Ken Borland

The improvement in Sharks rugby has been most apparent on the field as they led SuperRugby before Covid struck and then reached the final of the Currie Cup, only losing in extra time to the Bulls, but those gains are also dependent on the excellent work done behind the scenes by the administrators.

This may be Sean Everitt’s first major coaching gig but he has a wise rugby head and his player management is superb; the team culture he has helped develop at Kings Park has been phenomenal. The Sharks also have an outstanding CEO of vision in Eduard Coetzee and recently-ascended president Brian van Zyl is a seasoned administrator who built much of the union’s success in the professional era during his time as chief executive.

And the reward for all that good administration has been the confidence expressed in the union by new equity partners MVM Holdings, a consortium with deep pockets, once they had been snubbed by Western Province. That investment will certainly allow the Sharks to bolster their playing resources, and they have done so immediately by signing Springbok captain Siya Kolisi.

But the Sharks are well aware that bagloads of money and buying the best players does not necessarily guarantee success; they know that the entire organisation needs a shared vision that they are all working towards.

That new equity investment means there is suddenly budget for some extra things and I was one of the journalists fortunate enough to be flown down to Durban by the Sharks this week to see Kolisi being officially unveiled as a Sharks player.

And seeing first-hand what is going on at Kings Park, it is obvious that something special is happening and these are very exciting times for the Sharks.

Kolisi spoke about how the whole culture and vibe of the Sharks caught his attention a while back and how obvious it was to him that Durban should be his new home once he had decided to end his 11-year stay in Cape Town.

Following his media duties, Kolisi was part of an induction session with all the wide-eyed new intake of academy players at which Coetzee explained the core values of the Sharks. The motto “We are an inclusive culture underpinned by diversity” featured strongly and the spirit of the Sharks team shows they are living the tenets of that ideal.

The inclusion of all cultures is an obvious part of the team dynamic and Kolisi was part of a ceremony based on the tradition of placing your own stone on a cairn of rocks whenever you should pass by one.

Called Isivivane, it signifies the commitment to contribute your best to the new, shared journey you are embarking on.

Kolisi knows all about commitment – having proposed to his wife Rachel on a helicopter flying over Constantia, they have since built a family that has taken in Siya’s two young half-siblings, who were in foster care.

The Sharks environment is also one of caring, with Coetzee taking pride in how well he treats all his players and staff, although there is a constant focus on meeting the standards required of a top rugby franchise.

Everitt himself popped in even though he is technically still on holiday, and was in good cheer despite the recent trauma of the Currie Cup final.

He will not be putting Kolisi under any extra pressure after the fraught 2020 he had with injuries, Covid and the administrative problems in Western Province rugby. The 29-year-old will be given the time and space to get fully fit and ready in body and mind to produce his best on the field. The captaincy will stay with Lukhanyo Am, whose leadership has been a great positive, but there is no doubt Kolisi will be an inspirational presence.

 From the office of the CEO down to the junior staff, there is just a good energy at Kings Park these days. These are exciting times indeed for Sharks rugby.

Eduard Coetzee, the Sharks CEO, might rate Siya Kolisi as the best captain in world rugby, but he confirmed on Wednesday that Lukhanyo Am will retain the captaincy of the franchise team.

Am has been integral to the rise of the Sharks over the last year and is the sort of follow-my-example captain that is much-loved by the KwaZulu-Natal outfit and their fans, following in the footsteps of inspirational skippers like Gary Teichmann, John Smit, Wahl Baartman and Craig Jamieson, who were also men of few words.

While there is no doubting the pedigree and qualities of Kolisi, who led the Springboks to World Cup glory in 2019, the decision is a wise one by the Sharks because it avoids adding another complication to the life of the 29-year-old who seems utterly focused on regaining his best form following a miserable 2020 ruined by injury, Covid and the problems within Westen Province rugby.

“As a leader, Siya chooses himself, we know he’s the best leader in world rugby and he led the country to the World Cup. So yes, it would be easy to make him captain. But we don’t want to do that at the moment, we want to make an environment here that he can thrive in and put the least amount of pressure on him as necessary. And Lukhanyo has done an unbelievable job as captain so that makes the decision much easier.

“We love to treat our players well because that’s the way you get results. To add more pressure by making Siya captain is not going to help him. They get on well, by the way, and Lukhanyo has been in my ear as well about when Siya is coming here. Leaders earn the right to lead, they appoint themselves and both Siya and Lukhanyo have the qualities to be very successful captains,” Coetzee said at Kings Park on Wednesday when Kolisi was officially unveiled as a Sharks player.

Kolisi pointed to his ball-carrying ability as being an area where he can add to the growth of a Sharks game that he said he already very much admires, having been on the receiving end of it when they beat Western Province at Newlands in the Currie Cup semi-finals.

“The Sharks team is really strong, they have a good kicking game, they’re disciplined and they have the boot of Curwin Bosch. But I love their style when they do move the ball around, they have a strong attacking game. I am an openside flank but I don’t really fetch, although I do want to contribute to that aspect of the game.

“But with ball-in-hand, along with the other strong carriers, that’s where I hope I can add to the team. And I’m willing to do the hard work, clearing the rucks and that, too; I’m not scared to do the graft that is not seen,” Kolisi said.

