Matfield joins Bulls as consultant
5 Dec 2011
The Bulls have signed former Springbok lock Victor Matfield as a lineout consultant for the 2012 Super Rugby season.
The Bulls have confirmed that Matfield will work alongside the coaching staff, focusing on lineouts and general forward play.
‘Victor has been the backbone of the Bulls for many seasons and to have his continued presence in the team, although unfortunately not as a player anymore, is a real bonus for us,’ said Bulls director of rugby Heyneke Meyer.
‘He is generally rated as the finest lineout analyst in the game and we are proud and honoured to have him around.’
Matfield will also work as an analyst for Supersport next year.
‘I am very keen to get stuck in [on television] and will give it a full go, but it is no secret that I want to become involved in coaching too. This will afford me the opportunity to do both, something that I am very pleased about,’ Matfield said.
157 Comments
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5 Dec 2011, 17:38 pm
good
5 Dec 2011, 17:44 pm
Excellent. Good news for the Bulls, but more importantly good news for the Boks. Think we will need his service as a lineout coach.
5 Dec 2011, 17:52 pm
Money for nothing,good on him.
Let’s rope in other old Boks.
5 Dec 2011, 17:58 pm
Rugby players have far longer than their playing career to earn money, and focusing only on making the big bucks, rather than forming relationships and building contacts can be majorly detrimental to their career opportunities after their playing career is done.
Matfield earned a nice wad of cash while playing, and has now opened up a career in commentating and coaching, and will forever have a home at the Bulls and as part of South African rugby. I imagine it is the same with the likes of du Preez, Danie Rossouw, and probably even players such as Steenkamp, who left the Bulls in a way which allowed them to plan for the future.
I would imagine that a guy such as Jacque Fourie has now destroyed his connection with the two South African provinces he played for, as well as leaving a lot of supporters in the lurch. I am not sure how clever that was.
5 Dec 2011, 17:58 pm
Idle hands Vic, keep yourself busy!
How about helping out your team, Boland a little?
Come to the Cape Vic
You know you want too…..
5 Dec 2011, 18:32 pm
Matfield’s arrogance will help him squeeze his way into the bok coaching setup sooner or later.
Keep him on as an consultant, if he’s serious about coaching he’ll have to earn his colours like any other coach.
SA supporters should be fed up with old players being drafted into top coaching positions. It just doesnt work. A coach needs to mature with at least 10-15 years coaching experience below the belt.
Just look at Martin Johnson, another old player turned coach f-up.
5 Dec 2011, 18:44 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-6: SA coaches : Mitch, Plum, AC, Rassie, Naka, Venter, Theron….all ex players involved in coaching some of the top teams….
5 Dec 2011, 18:52 pm
Lineout consultant? Looks like the gravy train has arrived in rugby! What’s next – left wing consultant? Based on this new trend you can have a consultant for every position in the team. Gravy!
5 Dec 2011, 18:55 pm
I know its only mainly a consultancy job, but I reckon it is too soon for Vic especially given he will be joining his old union.
Things are different on the other side of the touchline Vic…
5 Dec 2011, 18:58 pm
Good. Vic can pass on his knowledge to the next generation.
Having specialists involved is the way of professional sport. It’s another example of Meyer embracing a professional setup at Loftus.
5 Dec 2011, 18:58 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-9: It gives him a nice leg up. He’ll move onward and upward.
5 Dec 2011, 19:06 pm
@Michael(mikeybrass)-11:
No doubt he has a lot he can pass on to a new generation, but I have often seen how a legendary player status is soon forgotten (especially by people he played with) once he grabs a whistle on the training pitch
5 Dec 2011, 19:30 pm
DOR
5 Dec 2011, 20:05 pm
@My nr1 nr2 too(trupisero)-7: Take their age into consideration, look at their history in coaching, thats all that should count…
5 Dec 2011, 20:07 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-13:
DOL
(Director of Lineout)
5 Dec 2011, 20:25 pm
Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it!
5 Dec 2011, 20:43 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-9:
Disagree. Rassie went from player to Currie Cup winning coach in one season.
And Vic understands rugby better than Honest Rassie does, in my view.
5 Dec 2011, 20:44 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-12:
Also, I don’t quite see how being a specialist line out consultant can be equated to taking on a head coaching role, which is what Rassie did straight after hanging up his boots.
5 Dec 2011, 22:01 pm
What next, a specialist to coach how to apply a band aid?
