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Sharks ready for a first Super Rugby title?
Of all the teams to catch the eye at the beginning of the 2020 Super Rugby season, perhaps none have exceeded expectations as much as the Sharks.
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The Durban-based franchise have never won the competition, although they came close in 1996, 2001, 2007 and 2012, ending up as losing finalists on all four of those occasions. For the most part, they have been a side that has been competitive at the latter stages of the tournament, as well as one of the standard bearers for South African rugby.
Given the exodus of players to Europe and Japan from the country, however, as well as the rise of the Lions in recent seasons, the Sharks’ fortunes have diminished of late. Despite qualifying for the quarter-finals in 2019, the exodus was unrelenting, as the franchise bid farewell to the likes of Tendai Mtawarira, Coenie Oosthuizen, Akker van der Merwe and the three du Preez brothers, among plenty of others.
Heading into it, the 2020 season had a significant element of rejuvenation for the Sharks, not only for the considerable turnover in personnel, but also the volume of talented prospects their pathway had involved in the South African U20 side last year. Between integrating the youngsters, settling in the new arrivals and dealing with the losses of experienced players, optimism around the Sharks’ title hopes this year was cautious at best.
That said, the Sharks, now under new head coach Sean Everitt, have made an excellent start to the campaign. They recorded a 23-15 win over the Bulls in their opener, a crucial match in helping them take dominance in the South African conference, before heading over to Dunedin and making the Highlanders look extremely poor in a 42-20 victory at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
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Watch: Sean Everitt and Lukhanyo Am face the media before the season
They now head to Wellington to take on the Hurricanes, before finishing their tour in Australia with games against the Rebels and Reds. On current form, the Sharks may well be disappointed if they do not record at least two wins from those final three tour games.
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Their back three of Aphelele Fassi, Sbu Nkosi and Makazole Mapimpi is flying, the centre combination of Andre Esterhuizen and Lukhanyo Am complements its component parts and Curwin Bosch continues to establish himself as an option for the Springboks at fly-half. Up front, Ox Nche and Thomas du Toit look comfortable as starting props and Ruben van Heerden, Sikhumbuzo Notshe and James Venter are giving Everitt plenty of punch further back in his pack. Of that group, Mapimpi is the oldest at 29, whilst the others are all 26 years of age or younger, with plenty of development still to come.
With those ‘veterans’ – relative to the general level of top level experience now in South African Super Rugby squads – stepping up and creating a winning environment at the franchise, Everitt and the Sharks have the perfect foundation from which to start integrating and blooding their remarkably talented crop of youngsters.
Jones has certainly moved to address the weaknesses that his side showed in their tournament opener and has gone a significant way to dispelling notions of his stubbornness.
That said, some wider issues remain – writes @alexshawsport ??????? #SCOvENG https://t.co/p5xvHUM8aS
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 6, 2020
The scrum-half pairing of Sanele Nohamba and Jaden Hendrikse seem to be first up, with Nohamba having already made his mark in the opening two games of the season. With the pack going well and providing a platform, the jobs of these two gifted half-backs are made a whole lot easier. They’ll jockey with one another for position over the course of the season, although as stands Nohamba is the favoured man.
Into the back row and the Sharks can call on Phepsi Buthelezi, the South Africa U20 captain from last year, and Celimpilo Gumede, who has another year of U20 eligibility still available to him. Buthelezi made his Super Rugby debut last year and will likely get first crack at a spot in the 23 this season due to his experience and leadership qualities, though Gumede is not far behind him purely as a rugby player, and both are blessed with work rate, technical skill and dynamism.
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There are other players to keep an eye on, too, such as Dylan Richardson, JJ van der Mescht – assuming he doesn’t soon head to France as has been rumoured – and Emile van Heerden, all of whom starred at the U20 level for the Junior Springboks last year. Former South Africa U20 captain Jeremy Ward waits in the wings for his opportunity, as does Madosh Tambwe, Michael Kumbirai and Fez Mbatha, in what has been an under the radar but excellently orchestrated rebuild of the Sharks senior side.
Is the experiment coming to Sale any time soon?https://t.co/RUpECAksdE
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 5, 2020
They are far from the finished article, but if a side is winning games, successfully bringing through young stars, recruiting intelligently without breaking the bank and managing to accomplish all of those whilst dealing with annual exoduses to Europe and Japan, then something is going very right in Durban at the moment.
The story of last season was the Jaguares’ rise to prominence and march to the Super Rugby final. Maybe this season it will be the continuing evolution of a young and exciting Sharks side that seems to be prospering in the adversity faced by South African franchises in the competition.
Watch: Crusaders star Sevu Reece extends his contract with the franchise
Comments on RugbyPass
Did the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
1 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
4 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
16 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
16 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
4 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
16 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
16 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to comments