How Plumtree has kept Sharks stars motivated despite tough run of results

Sharks coach John Plumtree has revealed how he has kept his players motivated despite the tough run of results for the side this season.    

After eight games in the United Rugby Championship (URC), the Sharks are rooted at the foot of the table.    

Plumtree’s men have also made a lukewarm start to the Challenge Cup with a win and a draw from their two outings so far.    

The Sharks, who host the Lions in a URC game at Kings Park Stadium in Durban on Saturday (5pm), have managed just a single win and seven defeats.    

“When you are winning, you are always looking for ways to challenge the team and to keep them on the edge of their seats,” said Plumtree, who took over the reins at the beginning of the season.    

“But when you are losing, you keep driving them to be better and encouraging them that they are not far away, and you are mixing that up with some fun in our environment.    

“We make sure that we are creating a little bit of fun together and that there are smiles on faces around our environment and that we are giving hope every week,” he said.    

“I think once you lose all of that, it becomes really tough and it’s not great (space) to be in.”    

Despite the results not going their way, their performances in most of their games have not been shabby.   

“We know what journey we are on as a team, and we know that we are all building new relations here as a new coaching staff. As a new coach, I’m getting to know players,” Plumtree said.    

Against the Lions, Plumtree expects a tough battle with this being a derby and their opponents have shown improvements in their games this season.    

“What I expect from the Lions, they’ve got a lot of continuity in terms of their selection and a lot of their guys have played for a long time together. So, they are a pretty cohesive side,” he said.    

“They don’t have the biggest squad like some of the other teams in the competition, but they play really well together with what they have. So, it’s going to be tough. We had a tough preseason (game) against them as well.    

“What I expect from us is continued improvement and what that looks like is massive efforts upfront. We were disappointed with the scrums last week (against the Stormers) though we felt we had a couple of tough decisions against us at scrums as well.    

“So, we are expecting a tough forward battle and it’s important for us to meet that head on. We just want to display the same type of intensity and good balance that we showed against the Stormers last week.”

Teams

Sharks — Aphelele Fassi; Werner Kok, Lukhanyo Am (captain), Francois Venter, Makazole Mapimpi; Curwin Bosch, Grant Williams: Phepsi Buthelezi, Lappies Labuschagne, James Venter; Gerbrandt Grobler, Eben Etzebeth; Hanro Jacobs, Fex Mbatha, Ox Nché.

Substitutes: Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Joel Hintz, Corne Rahl, George Cronje; Jaden Hendrikse, Boeta Chamberlain, Rohan Janse van Rensburg.

Lions — Quan Horn; Richard Kriel, Henco van Wyk, Marius Louw (captain), Edwill van der Merwe; Sanele Nohamba, Morne van den Berg, Francke Horn, Ruan Venter, Emmanuel Tshituka; Darrien Landsberg, Ruben Schoeman: Asenathi Ntlabakanye, PJ Botha, JP Smith.

Substitutes: Jaco Visagie, Morgan Naude, Ruan Smith, Reinhard Nothnagel, Hanru Sirgel, JC Pretorius; Jordan Hendrikse, Rynhardt Jonker.