A heart of green and gold
22 Jan 2013
John Plumtree remains adamant that for him when it comes to rugby, South Africa is No 1, writes MARK KEOHANE in Business Day Sport Monthly.
John Plumtree’s wife is South African. His son is South African. His team of choice, as a player and coach, the Sharks, is South African. Often, Plumtree is referenced as the Sharks’ New Zealand-born coach, but he sees it differently. When it comes to rugby he’s more South African than Kiwi. In fact, he’s more Shark than anything else.
Plumtree has aspirations to coach the Springboks, as is the case with any South African coach. He identifies with South African rugby more than any other and while there will always be a proud Kiwi in Plumtree, when it comes to rugby the identification is very South African.
The jersey Plumtree prides most is a Springbok Sevens jersey, earned in 1994 when representing South Africa at the Hong Kong Sevens.
‘I reckon I must have been the first Kiwi to wear the green and gold,’ he jokes. ‘It was a surreal moment in the change room; a very special moment. A very strong Springbok Sevens team went to Hong Kong in 1994. Andre Joubert, Henry Honiball and Joost van der Westhuizen were among the stars of that team and I felt proud to be considered good enough for the squad,’ says Plumtree.
‘I grew up a Kiwi kid with dreams of playing for the All Blacks against the Springboks and here I was wearing the Springbok jersey and I felt massive pride in playing for South Africa. They were New Zealand’s traditional foe and they were the team that commanded the most respect among the older folk.
‘The greatest challenge for an All Blacks player was to beat the Springboks in South Africa and I grew up with a sense of wonder and awe at the men in green and gold. They had a mystique for me. As a young rugby player I always wanted to play in South Africa; I got the chance in 1988 and ended up staying for nearly 10 years before returning to the Sharks to coach in 2006.’
South Africa is home to Plumtree and has been for some time. Professionally, his coaching may still take him to Europe or New Zealand, but in an ideal world home is Durban, South Africa and work is in South Africa.
‘The country has given me a family, a home and a wonderful lifestyle. It has given me opportunity. South Africa has been very good to me and I’d like to think I’ve embraced the country and given as much as I can to it. I’ve been in South Africa for the best part of 20 years and love being here,’ says Plumtree.
‘My coaching took me to Wales, where you could say I did my apprenticeship with Swansea as a young coach and furthered that with four years as Wellington coach in New Zealand. But for the rest it’s all been here in Durban, as a player and as a coach. I’ve never felt I had to choose between New Zealand and South Africa; if anything I consider myself fortunate to have experience of both because of the strong rugby connection. I have enormous respect for the rugby in New Zealand and an equal feeling for the game in this country.’
Plumtree has worked with some of New Zealand’s and South Africa’s best players and says the similarities make the rivalry so intense.
‘Both have an appetite for physicality and for playing a direct game. Both want to be the best in the world and have the work ethic that goes with it. If there was a difference I’d say there’s more pressure in South Africa at schoolboy level to win because of the rivalry between the major rugby playing schools, whereas in New Zealand there is a greater focus at schoolboy level on playing good rugby. The pressure here would be to win at all costs; there the pressure would be in the skills evolution of a player at schools level.
‘Professionally, though, there isn’t much to choose and that is why there seldom is much in matches at Super Rugby and Test levels. There has been the odd blowout from the Boks and from a South African and Kiwi Super Rugby side, but generally, as a Kiwi side, you have to play bloody well to win in this country, and the same is true of any South African team wanting to win in New Zealand.’
Plumtree played 80 matches for the Sharks between 1988 and 1997, having played 40 provincial games in New Zealand prior to that, which culminated in selection for All Blacks trials in 1989. His best rugby memories are playing for the Sharks and winning two Currie Cup medals and he takes pride in the achievement of winning the Currie Cup as a player and as a coach.
