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Mark Keohane was at his aggressive best (or worst?) with his forthright comments about the appointment of Allister Coetzee as the new coach of the Springboks.
“Coetzee, for all his experience as Stormers head coach and Springboks assistant coach, does not rank among the ten best coaches in the world,” the bumptious South African rugby pundit wrote.
“A second-rate administration has settled for second-rate coaching appointments.”
Coetzee’s record is hardly second-rate. He coached the Stormers to a lost Super Rugby final in 2010 against the Bulls, and made the semi-finals in the next two seasons.
Earlier, he coached the fabled Western Province to two Currie Cup titles.
He was assistant coach to Jake White when the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup 2007.
In terms of available talent – or lack thereof if you are in the Keohane camp – Coetzee has about the best record of any of the South African coaches currently plying their trade.
Why not have an outsider, a non-South African coaching the Springboks?
A great rugby nation like South Africa should never even contemplate such a move. There has to be a determination that someone brought up in the Rainbow Nation and its rugby experience needs to be the coach of the national side. The integrity of the Springboks culture demands this.
I supported the Robbie Deans appointment as the Wallaby coach, and the merits of his coaching stint out-weighted the demerits. But I would never support this experiment being repeated. And I remain critical of the Waratahs appointing former All Black Daryl Gibson as their head coach, on the grounds that he is denying a qualified Australian from holding a plum Australian rugby coaching job.
By going to an outside coach, and this applies too with the Super Rugby franchises, a concession is made that there are no native-born coaches capable of doing the job.
Once this slippery slope is created, coaching jobs in Super Rugby and for the Springboks (the issue under discussion) will become like managers’ jobs in football that go to anyone, whether the manager has any affiliation with the club or the nation concerned.
In the end, as with England football, the position is reached where English managers rarely get the experience to be considered as the manager of England.
In rugby we are seeing what could happen in South Africa with British rugby, where all of the British and Irish national teams are coached by New Zealanders and an Australian.
This might be considered fair enough in a British sporting culture that is conditioned by a football culture. But it should not be considered good enough by the SARU, and it hasn’t been.
Allister Coetzee faces a number of problems, most of them none of his own making, but all of them having some input from him.
Problem 1 concerns the dire legacy to South African rugby of the ‘Jakeball’ method, developed by Jake White.
There is an element of a Faustian pact with the devil about the Jakeball method. It undoubtedly was responsible for the Springboks winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup, but – and this is a crucial qualification – adherence to this method has virtually destroyed attacking rugby, rugby played with skill and speed, that used to be the hallmark of the Springboks.
In 2007, All Blacks coach Graham Henry stated that he was not prepared to coach his team to play rugby in the negative, perpetual box kicks, bash-it-up, play-for-penalties Jakeball style. He said he’d rather not win the Rugby World Cup than give up the Total Rugby game he wanted his side to play.
The result of this courageous stand by Henry is that New Zealand won the next two Rugby World Cups, in 2011 and 2015. The All Blacks, particularly in the last four years, have been the dominant side in world rugby, and the most watchable. And New Zealand Super Rugby teams have dominated that tournament, as well.
Coetzee was a disciple of the Jakeball method. Now, he needs to use the time he has as Springboks coach to build on the strengths of South African rugby, its physicality, and add the polish and sparkle that Bok sides used to have in destroying their opponents.
If he continues with the grinding out tactics he employed with the Stormers, my fearless prediction is that the All Blacks, Wallabies and the Pumas will all dominate his team.
Problem 2 involves the transformation requirement. But this problem could actually be helpful if used in a positive way.
Transformation has the target that must be hit, apparently, of at least half of the Springboks being players of colour within the next three years. The Springboks squad that won the bronze medal in Rugby World Cup 2015 had about a quarter of its members as players of colour.
Coetzee insists that the “uniqueness” of South African society and culture “can make us stronger”. If he really believes that, then transformation is a good thing.
I watch all the South African Super Rugby teams, and they have as much talent as New Zealand. The difference is that New Zealand coaches encourage flair, speed and attacking play. South African coaches, and Coetzee is a leading example of this negativity, positively discourage it.
There are many players of colour among the loose forwards and in every position of the back line in South Africa who should or could play with spirit and verve for the Springboks. So rather than the quota being a selection burden, if an expansive game plan is developed, transformation could be the engine to drive the Springboks into a new, great era.
Problem 3 is the decision by SARU and endorsed by Coetzee, unfortunately, to select players for the Springboks who are not playing in the Super Rugby tournament.
The problem with this policy is that it does not encourage the development – or even the selection, in some cases – of young players of great potential ahead of seniors playing for their retirement bonus in Europe or Japan.
Duane Vermeulen, Bryan Habana, Bismarck du Plessis and Francois Louw are leading candidates for Springbok honours who are playing outside of South Africa.
It would be a tremendous boost to the local players if Coetzee stated that these players will only be considered for a Rugby World Cup tournament.
Players do not improve playing in Europe. As many critics have noted, the European clubs do not care about the international careers of their overseas players. They play them to a standstill and the point of physical exhaustion, and then continue to play them.
Even critics of southern hemisphere rugby like Brian Moore now concede that the game has been taken to a new level of fitness and skills, especially by the New Zealand teams, in the Super Rugby tournament and the Rugby Championship.
The dynamic play of the Lions has shown, or should have shown, the Springboks selectors and coach that South African players are capable of playing the expansive and attractive game when their coaches believe in that game, and provide the systems for the players to be successful playing it.
The other important point here is that if the national side is selected from players playing at home, the coaches have time to organise training camps to check on fitness levels, and consider the playbook and tactics.
Michael Cheika, for instance, has already had several camps with players he considers will make up his Wallabies train-on squad.
The All Blacks, typically, are much further advanced. They know that they don’t have to concern themselves with overseas players, so the leadership group has already been selected and got together to plot out the campaign against Wales.
I began this discussion about Allister Coetzee with a long quotation from Mark Keohane.
Keohane will be proved right.
Coetzee is not a second-rate coach – his record as a head coach, in fact, is better than Steve Hansen’s when he took over the All Blacks. But he will never emulate Hansen’s achievements.
Hansen had eight years under the tutelage of Graham Henry, who – with Rod Macqueen – is the most accomplished and innovative coach in the professional era. Under the The Master, Hansen learnt the secrets of Total Rugby.
Coetzee has spent his eight years after the 2007 World Cup espousing and putting into practice the Jake White negative game. It seems an impossibility for Coetzee to suddenly convert to coaching a modern, expansive and trophy-winning game after his years with the Stormers.
Some other coach is going to have to drag the Springboks kicking and screaming into the 21st century in their rugby thinking.
South African are never going to be the dominating force they should be until the Curse of Jakeball is killed off.
I can’t see the complicit Coetzee as that killer.