Smit aims to crack the whip at Sharks
IF THE Sharks board of directors hoped John Smit would be just a poster-boy appointment for the chief executive position vacated by Brian van Zyl, they badly miscalculated their move.
And he let them know it, too, by axing the man Van Zyl was backing for a two-year extension on his current contract, head coach John Plumtree – before he has officially taken over.
When the media arrived at the Shark Tank last Tuesday they found Smit already waiting and chatting casually to KwaZulu-Natal Rugby Union president Graham McKenzie.
His suit – charcoal with faint stripes, which he wore without a tie – hung loosely as if he had borrowed it from his father, who had rushed into his bedroom to make sure his son looked smart on his first public appearance as Sharks CEO- elect.
He was composed, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for a player to retire from a sport and take over as a major club’s chief executive a month later.
Hidden beneath the suit, however, Smit carried an axe, which had already got its first bloodstain – that of Plumtree.
Why did Smit, who does not officially take office until July 1, find it so important to show Plumtree the door that he couldn’t wait for the New Zealander’s to leave in December?
The official version is that the new boss wanted to freshen things up at the Sharks.
But Smit was so eager to throw out Plumtree that – as Van Zyl admitted – there was not even a board discussion on the matter, even though the board was preparing the coach’s two-year contract extension.
Plumtree has had a relatively successful tenure since he took charge in 2008 – he won two Currie Cups and made the Super Rugby final last year.
But losing three finals in a row is the tip of the iceberg that rocked his boat and the acrimony between the coach and long-serving eighthman Ryan Kankowski sunk it.
Smit wasted no time in renewing Kankowski’s contract – a player whose situation had become sad when he was left out of the Sharks and Springbok squads, looking destined never to play for the province again, before he was pitied by Paul Treu’s Sevens side.
It was the strongest sign yet that Smit didn’t approve of what Plumtree was doing in letting Kankowski linger in limbo.
When Smit was still a player and fighting for his place in the Sharks team following Bismarck du Plessis’ emergence as a powerful force that could not be ignored, Plumtree shifted Smit to prop to accommodate the youngster.
Smit, although a prop in his junior rugby days, had to shift to the uncomfortable role to try to keep himself in World Cup 2011 reckoning.
Then Bok coach Peter de Villiers flew down to Durban to negotiate ways to solve the SmitDu Plessis headache.
Plumtree was unaccommodating, making it clear that he would do what was best for the union, regardless of the implications his decisions had on the Boks or Smit’s career.
That move cast a doubt in Smit’s mind over Plumtree’s ability to manage sticky player situations. And so, when it was time to choose, he went for Brendan Venter as his chief lieutenant.