The Sharks confirmed that discussions were held today (Tuesday) between representatives of themselves and John Plumtree (‘the Parties’).
It was mutually and amicably agreed between the Parties to part ways with immediate effect.
Sharks Media Release
The terms of the agreement concluded between the Parties are confidential.
Stephen Saad, the Chairman of The Sharks said: ” We thank John for his wonderful contribution to Sharks rugby over many years. He has been a loyal and faithful employee and The Sharks have benefitted greatly by his input. We are also grateful for the impeccable manner in which he has conducted himself during challenging times in the last while. We wish John all the best in his future endeavours .”
Phweeew… John Smit is determined to clean the cupboard and stamp his mark on things immediately.
Cheers Plum, it was always freegin difficult to play against the Sharks with you as coach. Go well, best for the future!
So, what say the Shark supporters about this?
Wonder what will happen to Grant Bashford and Hugh Reece Edwards.
Someone will have to take the interim reigns now, guess it will be Bashford… but for how long till that other oke, Brad MacLeod-Henderson, takes over as coach?
I doubt Smit and Plum will be exchanging Christmas cards in future.
The Sharks are going to be dangerous these last few weeks
Some very good players returning from injury, and this type of boardroom drama has a way of galvanizing players
Glad I’ve got my tickets for Loftus for the 6th
One of those games which holds no vested interest to me as a neutral between those teams, but it’s going to be one hell of a game to watch, so I wouldn’t miss it for anything
Pity the Bulls have been rocked by all these injuries to their Boks
They managed to get through all those weeks of SR relatively unscathed, only to lose some key players during the tests
3 @ nortierd:
Hello,
Wel nou kan ek vir jou amptelik verwelkom, na ons op mail gepraat het!
Jy moet babbel hier, broeder… nie oopbek sit en kyk nie!
đ
Ek sal, dankie vir die verwelkoming
@ grootblousmile:
@ nortierd:
Welkom hier, ek en Karen chat nog lekker op FB, oor haar koffie en haar kinders en soms oor n Stormers result. Sal dit geniet met jou nou hier op RT.
Thanks
ek neem aan julle praat meer oor die koffie as Stormers results, anders het julle maar min gehad om oor te gesels
@ superBul:
3 @ nortierd:
Welkom hier by ons! [Another Bull, just what we need]
@ nortierd:
Stormers results is n baie sensitiewe onderwerp.
Maar magtie die seisoen het ek gedink julle gaan voortbou op die CB wen. Daai coach is bad news.
Kyk selfs Jake White met sy Australiese hulp afrigters het n sukkelende Brumbie span iewers heen gevat.
As Jake destyds geluister het en Gold en AC gefire het was hy dalk nou nog Springbok afrigter, AC was massive baggage
Something for Puma to read…..
6. Big pressure. Some games can fizzle to a predictable conclusion. Not this one. It allowed no such comfort to fans. Kurtley Beale will no doubt beat himself up about his miss at the death. All kickers do, but they shouldn’t. Of course he will be disappointed, but the nature of goal kicking is such that you will kick some of those and miss others. No one is immune, not Lynagh, not Wilkinson and not Carter. I had a philosophy about the big kicks. In the early part of my career I agonised over them, from days before a game to years afterwards. Invariably I kicked inconsistently in that phase of my career. Finally I rationalised that so long as I had prepared thoroughly in practice I could forgive myself the outcome of the kick. If it went over, then great. If it didn’t, I could live with that as well. Of course I would be disappointed and loop the moment in my mind, but I would move on.
When Beale’s captain, James Horwill, hugged and assured his vulnerable charger immediately after the siren it was arguably the biggest and most important moment of them all. As another former Wallaby goal kicker Matt Burke said to me on Saturday night: “Kickers win games, they don’t lose them”.
They were all in this together. They lost as a team and they must now gather as a team to focus on the straightforward, but non-trivial, task of overcoming injury and devastation to win this week in Melbourne.
John Eales is a director of Australian Rugby Union but the views expressed in this article are his and not necessarily representative of the ARU.
Thanks, nie n Bull nie, woon net in hulle kraal
Te veel Kaapse bloed om die WP en Stormers te verlaat
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@ Loosehead:
nortierd wrote:
suip net aan hul mammas se spene
New broom sweeps clean. I have long maintained that something is not right in the Sharks camp. Maybe JS will fix the Sharks. Need someone like him at the Lions.
