Is it true that the Sharks only buy star players? The stats suggest otherwise...

As John Plumtree negotiates his third year in his second tenure at the Sharks, there is something noticeable about how the team is evolving on and off the field.

On it, there is the grit and fight that Plumtree felt weren't there on his return in 2023, and off it, the Sharks are turning their recruitment strategy on its head.

The Sharks have been dogged by the narrative that the US dollars of their New York-based owners buy top Springboks, willy-nilly, and for a period, it was hard to dispute that.

When MVM Holdings bought a controlling share in the Sharks in 2021, there was an initial recruitment of poster boys in Siya Kolisi, Bongi Mbonambi, and Eben Etzebeth, plus supporting acts in Vincent Koch and Trevor Nyakane.

The Sharks found themselves top-heavy with Springboks — around 12 players could head off to national duty — and that left the United Rugby Championship squad thin on top-class players. When the Boks came back, the Sharks would put together a rally of wins; when the Boks left again, the team tended to slump.

Plumtree needs a team of consistent strength, and the result is a policy focused on building from within, from the bottom up, and recruiting only when necessary.

We have seen in the last two Currie Cups and in the Sharks age-group teams that the Sharks are building an engine room of homegrown youth. And the likes of Plumtree and JP Pietersen have inculcated in them the old Sharks culture that both of them were a part of — Plumtree in the '90s, under the legendary Ian McIntosh, and Pietersen in the 2000s under Dick Muir and his assistant, none other than his old teammate, Plumtree.

The recent Currie Cup was not easy on the eye for Sharks supporters as new blood was introduced, with a big hiding from the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld particularly embarrassing. But investment in the future comes at an initial cost, and it must be said that the Currie Cup youngsters improved steadily and won their last three games.

The fact that the Currie Cup was used as a development competition was evident in the name of the team, “Sharks XV” rather than The Sharks.

Fifteen new youngsters were blooded in the Currie Cup, most of them Junior Springboks, and six have already made their URC debuts on the current tour to the UK and Ireland.

Undoubted stars of the future include scrumhalf Ceano Everson (SA U20), fullback Jaco Williams (SA U20), Jean Smith (former SA U20), flyhalf Vuyo Moyo (SA U20), flank Matt Romao (SA U20), centre Albie Bester (SA U20), prop Simphiwe Ngobese (SA U20), flank Batho Hlekani (SA U20), wing Christie Grobbelaar (Blitzboks), and hooker Ethan Bester (former SA U20).

The 22-year-old captain of the Currie Cup, Hilton College old boy Nick Hatton, showed outstanding leadership.

Countering the suggestion that the Sharks only buy star players is the fact that 42 of their current players made their professional debuts with the Durban team, 31 of them since 2023, and six have gone on to become Springboks.

A success story of the change in tack from buying a legacy toward growing one is the meteoric success of Ethan Hooker. He has been in the Sharks system since he left Westville Boys’ High and is now a Rugby Championship winner with the Springboks.

Likewise, Grant Williams began his career playing club rugby for College Rovers in Durban and is now arguably the Springboks’ first-choice scrumhalf.

Springbok fullback Aphelele Fassi joined the Sharks after winning a bursary at the Kearsney Easter Festival in Durban seven years ago.

The thing I like most about the Sharks these days is the fight they have shown on their URC tour without most of their Springboks and an injury list of 16 players. This comes from Plumtree and his insistence on the old-school values that were instilled by McIntosh when he transformed the brave but often outclassed Natal team of the ‘80s into the trophy-winning Sharks, the “Team of the ‘90s.”

 It is a team culture based on core values such as ‘no excuses’, ‘no shortcuts’, ‘team first’, ‘resilience’, and ‘fighting spirit’.

I’m seeing a team that isn't relying on stars and is instead building new ones.