WHEN John Plumtree won the Currie Cup as a player with the Sharks in 1990, there was a ticker-tape parade through Durban on the Monday and seemingly endless celebrations in KZN.
After the team’s latest domestic success, they were on a plane to Galway within 36 hours, their great win over the Lions at Ellis Park last weekend a fading memory.
Times have indeed changed, and Plumtree says his team had no choice but to park the Currie Cup final win almost instantly.
“We had little time to celebrate,” he said from Galway yesterday, where his team play Connacht tomorrow night (8.35pm kick-off).
“Sunday was a day with the families and we flew out on Monday morning, and it is a long way to the west coast of Ireland.”
The South African teams begin the United Rugby Championship in round two this weekend because round one clashed with the Currie Cup final.
Plumtree has said that it was not ideal to be playing in the domestic tournament a week before the first URC game.
“This week has had to be about recovery,” he said. “We can’t go hard in training. There has been a lot of walk-and-talk, and trying to save the legs. We need to make sure the batteries are full by kick-off.
“The boys have been great with their attitude. We have promised ourselves that we don’t talk about Currie Cup rugby any more. It is done, and we move on to the next job.”
Weekend recap 🏆 #CarlingCurrieCupFinal #CarlingCurrieCup #LIOvSHA #Champions pic.twitter.com/2YWSLVPhVa
Plumtree was asked whether the team felt a weight of expectation because they have added the Currie Cup to the Challenge Cup title.
“I don’t worry about expectation,” he said forthrightly. “I worry about today, and when I am done with today, I will worry about tomorrow. Expectation has never been part of my mindset.”
The big Kiwi explained that he has challenged his players to adopt the mindset of champions.
“I challenge the boys to be better every day. I have brought in a theme around if you want to be a winner, you need to be cursed with winning. That means being the best you can be in every aspect of being a professional rugby player,” Plumtree said.
Welcome to the new era—welcome to the Warrior Nation.
Introducing the new 2024/25 jersey 🔥#warriornation🦈 pic.twitter.com/msfDQNw29z
“Winners are cursed with wanting to win all the time and being consistent. This is something I want to grow in the team. It doesn’t matter what you have done before – your mindset must be around your next job.
“When you are a winner and a champion, you are cursed with certain behaviours. Those are the best players – they are focused on winning what is next for them, be it recovery, training or playing.
“That is how I like to work as a coach. I do not load the players with the pressure of expectation or anything else,” Plumtree concluded.
Sharks Team
15 Jordan Hendrikse 14 Eduan Keyter 13 Jurenzo Julius 12 André Esterhuizen 11 Ethan Hooker 10 Siya Masuku 9 Bradley Davids 8 Emmanuel Tshituka 7 Vincent Tshituka (captain) 6 James Venter 5 Gerbrandt Grobler 4 Jason Jenkins 3 Ruan Dreyer 2 Dylan Richardson 1 Ntuthuko Mchunu.
Bench: 16 Fez Mbatha 17 Trevor Nyakane 18 Hanro Jacobs 19 Corné Rahl 20 Reniel Hugo 21 Tino Mavesere 22 Tian Meyer 23 Gurshwin Wehr.