Coach John Plumtree would have been ticking boxes long into the night because of the wealth of intelligence he got out of the game. Still, the big positive that would have had him sleeping sweetly is the confirmation that he finally has the right culture in place at the Sharks 18 months after he started his second tenure in Durban.
The Sharks fought with enormous grit to make it through the Currie final after getting through on a positive try differential after the game ended 40-40 at the end of extra time.
At one point late in the game the Sharks were down to 12 men but they refused to give in. It was a strange sight to see a depleted Sharks team force the Bulls into squandering a feast of try-scoring opportunities how former Bulls lineout king Victor Matfield — a commentator at the game— must have cringed as the Bulls lineout imploded in the last quarter.
All they had to do was win their ball and with a three-man advantage they would have been able to walk in tries but the Sharks veteran Gerbrandt Grobler showed wile and skill to poach throw after throw.
The Bulls could not convert and regular time finished at 33-33. The Bulls thought they had nailed it when wing Stravino Jacobs scored in the first half of extra time but it isn’t over until the fat man sings… With two minutes to go, the rotund Trevor Nyakane found himself in space out wide and his dream of selling a dummy to a backline centre came off and rumbled through the defence to score what would be the match-winning try.
Lionel Cronje’s conversion made it 40-40 but there was one last drama to unfold. Grobler, who had been so good for the Sharks collided with Jacobs at the restart and Boeta Chamberlain had a penalty to win the game.
Sadly for Chamberlain, the lack of Big Game Temperament that resulted in his exit from the Sharks struck once more. He missed and his former team went through to the final because they had scored more tries than the Bulls in the competition.
Regardless of the result, the Sharks take an enormous amount of this game.
They have unashamedly used the domestic tournament to blood young pretenders while not giving them the same recognition as the players who play as full-blooded Sharks in the United Rugby Championship and beyond.
The clue is the name of the side “the Sharks XV” and it harkens back to the day of the Vodacom Cup when the Sharks called their team “The Wildebeest” while other unions gave their players full caps.
And for the closing stages of the Currie Cup, the Sharks switched to URC preparation mode, with coach John Plumtree taking over from JP Pietersen and Plumtree last week saying this semi-final was a “pre-season game and a solid hit-out.”
The big Kiwi got everything he could want out of the game. A host of senior players he had brought back from the mandatory eight-week break from active rugby got the best possible game time — the intensity of knock-out rugby against a top-quality team.
Plumtree also gained significant intelligence on up-and-comers that he knew had potential but he wanted to see more.
For instance, circumstance had forced him to pick rising star Ethan Hooker out of position on the wing, Hooker has been a revelation at centre but injuries at wing meant he had a try-out in an unfamiliar position.
Hooker was excellent and his explosive runs brought back memories of Clyde Rathbone, the Durbanite who had a stand-out career with the Wallabies.
His fellow wing, Eduan Keyter was also impressive and each time the back three of Jordan Hendrikse, Hooker and Keyter got the ball in space, there was danger.
Lock Emile van Heerden was another to impress with his high work rate. It was his determined charge down of a Keagan Johannes clearance that resulted in the Sharks’ first try.
The captain for the day, Vincent Tshituka, was a revelation as he worked industriously all over the field in exhorting his charges to fight the good fight.