5 Dec 2011, 22:35 pm
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-17:
Do you rate Rassie?
5 Dec 2011, 22:44 pm
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-18:
I take Naas Botha as an example.
Dude is a legend, old school legend at that with a very good view/idea on professional rugby.
Also always wanted to be a coach, give back, part knowledge type thing.
What did he do?
He is coaching a school team next year with the view of working his way up in the COACHING ranks.
Great players don’t always make great coaches (old cliche), but there is no reason why they can’t given they’ve come through the correct schooling to do so.
This might be a gross generalization on my part, but I would put money on Naas over Vic to become the better coach in 5 years time given just that.
Naas Botha had a certain amount of maturity about him when he made his decision to get into coaching, Vic for my money is rushing things coming off the back of a hugely successful playing career.
Just me.
5 Dec 2011, 22:45 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-20:
He’s better than Allistair. Worse than Heyneke.
Point is, I can’t think of a better way for a legendary player to migrate towards an eventual head coaching position than starting out as a consultant in a very narrow area of the game – one in which he happened to be the best that ever lived – and then to gradually move up to assistant coach, Currie Cup B division coach, Currie Cup A division coach and eventually Super Rugby head coach.
To me, Matfield’s approach is far more measured than Rassie’s was, when he went straight from player to head coach.
5 Dec 2011, 22:48 pm
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-22:
Again, just me…
Rassie for my money is a **** coach, but brilliant analyst. There is quite a difference.
5 Dec 2011, 22:51 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-21:
Since you used the Naas Botha analogy. What Vic has done is the equivalent of Naas becoming kicking coach for the Bulls.
A far cry from making tactical decisions or deciding game strategy.
I respect your opinion, but I do think you are being overly critical in this instance.
5 Dec 2011, 22:52 pm
Tac do you love bakkies botha?
5 Dec 2011, 22:54 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-25:
Don’t waste time with introductory questions. Just get to the point.
What are you getting at?
5 Dec 2011, 23:00 pm
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-24:
Victor’s ambition is coaching, not consulting. And yes, I might overcomplicate things here but my instinct and experience tells me Victor will still want to lead (as he is used to) even in coaching and it is a very different ball-game he is getting into.
More often than not that does not work.
I think I mentioned to you once I asked JJ 2 years ago who is coaching the Bulls forwards (I actually did not know at the time) and he said Victor. I have no doubt the guy can coach, but it is quite different coaching as a player and coaching just as a coach.
Let’s see, I hope it works out for him but I reserve my opinion on this for now.
It is an interesting scenario though as I have my thoughts on Allister too and how I think he a great (hands-on) coach but lacks the technical and disciplinary backbone where balance becomes key.
Perhaps the Bulls and Victor has this balance or will get it and I might be proven a fool for my comments.
But I must be off now, take this discussion up again tomorrow or sometime soon.
Cheers!
5 Dec 2011, 23:01 pm
Tetchy
On othee thread I was ragging au revoir guy with I love bakkies botha in his nic and turns out many men love bakkies in a manly way. This confuses me.
Don’t get all snappish.
5 Dec 2011, 23:04 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-28:
Sorry. My mind was on Pissant’s apparent reluctance to see Victor as a rugby Super Being. I need to work on him some more.
In any case, no, I would not describe my views on Bakkies in that fashion.
6 Dec 2011, 01:17 am
Did we not read that Victor had bought in to Boland alongside PdV and someone else?
6 Dec 2011, 03:53 am
The Bulls had better subtract Matfield’s wages from what they’re now paying their forwards coach. After all, that person now doesn’t have lineout coaching in his job jar any more. Can’t get the same wage for doing less than before, surely?
6 Dec 2011, 04:09 am
@Jeez(Jeez)-6:
Martin Johnson didn’t have half the tactical nor analytical nouse Victor has both on the field and off…
6 Dec 2011, 04:28 am
Players like Vic and Rassie, who are avid students of the game, develop coaching skills while they are still playing. In soccer the player-manager is not uncommon. Different coaches develop differently so we can’t expect them all to progress at the same rate. Vic will probably be very successful even as a work in progress. Like Os as a scrum coach he is well placed to bring modern methods to the role.
6 Dec 2011, 05:36 am
Springboks should employ:
Big Vic as a line-out consultant.
Cobus Visagie as a scrummaging consultant.
Forget about Os.
