The Sharks finished their wretched Super Rugby Championship season with back-to-back high-scoring wins that showed JP Pietersen's emerging young core can perform at franchise level. The piece argues that the real test now is whether the club converts that promise into something structural — and that hinges entirely on Pietersen having a genuine pre-season, something Plumtree famously never got. With Rory Duncan and attack coach Scott Mathie arriving, Kolisi departing, and recruitment reforms underway, there's genuine optimism about cultural reset. But the core argument is structural: the Bok-heavy roster model has consistently robbed the Sharks of pre-season cohesion, and the solution Pietersen has accidentally created — a nucleus of talented players who aren't yet Bok regulars — gives him the chance to build real combinations before the season starts. The piece also takes a sharp line on the Currie Cup temptation: shipping these youngsters off to the Currie Cup would squander exactly the pre-season window that could make the difference. Ivan van Zyl's signing gets a warm endorsement on quality grounds — with a Fourie du Preez stamp of approval — but comes with the same caveat: if he breaks into the Bok set-up, the Sharks will barely see him either.