‘I was part of the 1996 squad as a player and in my first season as head coach in 2008 we won the cup again for the first time since 1996. To say I have won the Currie Cup as a player and a coach is a big thing for me because it also shows just how long I have been here and it is a competition that means a hell of a lot to me. I understand the history of the competition and I know what it meant to win it as a player at the Sharks. So I will never treat it as secondary.
‘There’s Super Rugby, which we want to win and there’s the Currie Cup, which we want to win. Both have equal status. One is the premier international tournament we play in and the other is the premier domestic competition. We had a chance to complete a rare double in 2012 in winning both and fell at the last hurdle. It hurts because we got so close to something really special, but the motivation has to be that it is possible to succeed in both tournaments and the group of players this year is more experienced, more mature and equipped to certainly be successful.’
The defeat in the Currie Cup final against Western Province rankles Plumtree more than the away defeat against the Chiefs in Super Rugby because it was a final he believed his team was good enough to win.
‘It is the one area we simply have to correct as a squad. When we are looking down the barrel we somehow find an escape and a way to win but when the hard work has been done and the expectation is there that we should win we have stumbled. Western Province played very well to win the final but home finals are occasions you have to make count. We had done all the hard work, benefited from consistency in getting a home semi-final and final and then to stumble … well you pick an adjective …’
Consistency is something Plumtree feels the Sharks have lacked in Super Rugby and to win the tournament he believes a team has to start well and end well.
‘The Crusaders and Bulls in their best years showed this consistency. They won enough to get the home semi and home final and while it is a huge advantage playing at home in the final it is also reward for a consistent season,’ says Plumtree. ‘I know we were up against it last year in having to travel to Australia, back to South Africa and then to Hamilton in New Zealand in 10 days but had we started the tournament better, it would have been another team doing the travelling to Durban.
‘It is the nature of the competition and it’s a competition I love being a part of. It tests everything about you as a player and as a coach. It tests the depth of your squad, the mental resolve and it also tests the ability of the coaching staff to manage the playing demands of the squad. I personally love the tournament and I enjoyed the expanded version in 2012.’
Plumtree favours the June break when internationals are played and says a tournament as long as Super Rugby needs a break.
‘I guess the key is not to have too many international players away on Test duty because we saw how a team like the Crusaders struggled post the June internationals. They were just hitting a peak before the All Blacks’ three Tests against the Irish and their players, who were superb at times against Ireland, just never hit the same heights in the remainder of the tournament.
‘The Sharks, by contrast, benefited from the break. We had a chance to reassess, get our injured players back on the park and we also had the benefit of a bye in the first week after the break. I found our players were refreshed and our Springboks gained a lot from that one-week bye. We went on a roll, so it works both ways. As a coaching team we learned a lot from last year, in terms of managing the squad and maximising game time for the entire squad.’
Plumtree, six days after the Sharks’ Super Rugby final defeat in Hamilton, started the Currie Cup campaign against Western Province in Cape Town, and he made 14 changes to the side beaten by the Chiefs.
‘The travel and playing demands forced those changes and we won in Cape Town, which shows you what is possible. I think having so many players away on international duty has allowed us to develop talent at Currie Cup level, which may not have been the case if all our players were available every weekend. It is why the Currie Cup for me will always have prestige, as a tournament, and as a showcase of the next generation of star players in South Africa.’
Plumtree has an expectation of his squad, but won’t differentiate between the need to win and develop quality players and improve the quality of those already in the system.
‘It can’t be one at the expense of the other. The nature of the sport is you have to win but you can develop and win at the same time if your identification is right. I have been so impressed with what Gary Kirsten has done with the Proteas. He has taken risks, always spoken of a bigger picture, be it an ODI World Cup, a T20 series or a Test series. You know what he wants to achieve and he hasn’t been afraid to introduce youngsters at the same time.
‘He has a clear plan, which has been well communicated, but he has also been very clear about the priority in results, which was to win the Test series in England and Australia … which they did. In the interim he has introduced a virtually new T20 side and made many adjustments to the ODI side. I think South African rugby, at national and provincial and regional levels, can learn a lot from what Gary has done with the Proteas cricket side.’
