John Plumtree lauds Eben Etzebeth's impact at Sharks since Rugby World Cup return

The towering Test centurion played a key role in South Africa's triumph at the 2023 global tournament, where they defeated the All Blacks 12-11 in the final.

Etzebeth is now a double World Cup winner, having also lifted the Webb Ellis Cup in 2019, but his focus has now fully shifted back to the Sharks.

He made his first appearance in the United Rugby Championship (URC) in their victory over the Dragons and has also started both games since then.

The 32-year-old touched down twice in their Challenge Cup opener against Pau on Saturday and, according to Plumtree, has settled in nicely since returning to the Durban outfit.

"He has been back a couple of weeks now and he is starting to get into the Sharks way and he is starting to lead and inspire others and help the younger locks," he told reporters.

"He is pretty inspirational and it's not easy for a guy like that to come back off a World Cup win and get back into his club and start performing straight away. So it was good tonight to see him doing that. Hopefully, he will just go from strength to strength."

The Sharks have endured a torrid start to the campaign but, after getting their Springboks back from the World Cup, there are hopes that they can start climbing the URC table.

Plumtree himself is trying to settle into the role of head coach after joining the side ahead of the 2023/24 season.

He is looking to forge a relationship with Lukhanyo Am, who has captained the side over the past three matches.

"As a leader, Lukhanyo is getting used to me and I am getting used to him. We are starting to have a good understanding of how we both operate. I was pleased to see him doing well," Plumtree said.

Despite the return of their internationals, the Sharks suffered a humiliating defeat to the Bulls last weekend.

They responded well to that setback, however, and defeated Pau 45-5 in the Challenge Cup.

"It was a pretty tough week after the Bulls game. Monday was a tough day for the players," the head coach added.

"All we can do is respond in a positive way. We just had to focus on ourselves and put a lot of heat on the leaders to step up and run the week. I thought they were great and I thought they were really good out there tonight too."

Plumtree wasn't entirely happy with the performance against Pau, though, and felt his players got "bored".

"We got sloppy and they were sloppy too. The game just fizzled out. It was pretty disappointing really," he added.

"Our skill sets let us down in the last 20 minutes and I think the boys will be really disappointed with that.

"To me, it looked like the boys got a bit bored with the contest and that was frustrating. Our set-piece last week wasn't great and tonight it was better.

"I was pleased with aspects of our game and how we kicked the ball behind them and kept the pressure on them. And we dominated the territory in the first half so there were aspects of our game that wasn't really pleasing."

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