Rumours are bad things when your are trying to get it together

 I think there are problems in the Sharks set-up and I do not know what the rumours entail - so I am guessing that it has to do with -
*   the coaching set-up and especially discord between the coach and the players;*   the captaincy issue - factions within the team; *   the impact of John Smit and the negativity stemming from some players he brought in from his previous club - eg Botha and Stevens - who should not have been contracted in the first place.
The whole problem stemmed from the time they got rid of Plumtree in the most deplorable manner possible - Smit mishandled that one completely.   That was followed by the year with Jake White - when divisions within the team simmered below the surface and was never settled.  Jake protected his proteges and blamed the other players for losses.   At the time there was a rumour that quite a number of players refused to renew their contracts if Jake stays on as coach.   
So the problems in the team is not new - it has been simmering over the past two years.   
What can be done to correct the problems?  
1.   I do think that something needs to be done in the case of John Smit - he seems to be a square peg in a round hole.   I was one of the people that was delighted by his appointment - but I have developed serious reservations about him as a manager over the last 16 months.
2.   I do not think that Gold is the right coach for the Sharks.   He is too hidebound can there is no indication that he would ever get the squad into a performing unit.  Personally I think they should have tried to get Mallett into the set-up instead of Gold - and still hope that they do something to correct the situation.
3.   Identify who are the problem stirrers in the Sharks team and get them out of their present environment and send them to play Vodacom Rugby unbtil their contracts can be terminated.
4.   To get the position sorted out - do a performance evaluation on each player and identify those players that would be an asset to the team and get rid of the others.
5.   Identify where there are deficiencies in certain positions and try and identify players they need to target for contracts as from next year.
I wrote elsewhere that the squad needs at least -
*   two props in the place of Jannie and Beast;*   a  lock to back up Du Toit, Lewies and Oosthuizen;*   two loosies to back up Coetee and Bothma;*   a scrummie to back up Reinach;*   three centers to back up Jordaan;*   two wings and one additional full back
That represent a need for 12 players that needs to be found and incorporated in the squad as from next year.
          

It's the Joke White legacy. 
It may take another season or two before the Sharks can shake off the damage that Joke White did to their rugby psyche.
I don't think Gary Gold is a particularly good coach but I don't blame him for today's disgraceful display. The mindless play, poor discipline and inept handling are all hallmarks of the Joke White style of rugby.
Not sure which was the biggest blunder the Sharks made . . . firing John Plumtree, hiring Joke White or making Joke's Gimp John Smit the Sharks CEO . . . but I'd give anything to have John Plumtree back!  

But there you were RooiAAS predicting great things when White left....predicting great things when Frans was banned. Now it's going to take years to fix the damage according to you. Nope a good coach could have these guys sorted by next weekend. You start by letting go of the myth that were it not for White the Sharks have the talent to run with the best NZ teams....we saw the result of that today.
The Sharks have to play to their strengths. That's what White did. That's why they got into the semis last year.

 How did White play to the Sharks strengths and how did they get to the semi-final?   Lets get this straight.   By a quirk of fate - and because the other franchises were so weak - even weaker than the Sharks - the Sharks got to be on top of the SA Conference log.   They managed to lose one less game than the other SA franchises who were all atrocious in 2014.   That means they had to play a local play-off game against the Highlanders.   By some fluke they got through that game - not because they were so good - they managed to beat them by 2 points after the Highlanders beat them by a runaway margin in the round robin game in Durban earlier in the tournament.
Where the Sharks did well was under Plumtree in 2012 when they reached the final without baggage like Steyn and co.  In 2012 they ended up sixth on the log and went on to beat the Reds in Brisbane in the the play-off easily - travelled back to SA and disgraced the Stormers in the semi amd had to travel back to NZ for the final.   Those were top class performances - not a fluke 2 point victory in a play-off match against a team that easily beat them earlier in the season.   
This whole story about how successful Jake White was in coaching the Sharks is real hogwash.   He was at best a very average coach and his resultant firing was no surprise.   Have  you by any chance heard how good he was at Montpellier?   Last time I heard the team had a 50% win ratio since his arrival there - so a miracle worker he is not.
This story about running the ball is also absolute BS.   Nobody created that story - but you yourself in your stilted mind.  What everybody said is that aimless and inaccurate kicking away of balls is a no-no and there must be a much more planned way in dealing with possession.  But then you are the one who says 90% of the functions of the flyhalf is kicking the ball - so that remains what you expect from a player in that position and nothing else is important.                            

Oh sure Plumtree who is now a forwards coach was the answer and not a WC winner. Despite the fact that he had 5 years and was panned most of the time in Sharkland for picking Michalak instead of Lambie and the like.

The fact is the Sharks model is imploding. They aren't matching tactics with resources. They should look at Jake's WC winning team. When they were being torched by Fiji at wc07, they closed the game up. The Sharks and their coaches never even had the sense to do that.

It's going to be a long 3 weeks until they start getting the team back together. But regardless Lambie, Reinach, Steph and Coetzee are not the tournament winners everybody wants to believe.

 Seeing as how the Sharkles are getting used to playing with fewer players maybe they could join the Aussie NRL ?Oops seems  the NRL already have some poor wee cellar dwelling gummy Sharks of their own ...

 Jake was going nowhere and he had to bring in Eddie Jones to try and get some realistic performances from the Springbok team as a whole - not only from 10 players int eh WC squad.  At the Brumbies his key staff member was Larkham - last year he was totally out of depth at the Sharks and the Sharks backline imploded.
Mozart - your reliance purely on the WV win in 2007 insofar as player and coach assessment is concerned is also pathetic.  First of all you rely on the game laws ar the time and your postings showed that the changes made since then are meaningless to you - as meaningless as it is to Jake White.   
If White was so good at present - why did he last less than a year as Sharks coach - please explain that one to us.     

Mike, I'm not touting White as the Sharks coach but he has to be better than Gold. Perhaps you should ask the Brumbies management or if nothing else have a look at his track record at the Brumbies. White took over a team who were cellar dwelle rs, don't forget.