Mallett should coach Cats
7 May 2012
SIMON BORCHARDT says the Cheetahs and the Lions should play as the Cats again from 2013 to accommodate the Kings.
With Sanzar CEO Greg Peters having made it crystal clear that Super Rugby cannot be expanded to include a sixth South African franchise until the end of 2015 (when the current broadcast deal expires), Saru has to find a way to fit six franchises into five spots.
Saru’s executive council has already voted to include the Kings from 2013, so their place in next year’s tournament is no longer up for debate. They will be there.
This means that Saru either has to relegate one of the current five franchises (probably the Lions, who are last in the SA conference) or create a merger.
The latter option makes the most sense to me as no region would miss out on Super Rugby. In my opinion, South Africa’s two worst-performing franchises in Super Rugby over the past 17 years, the Cheetahs and the Lions, should play as the Cats again from 2013 (having done so from 1998 to 2005), with four league matches being played at Ellis Park and four at the Free State Stadium.
It would be up to the franchise to decide who coaches the Cats. In a perfect world, you’d want both John Mitchell and Naka Drotske on the coaching team, but there’d almost certainly be a clash of egos and understandably so. Picking one of them to be head coach of the Cats at the other’s expense would obviously also create problems in the squad as one group of players would be favoured by a coach who knows them well.
The best way forward would be to appoint a head coach who has no ties to either union or loyalties to either group of players. Someone who would simply pick the best team possible. Someone with a strong personality who would be able to stamp out any discord in the squad and get the players working together.
To me, the obvious candidate to coach a Cats team would be Nick Mallett, who is currently unemployed having been overlooked by England (a decision the RFU may soon come to regret). Mallett is highly respected in South African rugby and if anyone can make the Cats marriage work (as Laurie Mains managed to do in 2001 when the Cats reached the Super 12 semi-finals) it’s him.
In Monday’s Business Day newspaper, when asked about a possible Cats merger, Mitchell was quoted as saying that it ‘could be effective with a strong leader involved.’
He’s right. And that leader should be Mallett.
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318 Comments
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8 May 2012, 00:49 am
@skopskiet(skopskiet)-299: Gaan speel in die verkeer – vat jou familie en jou wingerd stokkies saam met jou.
Ek dink WP moet gaan. Their trophy cabinet has been the most empty over the last 10 years.
8 May 2012, 00:52 am
Ja Watson snr should ridden that snotty pompous pompom from Melbourne right off his pompom horse and told him to take his glamorous Melbournian dollar signs and shove them where the sun ain’t ever gonna shine.. that’s what they shoulda done.. But seems Johnny come lately Reilly got his fanciful wish granted by Peters and now both Kings and Lions gotta suck on the hind Sanzar titty .. either one or the other.
8 May 2012, 00:57 am
Whitehead played for UCT and was discovered by Robbie Fleck.. that’s who pilfered him.. but he’s from EP.. and was superfluous to WP needs so Sharkievarkies lapped him up most mercenary mercifully indeed.
isn’t this dumb Dusky doos already fck’d off to some Nordic Valhalla.. wtf this pompous pitiful white nosed prick still doing crying racism on a SA rugby site.. of all goddamn places…
8 May 2012, 00:59 am
@skopskiet(skopskiet)-302: Yes – The Rand could dominate proceedings like that too – just as soon as it strengthens to the point where it is stronger than any of the first world currencies.
ANY….let me know when that happens….
But while the country is run by a bunch of lunatics like it was in the past, and like it is now – South Africa will always remain the laughing stock of the world. I think SANZAR has allowed the Kings in, because it will bring some amusement to the competition.
8 May 2012, 00:59 am
yep, probably the fairest now is lions will have to be relegated, which will quite probably destroy a region already on its knees, then there will have to be an ongoing relegation system, problem is Sa actually need 6 regions like the provinces used to be since they cater to different school systems and feeder areas, the bulls are north, the lions are joburg and the east and west rand, cheetahs are bloem and kwas with grey college basically a reus, western cape and eastern cape all massive rugby nurseries. I dont see the problem with SA having 6 sides, its all about the travel and the autralasians got 10 sides. It should be the S16 or S18, but with less rugby, each team only plays half the teams in one year and then the other half in the next year. in fact, they might even have to pull our super rugby players from currie cup, a real shame, but surely the way its gotta go, these okes are too rundown for the test season.
8 May 2012, 01:00 am
@skopskiet(skopskiet)-303: I’ll stick around – just because it irritates you.
8 May 2012, 01:01 am
nighty night
the waning moon is bright
don’t dance away your sad eyed sorrow in the aurora fire light
night night
8 May 2012, 01:02 am
@cab(cab)-305: Buddy – if you could open your eyes, see past the ‘expats trying to denigrate South Africa’ and the Bushveld braaivleis smoke that’s obscuring your vision, you would realise this is not the only thing happening in South Africa which is rotting the whole thing from the core. Its not just in sport – its everywhere.
8 May 2012, 01:02 am
@skopskiet(skopskiet)-307: Vrek jy…
8 May 2012, 01:17 am
@cab(cab)-305: actually when you break it down like its supposed to be.. where the feeder systems should be nurtured and cared for .. then the only ones who don’t deserve a spot in the conferences are the mercenary franchises who buy in talent from outside their region.. like Melbourne and Perth and Durban .. and revert to the feeder systems like it traditionally used to be.
8 May 2012, 02:05 am
Jeez, talk about a hospital pass for Mallet……………doubt he would even consider it.
8 May 2012, 04:14 am
I can only assume this is just another step in brainwashing the masses to accept the Kings then! A Cats franchise makes as little sense as keo looking in the adult section for clothes, total waste of time.
Who in their right mind want to put people living 400+ km apart together to play a team sport for 6 months of the year? I will tell you who, a person trying to shift focus from an even more stupid idea of a guarentee to a team currently lagging so far behind any super level that it is…well stupid to even think they ‘deserve’ a spot!
We can all see right through your plan keo…
8 May 2012, 04:15 am
PS Did I take my wife’s glasses this morning or is the font size set to extra small today?
8 May 2012, 05:03 am
@Slartibartfast(Slartibartfast)-313:
Ok never mind, got the right glasses on but someone played around with my zoom…90% is so much smaller than 100%
8 May 2012, 06:02 am
Mark Keohane, on 702 sounds like he has something to Hide, I have never heard a journo stutter so much. Keo and his cronies are running an ANTI-LION train and it is going to back fire.
8 May 2012, 07:41 am
I think a lions & cheetahs merger would be unfair to the cheetahs who have played their best rugby in Super rugby since inception. The Lion’s franchise is a broken system, the union leaders at Ellis Park obviously are not doing a great job.
The lions have been embarrasing since Pienaar and Wiese left the union. The last couple of years have been pathetic. Yes they won the currie cup, but Super rugby is about bating foreign opposition and they have not done that in quite a while.
But in the same breath I think the Kings will be just as pathetic and will not get close to 10th spot in super rugby for at least 5 years.
8 May 2012, 09:05 am
@BreakdownBoy(goodstuff)-316: How are they going to get to 10th spot if they cannot compete at Vodacom cup, if somebody will explain this to me I will change my mind. I might be mistaken but I do not think EP has ever won the currie cup in its entire history. Sorry but this is all a plot against the Lions !
8 May 2012, 09:16 am
@skopskiet(skopskiet)-299: Humurous how skopshyte proposes a number of “mergers” featuring every South African team under the sun EXCEPT the Stormers?! Why the fark are they so special senile-skoppiekins?
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