Durban - I well recall John Plumtree’s dismissal from the Sharks at the end of 2012. John Smit had just stepped out of the Saracens change room and into the CEO’S office and the first casualty of the changing of the guard was the head coach.
Unquestionably the dismissal could have been handled better – there was a story in the press at the time that former Bok coach Nick Mallett had been offered the job – but while Plumtree was clearly disappointed, he maintained his dignity and quietly left.
He had every right to throw his toys. A few months before he had taken the Sharks to a Super Rugby final (against the Chiefs in Hamilton). In 2008 he had broken a 12-year Currie Cup title drought for the Sharks and backed it up two years later.
Ten years on from being shown the Kings Park door, he walks through it once more and his second coming is being hailed as the start of the resurrection of the Sharks.
In between, Plumtree has soaked up rugby wisdom in roles with Ireland, the Hurricanes, and, latterly, the All Blacks. When he was asked on Thursday if he had changed, he grinned and said with understatement, “A lot!”
“I guess some folk will see my return as a backward step but how can it be when I am returning to my home from home to help rebuild a team, to pack the grandstand with fans by playing a uniquely Sharks brand of rugby, and, yes, to win trophies,” said the 57-year-old, who played 80 games on the flank for the late Ian Mcintosh’s great Natal team of the ’90s.
“In rugby coaching, it is not often you return to a former position but when I left the Sharks I didn’t burn any bridges, so I guess there’s a valuable lesson in that.”
On July 1, Plumtree takes the wheel of a Sharks ship that for some years now has had a pattern of plain sailing only to hit the doldrums. They played great rugby under Sean Everitt when South Africa was still in Super Rugby but they were never the same after the Covid-19 lockdown.
When lockdown ended there was also financial relief in the form of New York’s MVM Holdings plus a raft of marquee Springboks.
There are close observers of the Sharks who believe this has been a curse and that the team culture has suffered. They say that a chequebook cannot buy success and a team of mercenaries is just that – hired guns who only occasionally fire in unison.
The old-school Plumtree would probably agree with that and his way of seeing it is to first establish a tight team culture and then it doesn’t matter who you add to it.
“There’s a lot that needs to be done before we start playing rugby next season and thankfully we have a nice long pre-season (before the next URC begins),” Plumtree said. “I want to tweak the environment and put systems in place that allow us to flourish and grow.
“Success is all about the environment you create. If we create the right environment, players won’t want to leave and others will want to come. That is how it used to be at the Sharks. You will see players who are proud to wear the jersey and who understand the history of it.”
If it is going to be that way once more in the Shark Tank, the coach has to have director of rugby Neil Powell, CEO Ed Coetzee and MVM’S Marco Masotti all on the Plumtree page.
“I have had discussions with Marco. I love his vision for the franchise. He is very passionate about the Sharks and that gets me excited to be involved again.
“Marco, Ed Coetzee and Neil Powell all want to win and I’m no different. I’m returning to Durban to win. I want to win trophies. I want the stadium to be full of fans that are excited about the brand of rugby we are playing.
“Hollywoodbets Kings Park has always been a tough place to visit and win. I’d like to help make it a fortress again.”
For all of Plumtree’s experience with the excellence of the Ireland national team (he was an assistant to Joe Schmidt) and the All Blacks, he says there will be no “copy and paste”.
“There is a style of rugby that suits the Sharks and nobody else. We are not going to copy off the Hurricanes or the Boks or whoever, we will play what suits us,” Plumtree stresses. “The one thing that is non-negotiable is the intensity with which you play, the rest is about cutting a suit according to our cloth.”
In other words, you play to the strengths of your personnel. The Sharks currently tick all the boxes to be a successful team. They have a powerful tight five that includes players who can handle the ball (think Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Eben Etzebeth and Ntuthuko Mchunu); they have lively loose forwards (Vincent Tshituka, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Dylan Richardson, Phepsi Buthelezi); and lethal attackers at the back in the likes of Jaden Hendrikse, Grant Williams, Aphelele Fassi, Lukhanyo Am, Rohan Janse van Rensburg and Makazole Mapimpi.
What they don’t have is a world-class flyhalf. I can’t see the Sharks winning trophies with their current flyhalves, the best of which is an erratic Curwin Bosch.
Powell will know exactly what the strengths and weaknesses are in the squad after having been thrown into the head coach role after the poorly timed sacking of Everitt, mid-season.
With Plumtree now on board, Powell can retreat to the background and do what he did so well at the Blitzboks – set up winning structures and ensure the players have everything they need to succeed.
My opinion is that Powell supporting Plumtree, underpinned by US dollars spent wisely, is a rugby marriage made in heaven.
@IOLsport