So I woke up with a start around an hour ago after an evening that involved plenty of martinis in a lovely restaurant in downtown San Mateo California. Grabbing my Blackberry to check the news overnight, I honestly started to wonder whether I was actually awake at all, or whether the Sharks team announcement I read was just an extension of the weird drunken dream I’d been having.
So I went on a bit of a rant about the Jean Deysel situation the other day, based on something that the generally reliable Mike Greenaway wrote for the Mercury. Needless to say, after earlier insisting that Deysel was going to be out of action again, I was a little surprised to see him named in the starting team this week and have more than a little egg on my face as a result. That’s by the by and in the interests of all glory to the Sharks, I couldn’t be happier to be wrong about that one.
That’s not the weirdest thing, though…. Read, if you will, the following quotes from John Plumtree and tell me if they apply to anything that you’ve actually seen on the field of play this season.
“Ryan Kankowski is not in good form at the moment. We are still putting a plan in place for him going forward, but I think he’s still feeling the effects of the Japanese season, he still hasn’t come right. He, himself, is battling to work out what’s going wrong, it’s not easy for him or anyone of us. Right now he’s struggling and how he gets back to the required levels will be interesting to see, but it is alarming for me as well because he’s one of our better players. ”
Seriously? What the hell is wrong with Hoff? I mean, sure, he hasn’t been in top form (which Shark has?) but to single him out for personal criticism after performing far better than most of the team over the course of the season is simply crazy. What am I missing here, guys?
Plumtree goes on to suggest that Ryan won’t even tour with the Sharks, with Tera Mtembu set to travel in his place. it’s a great opportunity for Mtembu and I must say I’m pleased that Plumtree has opted to go with our own youngster instead of Jaco Kriel, who’s seemingly back with the Lions. Going on tour without a man as dangerous as Kankowski, though, just simply seems crazy and leads me to wonder if there might not be more to this one.
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Almost seems that Plum wants him gone. Weird.
I’m going to take two Advil and go back to bed. Maybe when I wake up this will all be a dream
Totally agree Rob!
Maybe the clue is in this, “He, himself, is battling to work out what’s going wrong, it’s not easy for him or anyone of us.”
Could it be that Kanko himself has asked to be reconditioned?
@robdylan (Comment 2) : if you take 3 Advil, click your heels together and whisper “jou ma” Plum will disappear in a puff of smoke
@robdylan (Comment 2) : Shame, Welcome to the real world 😀
@Salmonoid (Comment 4) : I wondered about that, but it doesn’t fit with what I’ve been told.
@Uli (Comment 6) : I want out….
this season carries on with more drama for the sharks starting to feel like a soapie,plum needs to resign at the end of the season if we dont win a super rugby trophy we have gone as far as we can with his management of the team time for a change
Reminds me of the time Plumtree signed Marius Joubert and in turn allowed Adi Jacobs to leave… 🙄
@robdylan (Comment 7) : What have YOU been told then? 🙂
@wpw (Comment 10) : Yea, something strange is happening at Kings Park at the moment, and it doesn’t feel right to me….
@Uli (Comment 12) : early mid life crisis maybe?
@Uli (Comment 12) :
At least John Smit was made CEO… oh wait…
Strange times indeed…
I agree, he’s been 1 of the better players to be honest
@wpw (Comment 10) : that was Straeuli, not Plum
Spot on Rob, I have been questioning the Sharks player management for some time. Look no further than Jandre Marais leaving.
First it was Frans, now it is Kankan’s turn.
When is the last time you have seen Pat Lambie with anything but a scowl on his face? He used to have a wry smile now and then at least.
The players seem unhappy – something seriously wrong in the Sharks camp.
@robdylan (Comment 8) : It really does feel as though the Sharks are in the Mines of Moria at the moment. Only problem is who is going to be our Gandalf? 😉
@Bokhoring (Comment 18) : Think Lambie is trying to balance how is supposed to play for the Boks and how he has to play for the Sharks and unfortunately coming up with the Boks handbook.
@Butchie34 (Comment 19) : Gandalf kind of died (temporarily anyway) in Moria. The Sharks need an Aragorn at the moment.
