SA must invest in coaches
20 Sep 2010
MARK KEOHANE, in his weekly Business Day column, says the coaching situation in this country must be given the necessary priority.
It feels like we are back in the Super 14 again, raving about the quality of South African players, the standard of the Currie Cup games and the pace at which the teams are all playing the game.
It makes the Springboks’ Tri-Nations performances even more unacceptable.
John Mitchell, in just a few months, has shown the value of a good coach. All we’ve heard from South African coaches in the past five years is that the Lions don’t have the players, but Mitchell has taken no-name brands and made them look like rugby players.
In every media interview Mitchell has raved about the depth of talent in Gauteng and generally about the abundance of natural talent in SA. Having worked with rejects, the odd youngster and scraps at the Western Force, Mitchell is delighting to be working with this talent.
It has to concern South African rugby bosses that the two teams which have produced a style in the Currie Cup that equals anything we have seen from New Zealand and Australia both have New Zealand coaches; Mitchell at the Lions and John Plumtree at the Sharks.
Both believe in the ball being gold to a team. Both believe in attack and on improving the passing skills of the inside backs to allow for an expansive game that makes use of the width of the field. Both also believe in the fundamentals of the sport, which are that players are fit and that they do their primary tasks first and then look to show their multi-skills.
Plumtree was the steadying influence at the Sharks when Dick Muir’s all-out attack philosophy produced a series of embarrassing defeats. Together the two formed a potent pairing.
It appears Muir has gone the same route with the Lions, and they are already looking like a team that can return respect to the region.
Mitchell and Carlos Spencer are worth every cent they get paid and finally the Lions administration is seeing the benefits of investing in coaches who coach and don’t want the coached product couriered to Ellis Park.
It has long been a criticism (from abroad) that South African coaches don’t coach because of the belief that if a player doesn’t realise his potential immediately, then there is always another one on the conveyer belt.
Overseas coaches have always said that not having enough talent is a challenge but having too much can be as big a challenge to those limited in their coaching ability.
SA has the finest talent in the world — New Zealand included — but the Super 14, Currie Cup and Tri-Nations this year have shown that players can’t coach themselves and that a coach is a bit more than the vehicle that transports players to the ground on match day.
There have been too many jobs for pals in South African rugby when it comes to appointing coaches and there has been a disregard for the creation of a director of rugby, who not only develops the skills of players in the region but also ensures the development of the head coach.
Coaches in this country have traditionally been accountable to a CE , and generally there hasn’t been much respect for this individual because the coach believes he knows more than the guy in the suit.
Whenever a coach fails, a board of elected officials with limited rugby coaching knowledge determines the coach’s future. The system is wrong.
Businessmen should be making the money for their regions and coaches should be looking after the rugby.
The game has evolved but not nearly enough to be called professional because too many of the irritations of an amateur game still prevail across the country.
Good intellectual capital leaves this country because of the belief that there is only room for a head coach.
The Bulls are the exception and they immediately realised the benefits of welcoming back Heyneke Meyer in a different capacity.
The Stormers are starting to profit from Rassie Erasmus as director of rugby and Allister Coetzee as head coach. This duo look after the rugby, despite administrators in Cape Town still thinking they determine the success of the team.
If the Tri-Nations made us cry, then the Currie Cup is making us smile, but at a higher level the tears will continue to flow if the situation of coaching is not given the necessary priority.
115 Comments
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21 Sep 2010, 08:52 am
Cape Town – A business deal between former Springbok coach Jake White, local publishing business Highbury Safika Media, and rugby writer Mark Keohane has turned sour, ending up in the Western Cape High Court.
21 Sep 2010, 08:54 am
Johannesburg – The Vodacom Blue Bulls have made a massive coup by signing Griquas and Springbok winger Bjorn Basson to join them from November 1.
21 Sep 2010, 08:57 am
@JUSM(JUSM)-101:
Son of a *****! (In my best Kartman voice)
Keo still owed me a course!
21 Sep 2010, 09:00 am
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-103: hehe
screw you guys, i’m going home!
21 Sep 2010, 09:04 am
Jake se wynplaas maak seker nie geld nie
21 Sep 2010, 09:07 am
@JUSM(JUSM)-101:
Yes, Winning Ways (Pty) Ltd is under provisional liquidation!