Plumtree, this season, wants a closer working relationship with the national coaches and with whoever can add to the success of the Sharks.
‘I don’t think we share enough in South Africa. I think we can learn from each other, at franchise level, and at national level and we definitely can learn from other codes,’ says Plumtree. ‘A lot of rugby people look to New Zealand but the system is completely different, especially the way in which the NZRU contracts the Super Rugby players and the working relationship that exists between the national coaches and the franchise coaches. You could only take from New Zealand if Saru was contracting the players. They aren’t.
‘There’s a lot right with rugby in South Africa and we have the luxury of so much natural talent. I’d say we need to invest more in the intellectual capital that there is on a coaching front in this country, encourage our players to have a go and take risks without fear of being dropped. We certainly also need to talk more, among ourselves in rugby and to those in other codes, to make South African rugby an entity that can consistently be as strong as New Zealand, and hopefully even stronger.’
– This article first appeared in Business Day Sport Monthly, which is distributed FREE with Business Day newspaper on the second Friday of each month.
720 Comments
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22 Jan 2013, 15:14 pm
@willievz-394:
Nee donner! Dan kan ek maar terug na RT gaan.
22 Jan 2013, 15:17 pm
Lambie,a cool ten under pressure ??Guppies starting with their delusions of grandeur already!He could not even get a game at ten for the Guppies last year.He got the Bok position by default las year for the sole reason that the preferred ten,Goosen ,was out injured and Steyn was too traumatised to kick a ball over the sticks.
22 Jan 2013, 15:19 pm
@ufo-376:
so, a version of Morne minus the kicking ability?
@Transformation-379:
good to know.
there is a lot of discrimination in the middle east (just saying).
@the curse-384:
that’s the one time i agree with you, Pops
i too believe he is a 12
22 Jan 2013, 15:19 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-396:
You have 2.5 seasons until the next World Cup plenty of time, Steyn is not the future so cut him now.
22 Jan 2013, 15:19 pm
@NZINCHINA-397: you and I can see it, these guys cant..
is it any wonder we rule the rugby world..
their coaches cant even see this..
we armchair fans (NZ ones obviously) can
its rugby, a simple game..
still, it keeps us where we should be, so lets not tell them how to improve, they dont seem to want to listen anyways..
I mean, it took a kiwi to get one of their super teams to play beautiful rugby, so we mustnt know a thing
22 Jan 2013, 15:20 pm
@Britney Spies-393: Bambie has long been the lead in most guppiefanboys’s pencils. What they are going to realise rather suddenly though, is that it’s far easier to talk a player up and into the stuff of legend, when he isn’t playing
Much harder to do that when he’s strutting out weekend after weekend in the 10 jersey…..
Honestly: I reckon his fanboys and his sh y te gets real now. Realfuckingfast as well.
22 Jan 2013, 15:20 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-387: LMAO reinach already a Bok
22 Jan 2013, 15:21 pm
@the curse-395:
yes, we have
only clean wins count
keep up
22 Jan 2013, 15:21 pm
@wnbb-392: Let me rewrite this for you since you seem to struggle with written English…
“.Lambie is,at best, a second-rated flyhalf for the Boks”
to
Lambie is, at best, a second rate flyhalf for the Boks…
See…?
Now, I realise English is most definitely not your mother tongue and you do seem slightly challenged with many concepts beyond K9 for.nication, but please do try harder when you bullshitt… Even Keo has standards after all.
22 Jan 2013, 15:22 pm
@the curse-405:
He he they are clueless when it comes to back line play, long may that continue!
22 Jan 2013, 15:23 pm
@NZINCHINA-397: Lambie at 12?Just so that one of your monsters can run over the midget boy?Nice try China.