Bulls coach Jake White has never been averse to stirring up a bit of controversy and, although he does not have much of a social media presence he knows very well how to stoke up conversation before a big game. And in South African rugby, matches don’t get much bigger than the Currie Cup final, which the Bulls will host against the Sharks on Saturday.

But this week White, who admitted that he still feels the pressure of crunch matches, has been strangely restrained and even went as far as to suggest the Sharks might be favourites because half of their team have won the Currie Cup previously. Knowing how canny Jake is though, this is almost certainly some sort of mind game and he will ensure his Bulls team are the most inhospitable of hosts on Saturday.

That’s the thing about  the 57-year-old White, who has been a top-level coach now for almost 20 years, dating back to when he led the Junior Springboks to the U21 World Cup crown in 2002 – there is always a plan and it usually comes off. From utterly transforming a Springbok team that was in disarray in 2004 into World Cup champions in 2007, winning a rare Tri-Nations title along the way, he then took the Brumbies to the 2013 SuperRugby final and the Sharks to the 2014 semifinals, before leading Montpellier to the European Challenge Cup in 2016.

“I’ve been in enough finals and playoffs to know how it works and you can never take away the pressure. So I still feel the pressure and myself and the players will make mistakes, but a final brings the best out of certain players and they take their opportunities. There’s a real buzz in the squad, it’s so nice to be in the changeroom, you can just feel it.

“This is a very proud and driven team, they have a great hunger to win the Currie Cup and I just need to channel that the right way. I felt what it was like to win in the 2007 World Cup and I would like to taste that again, although it doesn’t get easier. But hopefully I can transfer my experience and the lessons I have learnt to the team. I’ll be trying to keep them calm and they must just enjoy the moment,” White said.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt (51) would have had a lot of interaction with White in 2014 because he was one of the Sharks’ assistant coaches, but the relationship between the head coach, his assistants and the players reportedly became strained leading to the World Cup winner spending just a year in Durban.

White was accused of being dictatorial but he has certainly softened since then, and is well-versed in global modern rugby trends.

Everitt’s coaching stock has certainly grown hugely since then as well, and Brad MacLeod-Henderson, who coached with him at the Sharks, winning the Currie Cup in 2013, described him as being a mentor who placed more responsibility on the players.

“Sean is more collaborative, he won’t pitch up and say ‘this is what we are going to do’. He will help the players make the right decisions, depending on the cues the opposition give them. As a former backline player, he’s more creative and he’s in favour of ball-in-hand rugby and having a go. But he wants the players to have a look first; if it’s on, have a go, if not, go to the air. It’s about space and getting the balance right.

“Sean is a great guy and all the players respond well to him being a good person. They have a lot of respect for him, he’s well-liked by the players and they will go the extra mile for him. He has created a good environment  and that’s why the players want to be in Durban because they’re happy on the field,” MacLeod-Henderson told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

As the Currie Cup approaches what will hopefully be a thrilling end, there have been some apocalyptic comments about the poor quality of the rugby and how South Africa are allegedly once again miles behind the rest of the world.

People going on about the end of the world being nigh should generally be treated with some scepticism and it was good to hear Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus provide some much-needed perspective this week. In case anyone has forgotten, our Currie Cup teams are trying to play rugby in the middle of a global pandemic.

Obviously the major focus is to ensure nobody contracts the virus, which means there is regular testing being done on the players. Covid tests are not particularly pleasant, but the effects of this pandemic do not end there.

While Covid has disrupted the lifestyles of so many, it has had a terrible effect on the structured preparation rugby players have become used to in the professional era. According to Erasmus, rugby teams normally spend 280-300 minutes training together in the week before a game. But due to Covid protocols, that figure has now dropped to less than half of that.

That’s because after a match on a Saturday, teams can only do their Covid tests on Tuesday morning, because 48 hours have to pass before testing, otherwise contact tracing would have to be done in terms of who had too much physical contact during the last match. That means teams cannot train on a Monday in case anyone is positive and spreads the virus through the squad.

The results are only returned on the Tuesday night, which means all the scrum, maul and breakdown work has to be done on the Wednesday. A team could train on the Thursday, but that’s two days before the game and coaches and conditioning experts often are a bit wary of doing that so close to a match.

Captain’s runs on a Friday are now also mostly a thing of the past. When one adds in the effect of teams only being selected in the second half of the week, and the absence of coaches and players from week-to-week due to positive tests, it is clear there has been an awfully disruptive effect on the preparations of teams.

Players who do test positive return to action via a detailed nine-day quarantine period and then, once they return a negative test, a return-to-play protocol that measures the effect of the virus on the body through tests on the heart, lungs and other vital organs. It works out to be about 16 days – the equivalent of two matches – away from the game.

And even players or coaches who test negative, but are deemed to be close contacts of someone who has the virus, have to quarantine for 10 days.

These players and coaches, who have all taken pay cuts as well, are at the vanguard of keeping the South African game afloat in far from ideal circumstances. They deserve our thanks and appreciation, not our opprobrium.

With competing in Europe on the horizon, it really is a brave new world in so many ways for our rugby players. They will need our support.

They are taking the hits on and off the field, it’s midsummer when they have never been playing before, and the good thing one can say about the Currie Cup this year is that it’s still as uncompromising as ever.

Saturday’s matches between the Bulls and Lions at Loftus Versfeld, and Western Province and the Sharks at Newlands, might not be thrilling in terms of dazzling running rugby, but for sheer intensity alone they will hopefully be enthralling to watch.