21 Sep 2010, 09:10 am
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-106:
Oops, make that “Jake White’s Winning Way (Pty) Ltd”.
21 Sep 2010, 10:38 am
@JUSM(JUSM)-104:
Thanks Keo, you could have at least waited till I attended one of these before going to court!
21 Sep 2010, 10:39 am
In fact given the heading of his column, this is unforgivable!!!!
21 Sep 2010, 10:56 am
jake white could not even keep his company afloat and then he expexted us to entrust him with the bok job!karma jake…rember that when you go gunning for another bloke’s job.could not have happened to a better person !
21 Sep 2010, 13:48 pm
Jake White identifier of talent in SA ?? I wonder if he would have identified broussouw , Aplon or De Jongh ?
Jake White is a good manager of people , not a good coach or selector and now we see not a good manager of companies either.
21 Sep 2010, 17:11 pm
Truly unbelievable! According to Cape Times, Jake was not happy with the renumeration he was getting from Highbury Safika (R50 000 p/month). Said he was being ripped off. But he started making these claims as soon as “Jakes winning ways” became profitable.
I cannot trust Keo to be objective about the whole Jake White thing anymore. There is just too much off the ball stuff going on between Jake and Keo to truly believe it does not affect what gets written on this blog. Case in point is this article??? I mean wtf? Keo seems to be doing some sort of damage control on this matter. Trying to justify the original intention of their partnership…”to coach coaches”!
All tears aside…I wonder if this is the reason he has not landed a top coaching contract recently…because as a partner or employee…he is just too difficult to work with!
21 Sep 2010, 17:23 pm
@sparticus(sparticus)-111:
You were doing well until you mentioned Aplon on the same line as talent (unless you’re refering to Toys ‘r Us type talent)
I guess it goes with ‘dimunitive returns’ though.
23 Sep 2010, 09:32 am
South African rugby was traditionally build a’round a massive
dominating forward pack a competent scrum half and a fly half
with canon feet ,kicking at least from 25 to 25.
It was South Africa that engineered the modern scrum from
4-3-1 (sounds silly -but that is how it started) to 3-4-1
and invented the scrum half dive pass.
In 1956 the Springbok front row was so dominant that the Kiwis
brought in Skinner ex-NZ boxing champion who reduced Jaap
Bekker’s face to a bloody mess.
The Boks took revenge in 1960 and bent the All Black front row
like a couple of nails.
But that is all history, Springbok dominance is no longer
guaranteed and there more than international pack capable of holding their own against the Boks. During the period of
Bok dominance up front inventive back line play was neglected
by the dominant Northern Provinces but kept alive by the
WP-Natal and Free State and other smaller provinces who found
it difficult to compete up front.
The contrasting styles of rugby was kept alive by the two
arch rivals WP and Northern Transvaal.They dominated the
Currie Cup and have won more cups between the two of them than all other provinces combined.Since 1899 there have been 72 finals of which 66 resulted in outright winners.The Trophy was shared on 6 occasions. (figures in brackets reflect no of sole wins)
The following reflects the overall position.
32 Western Province (sharing it on four occasions -twice with Border and Blue Bulls)(28 )
23 Blue Bulls (sharing it on four occasions twice with WP, once with Golden Lions and Cheetahs)(19 )
9 Lions (sharing it once with Blue Bulls 1971)(8)
5 Natal
4 Free State Cheatahs (sharing it once with Blue Bulls)(3)
3 Griqualand West (3)
2 Border (sharing it twice)(0)
From the above table it is clear that Provinces that favoured
running rugby have been the more successful franchises.
So why is it that South African international rugby is still modelled on Blue Bulls rugby?
23 Sep 2010, 17:43 pm
I have been coaching black schoolboy team,Itembelihle,for the last 30 years and have found that the forwards are ok for schoolboy rugby but too small to compete in any other league! The problem in the townships are that there is no assistance with development,what we have introduced now is a gym and we are trying to get the right supplements to bulk the boys, but it is difficult to get sponsors for the right supplements. Saru must support us with the necessary supplements,it is the only way to get them big enough, here we only hear of transformation but see nothing! I have had Edward Ncula and Stofile in my office with many promises but up to date, nothing!
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