'It's not a level playing field': South Africa warns despite Challenge Cup win

Head coach John Plumtree, whose Sharks became the first South African team to win a European club competition. Photo: Reuters/John Sibley

Sharks head coach John Plumtree has issued an ominous warning to South Africa's European rivals in the Challenge Cup and Champions Cup, insisting the competition has not yet been equal despite his side making history

A dominant performance from the Springboks-led group set the stage for a 36-22 win over Gloucester, with the scoreline flattering the Premier League side with two late consolation tries.

p>This was the first triumph of a southern player. The African team is in its second season competing in both European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) competitions and has qualified Durban for the Champions Cup in 2024-25.

Plumtree said the EPCR tournaments will be «the best in the world ”, if administrative changes allow you to spend less time away. Earlier this month the Sharks played a home semi-final against Claremont at Twickenham Stoop.

“This is not an easy competition for the South African teams,” Plumtree explained. “I travel a lot.

“For me now this is not high productivity. We compete well, but there are a few things that need to be fixed to improve the level a little.

“This is our fourth trip here this year and we have been away from home for almost three months. It's not a level playing field, so they need to think about how they can make this competition better. I think this will be the best competition in the world.

“For me it's better than Super Rugby at the moment and I've been involved for a long time, but there are logistical issues. It needs to be sorted out and hopefully that will happen in the next year or two.”

Eben Etzebeth, who played superbly at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, suggested the Sharks achievement was the third best of his career after South Africa's back-to-back World Cup victories in 2019 and 2023, calling it «by far my best experience at club level.»< /p>

Lock, 32, agreed with Gloucester head coach George Skivington that the game was the best performance of the season for the Sharks, who languish at the bottom of the United Rugby Championship (URC) table. ) thanks to 13 defeats in 17 matches.

Sharks' Eben Etzebeth was one of the standout performers in Friday's Challenge Cup final. Photo: PA/Adam Davey

Plumtree, who has previously worked as an assistant coach in Ireland and his native New Zealand, will next welcome some fine players to the Sharks. This season, including Racing 92's Trevor Nyakane, who was at Tottenham to support his future colleagues, as well as former Harlequins center Andre Esterhuizen and Leinster defender Jason Jenkins. With a grueling schedule, Plumtree says that depth and quality will be vital.

“At the beginning of the season, when I came in, the team was offline,” he added. “The culture was bad, we had a bad environment. It took a while to figure everything out. But now the team is united, the players love each other.

“My job is to continue to build. We have some quality players coming in and a couple of juniors. Our team will be stronger and that's necessary because we need two strong teams to compete in the Champions Cup and the URC because these guys can't play 28 or 30 games a year.

«We're not there yet, but we're getting there, and I'm lucky to have an owner in Marco Massotti who is determined to make the Sharks really good again, but there's still a lot of work to do.» p>

Gloucester face a big summer after failing to complete a cup double. The defeat was made all the more disappointing by the Challenge Cup being prioritized over league commitments — a strategy that led to a 90-0 defeat to Northampton two weeks ago. Without sugarcoating the disappointing aspects of the turbulent campaign, Skivington praised the perseverance of Gloucester's players and staff.

«I'm proud of the group and in fact proud of everyone in the building that once we put a plan in place, that we stuck to it.» he said.

“We didn’t get a second trophy, which is gutting, but I think we showed that when we committed ourselves to something and committed to something.” , we're doing really well. This will be a season of real downs and real ups. But we don’t have many complaints about the fact that we lost today.”