10 @ superBul:
That was a really important kick to get Super. Then again the kicking was gonna come from their 11 then in the first min he got injured. O’Conner got the kicking duties after and he missed too may himself, then of course Beale with the two misses. So the real kicker for the game was unfortunately out after a min.
Just shows a team has to have to accurate kickers in the team always.
Anyhow I do understand it is a team effort to win the game first, but kicking the goals is very important. So important that Meyer has mentioned so himself.
Missing our kicks lost us getting to the final of the JWC. So yes it is important. If a kicker misses one I can understand even two. But then the kicking duties has to be given to the next kicker.
I personally feel sad to see Plum go. Do wish he was there for another year, especially after getting us to play such great rugby at the end of last years S15. I doubt we would be sitting where we are if we never had so many injuries. Unfortunately no coach how brilliant can win with that amount of injuries. They were mostly serious injuries with players needing ops. Same happened with Lions last year, they too had far too many injuries to carry on from the great CC win they got the year before.
Good luck Plum and all the best for the future. I personally enjoyed you as a Coach and sad to see you leave.
11 @ nortierd:
Howzit Nortie,
How you buddy? Hope well. Great to see you here.
I just don’t understand how we can now have a High School Coach as our CC coach? Not sure about that at all. From a world class coach (Plum) to a High School Coach?????? I have my doubts for sure. Please hope he does prove me wrong. Just have to wait and see.
For this week Sharks have some injured players back:
Reinach, Ludik, Bissie, Alberts and maybe Butch as he picked up a slight injury last week. See we without Herbst, that is a huge pity he was playing superb for Sharks this season. WE also without locks. Have a feeling Alberts will have to slot in and play lock this week. We may be short of a inside centre as well if Heimer (spelling) does not recover as well. Butch should play there then if he does recover from his injury. Otherwise I would slot in Keegan there. We have Kanko back for selection as well and he can start at 8 with Deysel 7 and Coetzee 6. See Botes is also available for selection.
Read the Players said they will play this one for Plum.
Go Sharks!
We also have Tera that can play 8. Just not enough that can play 12. Just hope they don’t mess Lambie about and make him play there.
19 @ Puma:
Hello Oompie!
All seems to be topsy turvey at your home Union, but they’ll get through it… life is full of cycles… even bicycles…. hehehe
20 @ grootblousmile:
Hope so boet, you see we have a high school coach for CC??????
Just hope we have still to get a top coach for next years Super Rugby. Not sure about this coach. Have to wait and see.
Having problems again with my router??????????
So will have to find time to get the new one. Working again from my 3G card.
Okay out of here. Going out to dinner in a short while.
So that is my Joburg and Durban router on the blink…. đ
Okay now have to dash. Catch up tomorrow.
21 & 22 @ Puma:
You are hard on Routers… hehehe
PS! One does not have to pour Parraffine in them, like you have to with your old PC… maybe that’s what ruined them in the 1st place!
Howzit Puma
Curiosity after reading your posts regarding this site got the better of me
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Think you are going to klap the Blues this weekend @ Puma:
24 @ nortierd:
Well pleased I got you over here Nortie. Not much traffic here during the week, but like I said come match day this site is buzzing and the best site ever for live games. Blog with us during the games and you will see what I mean.
Also now that you have joined RT remember to join our RC Bru pool. Then I don’t have to keep asking you who you have picked…… đ
I hope you right buddy, do hope my Sharks end on a high this season. Hoping we can win all the rest of our games. Though we are still struggling with injuries. The inside centre that started for us in our friendly against the Lions is injured, well we will know for sure later today or tomorrow. Just hope they don’t make Lambie play inside centre, that would be unfair on him. Butch is a maybe for this Saturday as well. Herbst is also injured for this game. So looks like Jannie will have to play again this week, when actually he really needs a rest. We thin at Lock so think Alberts may have to start at 4 this weekend.
We have had Blues number since 2006 we have beaten them every year. Though they are a lot better this year and we still might have too many injuries. Raining here today and forecast for tomorrow. So just hope we have a dry day on Saturday.
Anyhow once again good to chat to you on this site. You will enjoy it here for sure.
The fickleness of Sharks rugby fans has emerged as they have turned on their former blue-eyed boy John Smit, calling him a âback stabberâ for axing coach John Plumtree â and that was one of the more polite references.
