Saru the root of all Boks’ ‘evil’

The Boks’ underwhelming performances are a symptom of the lack of leadership and self-serving interests engulfing Saru.

SA Rugby Union (Saru) are the root of all that is wrong with rugby in the country. The Boks’ underwhelming performances in the last few years are but a symptom of the lack of leadership and self-serving interests that have long engulfed the organisation.

In the modern and professional era of the game one would have thought that Saru would move with the times but they seem to be stuck in a galaxy where rugby is played by dinosaurs and the word “professional” is a sin to mention.

Many of the men entrusted with taking the game forward in Saru’s general council are mostly the same men who have taken rugby to the brink of disaster and they cannot be the same people given the responsibility to take the game out of the abyss and into a successful future.

Making matters worse is the resignation of former president Oregan Hoskins in August, which has plunged the organisation into further turmoil as a handful of men are now jostling for the position to stroke their egos.

Saru’s chief executive, Jurie Roux has a dark cloud hanging over him with allegations of misappropriation of funds during his time at the University of Stellenbosch and until that issue gets resolved, business will be reluctant to throw their money into Saru’s coffers.

There is no general manager of high performance after Rassie Erasmus vacated the job a few months ago and left with one of the brightest defence coaching minds in Jacques Nienaber for Ireland.

And it has been reported that Erasmus also left with the intellectual property he had built up over the years as head of Saru’s Mobil Unit which also monitors thousands of players around the country.

Saru are intellectually bankrupt and can’t see the forest for the trees and this is the very same organisation that is the custodian of the game and meant to ensure that it grows and prospers into becoming a world superpower.

Coaching staff

It was always going to be difficult for coach Allister Coetzee to assemble his own backroom staff given the little time he had in the job before taking on his first series against Ireland.

Coetzee may have got his way with the appointment of forwards coach Matthew Proudfoot but the truth of the matter is the rest of his management team were forced on him.

One cannot doubt the experience assistant coach Johann van Graan gained during Heyneke Meyer’s four-year tenure as forwards and attack coach, but there was always going to be a clash of ideology and implementation in the roles of Van Graan and Proudfoot in the team.

Backline coach Mzwandile Stick has the potential to become a world-class coach given enough time in the role but little was done to equip him for the pitfalls that lay ahead in the job.

Yes, Stick has played and captained the national Sevens team at the highest level and he proved more than capable of being a head coach when he took an unheralded Eastern Province Under-19 team to winning the interprovincial title against much fancied and expensively assembled teams.

But, another year or so as assistant coach at Super Rugby level would have ensured that Stick was ready for the job. His appointment was another hospital pass by Saru and now his competence is being unjustifiably questioned.

Also, the overnight conversion of Chean Roux from a technical analyst to a defence coach was another case of Saru shooting themselves in the foot. Had the time been taken to equip Roux with the necessary skills as a defence coach under the mentorship of the now departed Jacques Nienaber and former Bok defence coach John McFarland, then nobody would be screaming that Roux is out of his depth. Coetzee is in desperate need of coaches with international experience to help guide his management team but more importantly to give the Boks an edge against other international teams that have well established and street-smart coaching units.

Planning

While many mother unions around the world plan for success, it has become a norm in South Africa that there is no plan and therefore failure has become acceptable.

Out of the 11 coaches that have been at the helm of the Springboks since re-admission in 1992, none of them were groomed for the job but rather stumbled upon it.

It has been the same for Coetzee and the failure to plan for life after Heyneke Meyer and for Saru to make a decision as early as last November when they knew Meyer would no longer be in charge, was a clear sign of Saru’s failure to plan for the future.

There has been no seamless transition from one Springbok coach to the next which means every man who takes a sip from the poisoned chalice has to start from scratch and is expected to hit the ground running.The lack of planning, and of a plan, is what has brought Springbok rugby to its knees and they will continue to hit new lows until a plan is put in place for now and beyond life after Coetzee.

Injured players

If you think Coetzee is picking his first-choice team each week the Boks play, think again… he is picking half a first team, with the rest of the players second-choice men.

And not until Saru and the Boks have a greater say in how certain players are managed will the national team be able to compete equally with and surpass the likes of New Zealand. For every Super Rugby franchise wants every ounce out of their players; many of them being played into the ground with little time off and even less time to recover from injuries.

The All Blacks, for example, have only had Sonny Bill Williams and Nehe Milner-Skudder out for long periods this year; the Boks have up to 15 first choice players sidelined.

Imagine if Coetzee could have picked the following players at any stage this season: Frans Malherbe, Julian Redelinghuys, Coenie Oosthuizen, Scarra Ntubeni, Marcel Coetzee, Siya Kolisi, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Duane Vermeulen, Cobus Reinach, Pat Lambie, Handré Pollard, Jan Serfontein, Cornal Hendricks, Ruan Combrinck and others.

For whatever reason, South African rugby doesn’t do enough to look after the wellbeing of our players.

Overseas players:

Saru’s lack of leadership is again evident in their indecision about whether overseas-based players should or shouldn’t be considered for the national team.

Apparently Coetzee can pick whoever he wants this season, but that is not the case for next year, and one’s then got to ask why? Also, should the coach be picking overseas players or not – what is Saru’s stance on the matter? Again, New Zealand do just fine without their overseas-based players, so perhaps the Boks should also tell those who’re after the money that they won’t play Test rugby.

Or, Saru must say that in this professional era every player will come into contention for the national team, no matter where they are based. Then Coetzee could pick Gurthro Steenkamp, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Jacques du Plessis, Pierre Spies, Ashley Johnson, Ruan Pienaar, Robert Ebersohn, Frans Steyn and Gio Aplon. And a whole lot of others, too.But already questions are being asked about why Coetzee is picking the likes of Willem Alberts, Bryan Habana, Francois Louw, Steven Kitshoff, Willie le Roux and Johan Goosen – players who may not be as dedicated to the Bok cause as those who ply their trade here week in and week out.

Combinations:

Successful teams are built over a few seasons; we’ve seen that with the All Blacks and even the Lions, so why should we expect a new-look and very different Bok team to hit the ground running?

Coetzee hasn’t been able to pick who he wants because of injuries to several players and he hasn’t been helped by the average showing of several players in Super Rugby where only the Lions really looked to be able to compete with the best.

Coetzee simply didn’t have a very deep pool to pick from in June and it’s got worse since then. And not helping matters is the fact that so many of the current squad hardly know each other.

Only the locks – Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager and Pieter-Steph du Toit – have played together before at this level of the game, while half-backs Faf de Klerk and Elton Jantjies know each other’s games well from Super Rugby, but it’s a big step up to Test level.

The back row is completely new, as are the centres – two departments where familiarity is crucial for optimum operation level. All the players used by Coetzee so far are outstanding individuals who’ve done the business at Super Rugby level, but they’ve been thrown into partnerships and been asked to perform, having not had the time to get to know the players next to them.

There’s simply no understanding between certain players and it’s resulted in the Boks looking disjointed on attack and in defence.

– The Sunday Independent