6 Dec 2011, 05:39 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-34:
Springboks should worry about employing the correct mix of head-coach and capable assistants first… and then surrounding themselves with the best available consultants and team from scrummaging to mental coach’s…
6 Dec 2011, 05:42 am
Matfield was offered a couple of coaching positions in Australia earlier this year, so he is obviously rated around the world.
He has played against the majority of lineouts the Bulls will face this year in the Super 15, and if the stories about his preparation are to be believed, he has created his own video analysis also.
It ensures continuity after a massive brain drain, and will also be good for the young guys in the team, who I imagine practically worship Matfield.
A good decision by the Bulls.
6 Dec 2011, 05:44 am
@bryce_in_oz(bryce_in_oz)-35:
I realize that,
and those are the best consultants.
6 Dec 2011, 05:52 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-37:
If someone like Gert Smal come into play it’s debatable that either will be needed in that capacity…
6 Dec 2011, 06:08 am
Please Victor. If/when PDV is re-instated, stay far away from the Boks with your BS loyalties to your buddies. Keep Plod away too.
6 Dec 2011, 06:22 am
@bryce_in_oz(bryce_in_oz)-38:
Gert Smal was a loosie no?
Visagie & Matfield have been perfecting their trades for a long time…
So I’m not sure how much value they would add, but I’m guessing a lot.
6 Dec 2011, 06:25 am
@garth(garth)-39:
-_-
Always the optimist aren’t you.
The chances of PdV being reappointed are about ‘one in a million’.
You saying that’s what is going to happen just makes you sound like you shouldn’t get out of bed in the morning.
6 Dec 2011, 06:27 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-40:
Of course they would… particularly Matfield…
But it’s very difficult to forget after 4 yrs as Bok forwards coach how in his (Smal’s) first out as Ireland’s new forward coach… the Irish total dismantling of the Bok in both LO’s and to a lesser degree scrums…
6 Dec 2011, 06:30 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-41: I have little doubt that he will be reappointed. I am in no way supporting the view, I just think that SA Rugby have a history of making mistakes and do not expect anything to change.
6 Dec 2011, 06:40 am
@garth(garth)-43:
It won’t happen, guaranteed.
It’s about as likely as Rudolf Straueli getting the job again.
6 Dec 2011, 06:47 am
Lineout coach I get it …. but general forward play coach? Eish
BTW who is the bullies forward coach.
6 Dec 2011, 07:14 am
baie goeie nuus vir bulle, ek is seker hy sal ook by die juniors betrokke wees.
en hy sal verseker by die bokke betrokke wees met heynecke wat die bokke gaan afrig.
6 Dec 2011, 07:43 am
@kwas(kwas)-8: It is not a position it is a facet of the game. A very technical one at that too. It makes sense to have a lineout consultant.
@Roar my Lions …. Currie Cup Champions 2011(RL)-45: Ja that doesnt make sense.
6 Dec 2011, 07:45 am
that is loyalty you cannot buy for all the money in the world. very good move, very good move.
the stormers, for all the incredible supporters they have, at the end of the day are no more than just mercenary gladiators in the arena.. selling their wares for money, sidling up to the highest bidders…if schalk was not the highest paid open-sider in the history of the game would he still be so keen on wp?
respectfully sirs, this is what seperates the bulls from the rest, and we have to admit that. you can be sure that matfield’s involvement will extend far beyond his t&c’s of employment wrt lineouts and that he will in all likelyhood, selflessly avail himself to needs of the team because thats what he is…a team man…
and at the end of the day…rugby is a game won and lost as a team…
good luck going forward victor.
6 Dec 2011, 07:45 am
What a bunch of babies
New Zealand’s rugby World Cup-winning skipper Richie McCaw has lifted the lid on this year’s tension-packed final, finally breaking his silence over an alleged eye-gouging incident.
Previously, the flanker had only said he had been “poked in the eye or something… I don’t know if it was intentional”, but at a charity breakfast in Christchurch, he said that the final against France had got “filthy”.
“The French are worse when they are scared,” Fairfax Media reported McCaw as saying. “They were as bad as they have been and were going for the eyes.
“My eye was a bit sore for a while and I was struggling to see for a bit. I was surprised they didn’t cite him (Aurelien Rougerie).”
Rougerie escaped being cited for foul play in October’s final, which New Zealand won 8-7.
Video evidence suggesting the France centre had a case to answer only came outside the required 36 hours after the match.
The IRB will now look at extending the citing window after reviewing the footage.
6 Dec 2011, 07:56 am
@Sasuke(Sasuke)-49:
what a doos-
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