It’s back to the drawing board for the Sharks who were ruthlessly thumped 41-0 in their Super Rugby quarterfinal by the Hurricanes in atrocious conditions in Wellington on Saturday.

The Sharks only made the quarterfinals by earning a wild card place thanks to the structure of a tournament that rewards mediocrity.The Sharks were always likely to lose‚ given the evidence over the season and arriving late in New Zealand after they were only able to fly out of SA on Tuesday night.They landed in Wellington in the early hours of Thursday morning.But failing to register a point and playing so poorly with so little tactical appreciation and even commitment‚ was a sad sight.Captain Tendai Mtawarira described his team’s effort ‘embarrassing’ after they became the first team to fail to score a point in a play-off match.Coach Gary Gold was appointed as a director of rugby and not specifically as head coach. But he has been fulfilling the role for two seasons‚ seemingly against his will.Chief executive John Smit is leaving and Gary Teichmann is taking over later this year.The new CEO will have a lot to sort out because questions need to be asked about the players they have and the coaching structure.But the Sharks are not alone. The Stormers were thrashed 60-21 in a home quarterfinal by the Chiefs.They at least kept fighting and came up against a side‚ that even their own coach Dave Rennie admitted‚ played the best they had all season.The Lions beat the Crusaders 42-25 in their quarterfinal and are by some distance the best SA team this year because they have embraced change.The Stormers are working in that direction and showed some glimpses of becoming a better side‚ but the Sharks looked clueless on Saturday.Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd‚ who spent time coaching in Durban‚ gave a harsh assessment of the difference between SA and NZ sides to the Dominion Post newspaper."One of the things I learnt when I was in South Africa [was that] when you come under pressure or you're chasing the game‚ from a South African point of view‚ they just try and do what they do better‚ whereas a Kiwi side will always look for Plan B‚ C‚ D‚ E and F‚" Boyd said."You'll notice [that] even five minutes from the end they're still playing the way they play and that's the mentality of their sides."Lions coach Johan Ackermann challenged that mindset by finding players that want to embrace change and weeding out those that weren’t buying into cultural revolution at Ellis Park.Stormers coach Robbie Fleck is trying the same thing and has only had one season to work on it. There is evidence of a mindset shift in Cape Town but the Stormers are still a long way down the track.The Sharks though‚ don’t appear to be changing their philosophy. They are just plodding along. - TMG Digital..