On the evidence of the opening week of the two European competitions involving South Africa’s five teams, the Challenge Cup is very much a poor relation to the Champions Cup but for the Sharks this is a blessing in disguise.
I say this because, in the wake of the Sharks’ 45-10 defeat to the Bulls, a frustrated John Plumtree said his team had been proved to be further behind in their journey from embryo to adult than he had envisaged.
The Bulls are a team in their fourth year of growth under the experienced Jake White and they mercilessly exposed the Sharks for their immaturity as a team.
At the start of the season, Plumtree used the analogy of the coaching staff being parents to a newborn and he asked for patience as the infant is nurtured.
There are two primary values that Plumtree wants to instil over his three-year plan. Firstly, he wants to embed a team culture similar to the one that made the Sharks the Team of the 90s in South Africa. He wants to develop an attacking playing style that is not dissimilar to the way New Zealand teams play.
The season started with tough away games in the United Rugby Championship against Munster and Leinster. Five rounds later, the Sharks had suffered six defeats in seven games as growing pains set in.
That brought us to the weekend and what was most apparent is that the Challenge Cup that the Sharks, Lions, and Cheetahs are contesting is chalk to the cheese that is the Champions Cup.
The Saracens side that played the Bulls and the Leicester team that hosted the Stormers are on another planet to the struggling French teams that lost heavily to the Lions and Sharks, and Italy’s Zebre, who were well beaten by the Cheetahs.
This week the Sharks travel to Bloemfontein to play the Cheetahs, while the Stormers host the champions of Europe, La Rochelle. I’m not taking anything away from the Cheetahs but again the gulf in class is significant.
My point is that with the Sharks playing in the easier European competition, Plumtree has the wriggle room to work on the culture and playing style that are the twin foundations of the dynasty he wants to build.
Last week, Pau sent a weak side to Durban and that allowed the Sharks to recover from the Bulls game and put some building blocks in place.
And it is not as if all the teams in the Challenge Cup are muck.
The early game on Saturday saw the Cheetahs make a wonderful statement to SA Rugby by smashing a Zebre team in Parma that beat the Sharks a month ago on the same ground and then made a full-strength Stormers team sweat for their win in Stellenbosch.
This week’s game at the Free State Stadium (3pm kick-off) should be a cracker. Again, I am not disrespecting the Cheetahs but an away game in Bloemfontein for the Sharks has got to be easier than playing an away game in Europe against any of the Champions Cup sides.
The Cheetahs will aim to tear up the script but this weekend gives a Sharks team packed with Springboks a good chance to build on the big win over Pau.
IOL Sport