22 Jan 2013, 15:24 pm
@Fern-399: Lol… “Behind” you reckon…? Fark that… Strictly speaking it was from the side… And it was more of a tripswitch…
Sweetspot… Not hard to find on Quins players…
22 Jan 2013, 15:24 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-406:
JP doep gaan die Bokke 10 na die Kings game wees – watch net – dan skuif Bambie 12 toe en Frans na 15.
22 Jan 2013, 15:24 pm
@willievz-394: classic keo post
394. willievz said:
22 Jan 2013, 15:12 pm
@ Britney Spies-382 : Alle Sharks-artikels in
die geskiedenis van Keo raak aan minstens
een van die volgende tydens gesprekke:
-Lambie vs enige ander 10
-Durban vs Kaapstad
-Sharks vs WP
22 Jan 2013, 15:24 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-408: clean wins?
what does this mean?
Ive looked at the scoreboard 21 times, and 19 of those times my team was leading the scoreboard..
doesnt come much cleaner tbh..
we could have won 20 times if Dan had kicked the drop goal.. but alas, we SOMETIMES lose..
we get as upset about a loss as you guys do a win, seeing as they are so rare respectively
22 Jan 2013, 15:25 pm
@wnbb-411:
How big is Lambie, about the same size as DC?
22 Jan 2013, 15:25 pm
@Heavens Game-409: Ok.In any man’s language ,Lambie is still not fit to tie Goosen’s laces.
22 Jan 2013, 15:26 pm
@Heavens Game-412:
From the blindspot then.
Good work,I appluade you.
Was prob a hit or get hit scenario,you must have been so gratefull for being sent off;-)
22 Jan 2013, 15:27 pm
@wnbb-411: could be the perfect 12
but continue to think that its the size of the dog in the fight, rather then the size of the fight in the dog
suits us kiwis perfectly
and 2nd will be the best you guys will ever get my friend..
22 Jan 2013, 15:27 pm
@willievz-400: Come now Willie… Actually I would rate Kirchner above Coetzee, along with:
- Aplon
- Ludik
- Petersen
The fact that he is in no S15 squad speaks volumes too.
22 Jan 2013, 15:28 pm
keewees going down to funkytown 36/2.
hola poeps!
22 Jan 2013, 15:29 pm
@wnbb-417: No. You are wrong.
But then again I forgive you. You know not what you say.
22 Jan 2013, 15:29 pm
@gunther-421: kia ora Gunth
8 runs off two balls
christmas is still alive in the land of long white clouds
22 Jan 2013, 15:30 pm
@the curse-415:
It was an excellent year Pops, we’ll have the Poms at the end of the year, at least it’s adds a bit of interest to this years EOYT.
22 Jan 2013, 15:30 pm
That Boom movie sounds seriously kuk
22 Jan 2013, 15:30 pm
@willievz-394:
snaaks
22 Jan 2013, 15:31 pm
@the curse-423:
BOOM!
I have my doubts about Maclaren.
Agree with you re lambie he could work well at 12.
nothing wrong with his defence.
fark knows the cupboard is pretty bare there.
22 Jan 2013, 15:31 pm
must be a fix in the cricket
3 4s in one over
Bakkies, can you do your video analysis and show us kiwis where we cheated at “de beers”
thanks in advance
22 Jan 2013, 15:32 pm
@Fern-418: Not nearly as schweet as Burger Geldenhuys on Andy Dalton though… Now that was a tripswitch of note.
But a sending off for getting retaliation in first at Quins aint pretty… Had to walk the gauntlet back to the changerooms…
22 Jan 2013, 15:32 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-403:
lambie can kick fine bakks…
as you will no doubt see this year… he’s never been allowed to settle at 10 so this year will be big for him… i think he’ll surprise a lot of people…
but in big games, tight games… a good rugby brain is needed more than another 10 metres of boot… imo…
both johan and elton have made some strange onfield decisions… sure they’re young… but so too is lambie…
they’re all quality players though… so preferring one or two is not saying the other one or two are useless… they’ll all push each other… and we have depth in case of injury…
and i worry about goosen… i said as much this time last year before the season started that we should take it slow with this kid and ease him into the big time… but everyone gets carried away with the distance of his kicks and rushes him into the fray prematurely because it is a secure way of keeping his team in the hunt and salvaging a win when the plan doesn’t work…
our big kickers like frans and johan make our coaches stop thinking or innovation…
anyway i fear for johan because he is a helluva talent… but he should be eased through this year imo… before becoming a regular or starting bok…
22 Jan 2013, 15:33 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-403:
Amla doesn’t live in the Middle East
So how he and his wife choose to profess their religion remains their business
It doesn’t mean he is discriminating against her.
