach, Harry Viljoen, was in his early 30s when he first started making waves as a head coach at senior level, and ditto current France coach Fabien Galthie.
“I think JP has some really good attributes for a future Sharks head coach. But he will need help, and let’s face it that would also be the case if we had a 50 year old experienced coach coming in,” Plumtree said.
“I think one of JP’s biggest attributes is the way he connects with both the youngest player in the team and the oldest player in the team. He relates to all race groups, cultures and language groups and he has a beautiful way of doing that and putting his message across that is quite unique.
“A lot of coaches are quite insular. They sit there with their laptops, they have their whistles around their necks, and that is where they shine. But you also get coaches who are really good with the boys and know how to get them to shine.
"They get to be successful because they know how to get the best out of everyone they work with because they let them know they believe in them.
“JP had a long playing career and the number of coaches he worked under may play a big role in how good he himself can be as a coach. When he was a youngster he came through as a 19-year-old under the coaching of Dick Muir, who is a very different type of coach to Jake White, who he played for at the Springboks a few years later.
“In his time playing overseas he would have been exposed to the styles of guys like Robbie Deans (former Crusaders Super Rugby winning coach), who he played for in Japan. He has a mix of coaching different styles that he has been exposed to and he is now applying a mix of what he has observed and learnt to his coaching.
“JP may not have been like Rassie Erasmus when he was a player, in the sense that everyone in the team knew he’d go on to be a coach, but then when I was playing for Natal under the coaching of Ian McIntosh I doubt very much that Mac would have said we would be future coaches. We were the naughtiest guys in the team,” laughed the outgoing coach.
STEPPING ASIDE, NOT AWAY
While he may be the outgoing coach, Plumtree explained that he is stepping aside, he is not stepping down or stepping out.
“I will still be playing an important role and I think it is important for JP to have someone with him on the initial part of this journey. It is something I think previous Sharks coaches might have appreciated as it is not an easy job. What is important to stress though that JP won’t be doing things my way. He has to do things his way, I have told him that. I think that is crucially important.”
Plumtree said that the personal reasons that helped his decision, apart from his feeling that Pietersen’s elevation to the head coaching role had to be as soon as possible if it was to have any chance of success, was the strain that he has been under over a period of time and which he believes has made him a lesser version of himself.
“My battery has been drained, and you guys know me well enough, you may have noticed that,” said Plumtree.
“Certainly I have had some other people say to me ‘God, you are not right’. And when you are a hard man and have been brought up to be tough, like we all were in our generation, then we slip that (our vulnerabilities) into the back and don’t really face them.
"So people would ask me ‘How are you doing?’ And I would say, yeah, I am doing alright, just head down and plough on kind of thing. You don’t really think about it.
“But now I have had an opportunity to think about it, over the break for international rugby, and I started to think to myself am I the best John Plumtree for my wife, am I the best John Plumtree to my kids? Am I the best John Plumtree for my team? And you know, based on what I have been through, maybe I am not what I should be, the best version of myself.
“So I started thinking maybe it’s time for me to go okay, how can I become that guy again. And stepping aside might give me that reboot that I need where I can help someone else.”
DOESN’T WANT NEW COACH TO EXPERIENCE WHAT HE WENT THROUGH
Plumtree was axed as All Black assistant coach a few years ago, something that would not have been easy given how much scrutiny there is on the personalities in that rugby mad country, and that would have added to the scarring that all coaches who have been around in the game for a long time would have experienced.
“I don’t want anyone to experience what I went through and I definitely don’t want JP to experience that so I will be there whenever he needs me and I think knowing that I will be able to play a background role, which I won’t go into in detail now, in order to help him, made it easier for him to accept the job.
“Look, everyone knows how tough this job is, and there are some tough times ahead. It is not a job everyone in the coaching world would jump at as we know there are challenges, such as haing a large squad of Bok players and the resting protocols that come with that.
"But JP is confident and that’s one of his strengths and I was quite pleased that when we met to discuss the plan (Pietersen, Plumtree and Sharks owner Marco Massotti) he was keen to take it on.”
JP AND PLUM IN TANDEM IN TOULOUSE
All of the Sharks assistant coaches have been sent home to work with the first choice squad that is preparing for next week’s home Champions Cup game against Saracens, but Pietersen, who Plumtree took on tour as he wanted to observe him close hand before making his decision, is with the team in Toulouse.
“I will be in the coaching box and JP will be down next to the field, from next week it will be JP in the coaching box,” said Plumtree.
The Sharks are going in with a young team so the top guns can prepare at home for the Saracens game so it could be a heavy defeat the Sharks are facing on Sunday, but Pietersen does have some experience when it comes to dealing with the brickbats of the Sharks job.
He has been the Sharks XV Currie Cup coach for the past two seasons and in both campaigns the Sharks started slowly and copped plenty of criticism, particularly this last domestic season when they got thrashed by the Bulls at Loftus.
Both times Pietersen showed his leadership skills by guiding a young, inexperienced team to a recovery that last year led to them winning the Currie Cup title.
They didn’t get that far this year, when the Sharks team was far less experienced than the previous one, but by the end of the campaign the Sharks had a team culture that saw them come from behind to win some games, most notably the one against Boland Kavaliers in Pietermaritzburg.
He will be a new voice for the Sharks senior players, but as Plumtree says, a new voice can be good, and sometimes needed, and as a recent Bok himself the former wing will understand the star players he will be working with, as well as the challenges faced by young players, for he was himself only a teenager when he first played senior rugby.
Most important of all, he will have the security of knowing he has one of the most experienced coaching heads in the game to consult when he needs to do so.