Mike Greenaway
As the Sharks turn their attention to hosting the Exeter Chiefs in the Challenge Cup on Saturday, perhaps the best thing they can take out of their miraculous defeat of the Stormers is that they did it without forward domination.
Before the United Rugby Championship took a break for the November international season, the Sharks beat Munster and Glasgow thanks to serious forward momentum engineered by a Springbok tight five that took no prisoners.
But that did not happen against the Stormers. Bongi Mbonambi was unavailable for family reasons, Eben Etzebeth had a variety of niggles, Vincent Koch was injured early, while Ox Nche started but was heavily targeted by the Stormers front row. For the first time in his career, he was anonymous.
Stormers tighthead Neethling Fouche came out of the game with his reputation significantly enhanced.
It was a rare sight indeed for the Kings Park faithful to see their pack going backwards in the set scrums and struggling to win a line-out. The Sharks’ loose trio fought a valiant rearguard action but the true heroes were a backline that tackled defiantly.
In fairness, all of the Sharks showed heart on defence. Any coach worth his salt will tell you that team spirit is gauged by how the players scramble on defence, and the Sharks did this all afternoon at a blustery Kings Park.
This time last year, when Plumtree was trying to instil a culture of brotherhood in the Sharks, they were bottom of the log mostly because they were not tackling as if their lives depended on it. Now they are and they will take massive heart from this win over the Stormers. Their pack had failed to fire, and this can happen, yet they found another way to win.
The senior players in the Sharks’ backline were outstanding. Living off scraps, Makazole Mapimpi and Andre Esterhuizen squeezed every drop out of the scant opportunities they salvaged. Youngsters like Ethan Hooker and Aphelele Fassi fed off this and looked like scoring almost every time they got the ball, although this was not that often, to be fair.
Plumtree agreed that this time last year his team would not have come close to winning.
“The headsets went flying. I was thinking about how we’d cope with this defeat after having led for almost all of the game and against the run of play. But we had hung tough and looked like we would get home comfortably on the scoreboard,
“But the Stormers kept coming and when it looked like they had scored after the hooter, I lost it. Normally I can keep my emotions in check, but not this time.
“Then with a bit of luck, we were back,” Plumtree smiled.
“That’s what can happen in these big games provided you have your team culture right and each player keeps fighting until the end.
“It wasn’t perfect. The Stormers will be disappointed as they had chances they didn’t finish. But sometimes, when you create the right environment, luck follows you and you escape with a win.”