TALKING POINT: What coach JP is getting right at the Sharks

Phepsi Buthelezi. Have you heard of him? A few weeks ago you might have forgotten about him, he was one of the fringe Springboks tried by Rassie Erasmus who never quite broke through. Or so it seemed. Now? Well, over the past two weekends he’s had international class stamped all over him.

We could go further when trying to assess why the Hollywoodbets Sharks are suddenly looking like the team that the names on their team sheet should dictate they always should be.

For a start, Jordan Hendrikse. The man brought down from Johannesburg to be the answer to the Sharks’ seemingly perennial problems at flyhalf is suddenly looking the business.

Jordan teamed up with brother Jaden as a halfback pairing that played a big role in ensuring the tide went in the Sharks’ favour when they visited Cape Town for their 30-19 Vodacom URC win.

He was as composed and in charge when outside the returning Springbok scrumhalf Grant Williams when the Sharks recovered from a 10 point deficit early in the second half to win 36-24 against the same DHL Stormers opponents a week later.

Admittedly Hendrikse was injured in the early part of the season, but now that he is fit again he’s been backed by Pietersen as the coach said he would, to be the go too man at pivot and he is paying off that faith.

Being backed may not explain why Buthelezi is playing so well, as he always was backed, but clearly there’s been some kind of rejuvenation in the former national age-group captain.

THE PROBLEMS OF EARLIER IN THE SEASON WERE UNDERSTANDABLE

Which counts for the Sharks team in general. There are several theories that can be forwarded, but firstly let’s look at what might be different right now to a previous part of the season when the Sharks just appeared to have no energy and everything seemed a struggle.

For the reality is it WAS a different part of the season, and it was perhaps understandable if both cohesion and energy was in short supply.

An indication of the Sharks’ thinking going into the back to back coastal derbies against the Stormers was provided by their CEO Shaun Bryans the week before the Cape Town game. Bryans, who lives in Cape Town, was at the Stormers/Leicester Tigers Investec Champions Cup game as a spectator when myself and a colleague bumped into him at halftime.

When he was reminded that last year’s DHL Stadium game between the Stormers and the Sharks led to some crippling injuries for the visitors, with Aphelele Fassi and Andre Esterhuizen both being ruled out of rugby for several weeks after that game, he pointed out a difference.

He told us that whereas last year the Boks had come back from tour and been pressed into non-stop action, this time around they had been given some rest and would be arriving in Cape Town a lot more refreshed and energetic than they had for the corresponding game the previous year, which was played in early January.

And he was right. Some eyebrows were raised when the Sharks went under-strength to Manchester for their third round Investec Champions Cup game against Sale Sharks. It didn’t feel completely necessary, as there was a proper seven day turnaround between that fixture and the final Champions Cup game against Clermont-Auvergne at home.

It felt like the Sharks were sacrificing their chance to make it into the Champions Cup round of 16, and that was proved correct. But when they went understrength again for that Durban game, what became clear was they never had any intention of trying to get out of the pool phase of the European competition.

By resting the likes of Ethan Hooker, skipper Andre Esterhuizen, Grant Williams, Siya Kolisi and others the Sharks were making it clear the top guns were being rested for the two games against the Stormers. Those two games always loomed as an opportunity for the Sharks to turn their season around, to make a statement.

RIVALS IN COASTAL DERBIES WERE AT DIFFERENT JUNCTURES OF THEIR CAMPAIGNS

One thing that may have been overlooked in all the analysis of the two coastal derbies is that in some senses the two teams were at completely different junctures in their respective campaigns.

The Stormers had gone full strength in all their games since returning to South Africa from their overseas win over Bayonne in the opening round of the Champions Cup to play La Rochelle, with the exception of their away trip to Harlequins, where some of the top players still did play (Ben-Jason Dixon, Damian Willemse, Ruben van Heerden, Marcel Theunissen and others).

For the Stormers the two Sharks games were the final part of a phase that had started with the win over Munster in Limerick in late November, with the Christmas week really being their only break in that time.

For the Sharks, the Cape Town trip and then the return game in Durban was a chance to kick start their season and they were also going in at 14th on the log. Which meant the Sharks took in a level of desperation that was a different kind of pressure to that faced by the log leading Stormers.

In some ways, what happened in the two games shouldn’t have been that surprising. It was clever of the Sharks to target the Stormers games like they clearly did, and if their coach played a leading role in that decision, which he must have done, then that is one of several things he has got right.