On the Sharksâ Facebook page some predicted that Smit, new Sharks chief executive, would be the âdeath of Sharksâ rugbyâ while others called for the former Springbok captain to be booed at Saturdayâs game.
The Smit-Plumtree saga is the latest controversy to plague the Sharks after the murder of a British national at the stadium, and later an uproar over liquor licences and illegal drinking.
The comments came as Smit was given the Ingwazi Award for his role in the upliftment and promotion of KwaZulu-Natal.
He declined to comment on the Plumtree issue, but said he was pleased to see the public taking an interest in the issue.
âIt shows they are passionate. That passion makes our jobs possible and I would not want to take it away,â he said.
Smit said he had previously encountered his fair share of criticism and that he had developed a thick skin. âWhen you take up a position like chief executive you know you are going to be held accountable for your decisions.â
Nevertheless,
the imminent departure of Plumtree from the Sharks has not been taken well by many fans who said the coach had been treated disrespectfully.
Responding to the Sharksâ statement on their Facebook page announcing the news, supporter Shaun Baird said it was sad to see a stalwart go.
âPlumtree was black and white through and through. He bled black and white. Hope we find someone with half the passion he had for the Sharks. All the best boet.â
Even fans who agreed that a new coach was needed did not approve of the way it was done, calling it âmessyâ and âunprofessionalâ.
Brendin Pillay said while it was understandable that many fans wanted Plumtree to leave after a dismal season, it was difficult for any coach to lead a team that had so many of its first-choice players out injured. The way Plumtree was axed was âdisgracefulâ.
Some supporters were less tactful, calling Smit names too rude for publication.
âJohn Smit is a back-stabber and should get booed on Saturday if he has the balls to come on the field,â said Donovan Dales. Pieter and Ronel Conradie added that anyone who wanted loyalty should rather buy a dog.
Nakampe Mampeule, cited a âpersonal vendettaâ. In response to an announcement that assistant coaches Grant Bashford and Hugh Reece-Edwards would assume the coaching duties for the remaining three Super 15 Rugby matches, some supporters felt that if Plumtree was fired then they should be too.
But many diehard fans are desperate for all the âpoliticsâ to be put aside so the Sharks can try to regain some pride on the field.
George Laas, the chairman of the Sharks Supportersâ Club, said the team and supporters should forget about what was happening off the field. He believed the players would take to the field on Saturday and âdo it for Plumâ. He said the team would be supported through thick and thin because âwe are Natalians, we are the Sharksâ.
Some supporters did, however, applaud Smitâs âclean slateâ decision to bring in a new coach and called on others to give him a chance before judging his performance as the new chief executive.
l At the awards ceremony in uMhlanga, where Smit was the guest of honour last night, he said it was âhumblingâ to be recognised for his role in promoting the province.
The Land of Legends Association, which bestows the Ingwazi Award, is made up of seven top boutique hotels. Previous recipients have included conservationists Ian Player and Lawrence Anthony and Premier Zweli Mkhize. â The Mercury
GO SMITTIE!
‘Let the dogs bark, the caravan moves on’, as Langenhoven once said.
Your new job as CEO is not a popularity contest nor a political poll, just get it done. You didn’t get appointed to just shift old baggage from the one office at KZNRU to the next….leave that nonsense to the likes of Wagner and Wakefield down at Newlands.
All of the best John, you’re a world cup legend and SA rugby hero, a true leader of men And nothing anyone says can change that.
Just do it!!!!!
I guess these are some of the same “supporters” who had the FaceBook petition to get rid of Plum
Then rejoiced when Smit was appointed
I’ve sometimes gone onto the SharksWorld during some particularly Sharks games just for a laugh
Aai, then they call us Stormers emo
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I have a feeling the Sharks players are really going to be up for this game and the Blues are going to feel their backlash
Once they get a couple of wins then those fair weathered supporters will be offering Smittie the freedom of Durban @ superBul:
@ nortierd:
Hello Nortie.
Yip, fickle bunch, the supporters.
And I won’t be surprised if Stephen Saad has a lot to do with Smit’s decision making.
Saad is a ‘trouble shooter’ for sure; you don’t take a small family business such as AspenPharma from nothing, to a global leader in the competitive world of drug manufacturing if you can’t ‘shake and move’.
Saad and Smit are both achievers and ‘world shakers’,they are going to turn Sharks’ rugby around big time, watch! Soon these very same fickle supporters will be dancing and braaiing behind the stadium again.
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