OPINION: Sharks fans are unhappy with the state of their team

The Sharks can’t even post a happy birthday message about one of their players on social media without the comment section being flooded with proclamations of disappointment in the team and calls for the head of coach John Plumtree.

Whether on Facebook, X or Instagram, fan dissatisfaction appears to be at an all-time high and followers are making their discontent known wherever and whenever they can.

While social media is never the best indication of overall public sentiment, there are a lot of loud voices shouting over the Sharks on their own platforms.

As the Sharks brand falls in pace with their title hopes, public pressure mounts for John Plumtree to step down.

Scroll through social media reactions:

How bad is it really?

But is Plumtree – who took the reins in 2023 – entirely to blame for the state of the Sharks? They have certainly had a long battle dealing with injuries suffered by top players.

And let’s not forget they won the Currie Cup and have had a much-improved United Rugby Championship (URC) campaign this season.

The Sharks won the URC’s SA shield for the first time with four wins from six games. It was an improvement after a tough 2023/24 season where they didn’t win a single local derby and finished in last place.

The Sharks also sit fourth on the URC overall log with nine wins from 14 games. This, compared to finishing 14th last season with four wins and 14 losses, and not progressing to the playoffs.

Objectively speaking, Plumtree has met with decent success at the Durban union.

But the concurrent performance in the European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) tournaments has left much to be desired.

ALSO READ | A post-mortem of the Sharks’ dismal EPCR campaign: One win out of five!

Sharks EPCR failure highlights discontent

The Sharks earned just one win out of five matches across the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup this year despite winning seven games in the Challenge Cup last season – and against strong opposition home and away.

The Sharks crashed out of this year’s Champions Cup with one win and finished with a discouraging accumulative points difference of -87 in their four pool games.

This included resounding 66–12, 56–17 and 20–8 losses to Bordeaux, Leicester and Toulouse, respectively.

Fans expected the Sharks to fight tooth and nail when dropping into the second-tier Challenge Cup competition, which they won last year, but Plumtree fielded a second-string side that lost 34–21 against a decent but understrength Lyon in the last 16.

Fans are understandably unhappy that the Sharks are not achieving what they ought to with such a star-studded side. And injuries certainly cannot be blamed for the wholesale changes Plumtree made that saw a host of first-choice players removed from the squad for the all-important match.