@Butchie34 (Comment 20) : I wish these guys were left just to play rugby instead of becoming robots. You look at the Bulls / Boks style and nothing looks natural. It’s clearly effecting Lambie’s game. He should be allowed to express himself then we’ll see the smile return
@Bokhoring (Comment 21) : I’m just riffing off the last line of the article. Rob paraphrasing Gandalf.
@slammerboy (Comment 22) : @Butchie34 (Comment 20) : I don’t subscribe to the theory that Meyer is pulling Lambie’s strings from afar for 2 reasons: I believe Lambie is still a work in progress (Sharks back line only really clicked last year with Freddy in charge), and secondly the Sharks struggle to generate momentum (Morne had a good article about that) – which translates back to our back line struggling too.
@slammerboy (Comment 22) : Absolutely! I don’t know how many Bok games last year I decided I would rather not have the frustration of watching.
Went out and did other things and you know what? I didn’t even miss it!
@Saffex (Comment 17) : This is all brand new information. Welcome to the site!
Seems to be a management problem, hopefully John Smit can make a difference.
Out of all the loosies Kanko would have been the last I would have dropped, well and Botes & Deysel, but they got injured.
That combo of Botes/Deysel/Kanko and Botes/Marcel/Kanko worked best for us this season.
@Moz Shark (Comment 27) : we live in hope, bud. Welcome to the site
I don’t even get why Kanko was dropped after the Brumbies game, Marcel got injured in the 1st quarter of that game and Kanko was brilliant, then he’s dropped again for the Crusaders game and Botes went of in the first quarter and again he played a good game out of position???
Plum can’t just say a player is out of form and think we’ll all eat it up. Why the hell does he think he’s out of form, has he been dropping an unusual number of balls, tackled back in contact, missed a high number of tackles … or does bad form mean, we don’t get along right now?
@Letgo (Comment 30) : I think you may just have inadvertently hit a nail with that hammer of yours 😉
I’m referring to the last line of your comment.
I can’t believe nobody has laughed at me for owning up to using a Blackberry… 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 32) : I thought I’d I’d see a ‘post edited’ update in Twitter with the story updated where Blackberry is replaced with Samsung Galaxy S4.
@robdylan (Comment 32) : That would be similar to making fun of the mentally disabled – just not on 😆
@slammerboy (Comment 33) : Watch this space 🙂
I for one think plum must go.He’s got no idea how to manage players and always shifting people out of posision.No wonder the back line is struggling when last did we have a centre pair playing games for 4 or 5 weeks together.Centres need time to learn each other and gel and that’s not happening at the sharks,as for kanko I think plum needs a ct scan or a shrink!!!!
@robdylan (Comment 31) : Then we’ll lose Kanko. He’s already not feeling like playing in SA anymore (going to Japan) and the Boks has never given him a fair chance to develop the massive potential he has shown in the past 6 or 7 years.
I must say, I’d rather lose Plum that any of the players we have now.
@Bokhoring (Comment 34) : This
@robdylan (Comment 31) : So can we take it as confirmed that Plums dropping of Kanko is personal?
@Salmonoid (Comment 39) : no, I wouldn’t say that exactly. But I have a very strong hunch
Kanko has not been a shade of the player that ended last years Super campaign, but then who has? Just saying.
@Salmonoid (Comment 41) : I’m wondering why he’s been singled out. I mean, dropped from the squad and the tour, given the loose forward injury crisis?
Kanko is expected to play the bashing game like Alberts & co and it’s not how he plays. He is not that type of player. What the hell has keegan done for him to be in the team except to be captain????? Kanko was WAY BETER in every game he played!!!!!!! This really seems to be poor coaching that you can’t get TOP players like Steyn and Kanko into shape after playing 7 weeks of super rugby. BULL§£¥T be a man and give us the real reason for dropping Kanko!!!!!!!!!!!
@JD (Comment 43) : say what you really feel 🙂
Rob saying what I really think of this whole Kanko and Lindeque saga will get me band from the site.
I’ve just got a bad feeling about how the camp vibe must be right now…it could just be me having a crash after my pre-gym supplements, but i’m not feeling chuffed at all…
@JJR (Comment 46) : “it could just be me having a crash after my pre-gym supplements”
Dude, don’t say stuff that makes you sound like a chop. That’s just solid life advice right there. For free.