22 Jan 2013, 15:33 pm
@Transformation-407: And it doesn’t help the guppiefuckinghysteria when you have Keo singing from the same hymn book……
It’s all very Bieber like.
22 Jan 2013, 15:34 pm
@NZINCHINA-416: Jeez,no! He is even shorter than DC. I really don’t know why you guys want him at 12. He is,at best, a bench player for the Boks.That is my honest opinion.
22 Jan 2013, 15:35 pm
@NZINCHINA-424: we were due a loss, shame it was England but a decade between them is alright in my book… will really show if Hansen is up to the task imo… always learn much more from a loss, one we needed I reckon
@gunther-427: has all the attributes and skill to be a very very very good 12… would also alleviate the pressure from either Jantjies or Goosen at 10, knowing they have an extra playmaker/kicking option..
22 Jan 2013, 15:35 pm
@the curse-415:
try looking around at the faces of some of the people you play the world over
while you’re at it
if you had half the decency the MO of your wins would upset you more
22 Jan 2013, 15:36 pm
@the curse-428:
22 Jan 2013, 15:37 pm
@NZINCHINA-404:
yes, but its never that simple, China
just look at your WC history
Mauger, Cullen…and so on..?..
22 Jan 2013, 15:38 pm
Kyk julle IPL hokkie?
22 Jan 2013, 15:39 pm
@the curse-428:
oh the things we say in jest…
22 Jan 2013, 15:39 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-437:
Yay
What did Cullen do.
22 Jan 2013, 15:40 pm
@Britney Spies-438:
Who were you, who are you on RT, and why you back here
22 Jan 2013, 15:40 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-435: so, beating the then ranked no 2 team 22-0, or the plucky Irish 60-0 was down to cheating?
ok then
hahahahahahahahahahahahaahaha
thanks bakkies, I now feel sane in comparison
22 Jan 2013, 15:40 pm
shot!!!
4 runs
go get that Morne
22 Jan 2013, 15:41 pm
@Dawn-441:
Skuus! Ek is ekke. Jy was baie lief vir my en ek vir jou.
22 Jan 2013, 15:42 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-439: I agree about things we say in jest
just the other day I was adamant with my younger kiwi friends that SA were our true “rugby enemies”
they didnt agree and stated Aussie were..
I tried Bakkies, really I did..
but then they provided stats and I had to agree with them
please forgive me
22 Jan 2013, 15:43 pm
@the curse-443:
Indeed Pops you are in fine form.
22 Jan 2013, 15:43 pm
@Dawn-441:
It will just open a can of whoopass Dawn. Rather not.
22 Jan 2013, 15:44 pm
@Britney Spies-447:
Tac?
Is that you?
22 Jan 2013, 15:44 pm
@Dawn-446: if my form was half what the rumours are about your form Dawn, then I would indeed die a happy man :blush:
22 Jan 2013, 15:45 pm
@ufo-430:
yes, well i certainly am no Lambie hater and do hope the best for him.
same for all the other potential 10′s.
Lambie too has taken some poor options at times as well not turned up a few times. but here’s to hoping he goes better.
if anything this year should give us certain clarity on the flyhalf order going forward.
@Dawn-431:
i was only trying to stand up for womens rights here, Dawn.
i mean no offense or attack on Hashim, his wife or anyone religion.
bygones..?..
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