As Sharks prepare for URC semi against Bulls, Plumtree won't forget the horror of the 2007 Super 14 final

Springbok great Victor Matfield recently said on social media that perhaps the greatest moment of his glittering career was the Bulls’ Super 14 final defeat of the Sharks in Durban in 2007.

The Bulls captain’s opposite number that day, John Smit, said: “I will probably never get over it.”

This was the unforgettable match in which Bryan Habana scored in the final movement of the game, with Derick Hougaard’s simple conversion sealing a 20–19 victory. The Bulls had escaped in that epic encounter, but the door was opened for them because the Sharks were pitifully poor in closing out the game.

Their decision-making in the final frantic minutes could serve as a textbook case for coaches around the world on what not to do in a final.

Current Sharks coach John Plumtree was in the coaches’ box that day as assistant to Dick Muir, and he might well remind his players of the mistakes the Sharks made as he prepares them for Saturday’s visit to Loftus Versfeld for the United Rugby Championship semi-final against the Bulls.

This match is the most significant meeting between the sides since that 2007 final. The biggest lesson Plumtree will recall from that heartbreak is this: never, ever substitute your captain when the pressure is at its peak — or your kicker. In the Sharks’ case in 2007, they replaced both.

The Sharks appeared to have wrapped up the match with three minutes to go, when Albert van den Berg scored a try. It was 19–13, with a relatively straightforward conversion to come. Smit would likely have handed the ball to Percy Montgomery to add the two points and shut out the Bulls with an eight-point lead and barely any time left.

But Smit was no longer on the field. Muir had substituted him at the three-quarter mark.

Smit wrote in his book Captain in the Cauldron: “When Albert scored, I hugged the guy next to me, who happened to be Monty. ‘What’s he doing here?’ I thought, and then came a flutter of panic. Why the hell has our kicker been subbed?

"Who was going to take the kick to give us the eight-point cushion?

“The kick surely should have gone instead to Butch James. He had the temperament and the experience. But the next thing I saw was a toss-up taking place between Ruan Pienaar and Frans Steyn.

"AJ Venter was acting captain, and Frans had gone to him and said he wanted to take the kick. He was so adamant, AJ let him have it, but at 20 he was the youngest player on the field.

“It didn’t make sense for the least experienced player to take a kick to secure the win. AJ got sucked in by Frans’ bravado.

“The least Frans could have done was take his time and use up the full minute, but he rushed it and hooked it across the poles. I saw the Bulls’ heads go up and they sprinted to the kick-off. They knew they were back in it. We had opened the door.”

The rest is an unfortunate piece of history for Sharks fans.

“I’ve never been so broken,” Smit said at the time.

“I will never get over it. It is the worst I have ever felt. I didn’t want to cry in front of the guys. I went to a toilet and sobbed for five minutes before I was able to pull myself together.”

The lesson is clear: big games such as semi-finals and finals are unlike any others. Saturday’s encounter between the Bulls and Sharks is tantamount to a final, and Plumtree will surely draw on his painful experience from 2007.

As Smit concludes: “There is a reason why few tries are scored in the big games — pressure. Nobody makes mistakes on defence, and the intensity is multiplied by 10.”