@robdylan (Comment 47) : Too much caffiene i reckon 😆
Kanko is a bit of a shame really. I thought he set SA alight in the same way Skinstad did.
Sadly, it hasnt happened.
banjo
I couldn’t agree more! Kanko has been awesome compared to the rest of the team.
@VinChainSaw (Comment 49) :
I thought he *would* set SA alight…
I hope mr. meyer pick Kanko for the June tests. Maybe someone else can coach Kanko “back into form”. Really hope the guys can get it together before the weekend!!!!!
@robdylan (Comment 42) : I watched the game a second time and I observed that Kanko was was involved in: Winning us the first penalty within the first minute, making 1 good tackle, tapping 1 ball down in a lineout, stopping 1 drive, slipping 2 tackles, passing 1 flop ball and was caught in possession in the scrum. For the rest of the game he was dancing around the breakdown area without getting involved or contesting any ball. He was nowhere near 10% in the game.
It could be an attitude problem with the senior guys as well?
With the balls we secured we passed 105 times (including majority passes from the scrumhalves.)
We kicked away 27 balls, offloaded 10x,recycled 39x after barging up, turned the ball over 15x, won the TO 9x, and attacked 10x.
We lost 2 own line outs, 3 scrums and we slipped 4x on attack! 😈
Sharks Touring Squad: Includes Derick Minnie and Andries Coetzee from the Lions and Piet Lindeque from the Bulls
Forwards
1. Anton Bresler
2. Craig Burden
3. Marcell Coetzee
4. Kyle Cooper
5. Keegan Daniel
6. Allan Dell
7. Jean Deysel
8. Jannie du Plessis
9. Pieter-Steph du Toit
10. Derick Minnie
11. Wiehahn Herbst
12. Tendai Mtawarira
13. Lubabalo Mtembu
14. Franco van der Merwe
Backs
1. Meyer Bosman
2. Andries Coetzee
3. Paul Jordaan
4. Patrick Lambie
5. Piet Lindeque
6. Charl McLeod
7. Odwa Ndungane
8. JP Pietersen
9. Cobus Reinach
10. Sean Robinson
11. Francois Steyn
12. Riaan Viljoen
Did Plum find Kanko in bed with his wife or something? 😈
Maybe the Whole Kanko thing came from Heyneke as well you know… He might have realised at the camp that Kanko is not going to cut it in the Bok tests…
Why don’t you rugby gurus try and get some inside info there….
@SharksRTB (Comment 57) : I don’t really see any other reason why Plum would do something like this.. And dropping Jannie and Frans to the bench.. They might have looked out of it at the Bok camp.. and Heyneke gave Plum a whipping
I don’t think Minnie is a good fit for the Sharks given the way the depend on Lambie kicking penalties at the moment. Minnie is a good fetcher but a penalty machine and the Sharks don’t really need someone giving points away.
You know what guys? I’m really starting to not give a shit.
Under Plumtree the Sharks have been perennial underperformers with the odd miracle win thrown in. If one looks at the resources in both finances and man-power available to the coaching staff for the past 5 years then our record is a bloody disgrace.
Forget the politics and teach your players how to draw and pass, Plumtree!
@Baylion (Comment 59) : with him and Dr duPlessis we would be gifting the opposition an average of 5 kickable penalties a game.
Maybe Kanko wants to be in charge of the lineout the way he ruled it last year. He might feel a bit aggrieved that average Franco has been handed that responsibility.
And maybe Kanko wants to play 8th man and only 8th man, but the love affair between Daniel and Plum is standing in his way. (Though I still like Keegan a lot, him and Kanko need to rotate)
Plum has never been too fond of players questioning his superior rugby decisions. 🙄
Publicly taring into one of your players smacks of personal vendetta, which is in really bad taste.
Jo, jo, jo, just watched the Sharks / Stormers second half now (keeping a good lookout for Kankos contribution) and to be honest Ryan was not good, not good at all. I was at the game and did not pick up how gunshy he was. Many have asked why Kanko was singled out and not the other loosies, well they may not have been great but their contributions in comparism were massive.