MORE CONTINUITY BETWEEN TEAMS

What he has also got right is the attempt he appears to be making to be creating more continuity between the different Sharks teams. By different Sharks teams the reference is to the team the Sharks field when the Boks are back and the team they field when they are not.

In the Clermont game, where the Sharks scored 50 points and produced what up to then was the performance of the season, the Sharks had a few players back but were mainly second string, but when they went to Cape Town they retained elements of the side that had won the final Champions Cup game.

It will be recalled that Ox Nche and Kolisi played off the bench in the first game against the Stormers, as did Vincent Tshituka, and Nick Hatton, who played a key leadership role under Pietersen in two Currie Cup campaigns where the Sharks XV started poorly and then corrected, was backed to start at the DHL Stadium. As was young Jaco Williams.

There does seem to be a greater continuity or flow between the Sharks teams than was the case previously, with the selection net being spread wider and Pietersen appears to be braver in his selections than his predecessor John Plumtree was, but here some context is maybe necessary.

When Plumtree was head coach that was his role, if he lost the job he was out, he was always looking over his shoulder and playing for his survival. For Pietersen there is a more positive kind of pressure in being appointed as an interim coach, in the sense that he knows if what he tries doesn’t work out, he still goes back to the job he held down before his appointment in the interim role. He went in with nothing to lose. Even if he fails now, he is young so his time might come again.

PLUMTREE’S DECISION HIT BULLS EYE

Plumtree’s decision to move aside, which was based on him rating Pietersen as a coach (which he long ago said in private conversation so it wasn’t just show) and knowing he could thrive if given a chance, was a big move on his part. It has proved the right one. In turn Pietersen, by backing Esterhuizen as his captain and including Hatton, the Currie Cup captain and a highly promising player, in the mix, has also got it spot on.

As mentioned earlier, Esterhuizen was injured for a significant part of the second portion of last season, so Plumtree didn’t have the option of choosing him as a leader then. But when Esterhuizen is present, he has been a consistent performer and the man the rest of the team galvanises around.

He’s also a long time Sharks man and has been present through enough different eras, starting out under Jake White way back in 2014, for him to have an intimate understanding of what it is to be a Sharks player and wear the jersey.

To use an old cliche, his heart bleeds for the jersey, maybe more so than players who were brought in after global successes from rival franchises.

I can recall writing sometime during the period when the Sharks were battling that maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that the best players, the ones that appeared to be the most committed, were Esterhuizen, who had been a Shark at age-group level, and Hooker, who was at school in the province.

You can now add to that the man who appears to be the alternative Sharks leader, Hatton, who was schooled at Hilton and was born in Durban.

PLAYERS APPEAR TO BE RESPONDING TO TRAINING ADJUSTMENTS

You would have to go to Sharks training sessions to confirm it, but there have also been indications at Sharks online press conferences that Pietersen has also made fundamental changes to the way the Sharks train.

He wasn’t the only one to say it, but let’s draw on a quote last week from skipper Esterhuizen to illustrate what is being suggested: “We are training differently. When you train differently, you play differently”.

The Sharks still lack attacking shape, but there is a greater level of organisation to their game, and the clinical aspect that Pietersen lauded from both games against the Stormers, where they were “brutal” in capitalising on their scoring opportunities may be the product of smarter training on the practice field.

That is not to denigrate Plumtree, who to be fair would have been looking forward to this stage of the season - when he started with a small squad because the Boks were overseas it was always likely the Sharks would struggle but once the Boks were back and had time to be absorbed back into the system and build cohesion, an upswing in form was always likely.

PLUMTREE STILL HAS A ROLE TO PLAY

But it is undeniable that Pietersen has also brought the “new voice” that Plumtree felt might work for the Sharks’ benefit, and he has made astute and brave decisions that have now given the team some much needed winning momentum. It is understood that Pietersen will be announced as the permanent coach in mid-February, which will give Plumtree what he wanted - a Sharks man in charge of the team going forward.

Hopefully Plumtree will be repaid by having his almost unrivalled experience as a coach, which started at Swansea in the previous century, retained in an important role within the Sharks’ system.

It doesn’t appear his intended advisory role is being fulfilled now, probably because the Sharks review process is working towards creating a structure that will bring more clarity about who fits where, but his IP must be retained and when the bad times come, as inevitably they will, Pietersen may well find he will be thankful for having the Kiwi as a sounding board. It’s not during the good times that you face your true test and right now the good times are starting to roll for Pietersen and his Sharks.