Clap, clap ... Venter's appointment should be applauded

Beeno and Keo on the same page meaning Keo gets this one correct!

Brendan Venter is a very good appointment for the Springboks. It is an appointment to be applauded and the results will be immediate.

Don’t get in a huff and puff about the role (for now) being on a consultancy basis.

The South African Rugby Union has got this one right because in Venter they have given Springbok coach Allister Coetzee one of the game’s innovators and they’ve also added much needed rugby intellectual capital and coaching experience to what was an inexperienced and inept Test coaching team in 2016.9AGAIN THIS ONLY UNDERLINES THAT COETZEE WAS A RACIST APPOINTMENT)

Don’t be deterred by Venter’s Italian rugby consultancy or the fact that he has other consultancies. He consults and his service is his rugby knowledge. How that gets used depends on whoever is the beneficiary of his consultancy.

Venter’s situation is different to most in international coaching. He prefers consulting and working with existing coaching teams in putting in place a philosophy and a structure. He has interests outside of professional rugby, most notably his medical practice.

Venter has in recent years made no secret that he needs the stimulation of his medical practice. He should be applauded for being up front about the balance he seeks as a person and also the very specific work service he provides to the game.

The most important thing for now is that Venter is involved with the Springboks. Too many very good rugby brains in this country are not utilised or consulted. Too many are given an outdated ultimatum that they must either commit full-time or not be a consideration.

Consultants have an invaluable role to play in Springbok rugby. It’s great to see this finally acknowledged and even better is that the consultant is home grown and home based. Country of origin or citizenship should never be an issue. If the individual is good enough then use that person.

But it is an advantage when that rugby consultant is a former Springbok, a World Cup winner and culturally understands every complex dynamic of South African rugby and South African society. It also is an advantage when that individual is strong willed, very opinionated and doesn’t suffer fools.(GIVEN THE FOOLS INVOLVED IN COACHING THE BOKS THIS COULD HEATED)

Venter isn’t a soft touch or a yes man. He doesn’t consult to be popular. There are those who find him too intense, too abrasive, too in their face.

Venter divides opinion and that’s because he is unconventional and refuses to stick around if he can see he is wasting his time.

Venter’s critics have accused him of doing a runner when the going gets tough, but I disagree. I believe he leaves when he feels he can add no value or the value he feels he can give is not maximised.

Venter aligned to Italy because of a long association at London Irish with Italian coach Connor O’Shea and it is unfair to want to condemn his value to the Italian team because of heavy defeats to the All Blacks and Ireland.

Venter’s philosophy and intent can also only be as good as the players with which he works, which is why I expect there to be immediate evidence of his influence when the Springboks play France.

Coetzee has spoken glowingly of Venter’s value and I sincerely hope that Coetzee doesn’t get spooked by Venter’s presence and doesn’t limit Venter’s role to that of defensive and exit area specialist. Venter can give so much more to Coetzee, especially as an advisor and sounding board when it comes to selection and strategy. (THAT SOUNDS PROMISING!)

Venter had success as a player and coach in South Africa, but his coaching credentials were made with what he achieved at Saracens and his legacy is the strength of his succession planning at Saracens, who currently are the European and English champions.

Venter’s impact is that he can introduce systems and tutor and mentor others to continue to evolve these systems.

His role, for me, is bigger than the need to commit full-time with the Springboks. There was a discussion about the ethics and integrity of Venter working with the Boks now and potentially against them when Italy hosts the Boks in November. It is very unconventional but for now the Springboks can’t refuse his contribution because his ways are not the norm.

I’d much rather have Venter working with the Boks against France than working with France against the Boks. The same view applies in respect to any quality South African coaching brain.

I didn’t believe Coetzee was the right appointment as Bok coach and wrote that before he lost eight of 12 Tests in charge. My view on him as the head coach remains but credit to him and SARU for bringing in Venter, whose influence will ensure the Boks will win the series against France.

OF COURSE BEENO HAS ALWAYS KNOW VENTER WAS A GENUINE RUGBY BRAIN. I HAVE ALSO SUPPORTED THAT RUGBY GENIUS RASSIE ERASMUS.

 I hope this bloke does improve the Boks as most kiwis on this site have had to walk on egg shells as the Boks plummeted to new depths. It's no fun when your main competitor is down & out. 
The Poms have improved and are bleating loudly and we all look forward to playing them but the real comp is with the Boks IMO. The Lions series will be good and present its challenges but bring on the real B oks!!

I am not convinced about Venter. 
He spends allot of time in rugby for someone who claims his medical practice is his priority. 
Jake White recently pointed out that Venter can even use his medical practice as an excuse to bail out on a rugby project- when things fall apart.
Venter is a stock standard SA coach. He has some good points- but when the pressure is on it will be revert to a conservative game plan. 
The game plan is to play more of the game in the opponents half. If this is not working kick more. 
Venter chaired the Indaba - where everyone spoke about the problems - but less was spoken on practical solutions- like getting more Kiwi skills coaches. 

 Beeno
There is no way that Venter and Smith will ever be acceptable to some people on this site and in some ways I agree with them.   Venter was supposed to be helping White in 2014 for the Sharks and opted out from helping and the Sharks had the same simpleton lack of backline game plan as the Springboks had in 2015 and especially in 2016.
They will refer to the Six-Nations game where the defense of Italy became a questionable situation for - without referring ever to the Italy-English where the English team attacks were frustrated especially during the first half.   
Maybe the Smith-Venter combination can have an impact - but will Coetzee ever allow the two to have a say in team selection?   Coetzee did not allow Ackerman to have a say in the SA "B" team selection and handed him a very discordant team four days before the first game against the England "B" team and then Ackerman got blamed by some of our local experts for the losses on two successive weekends in June last year.    Is the same not going to happen to those two in future?   
The Springboks can use that Kiwi advisor of the Stormers who turned the backline of the Stormers around and made it more effective.   That in itself would represent a major improvement.      

Well he can't lose can he, if the Boks improve everyone will say its his influence, if the team stays the same or gets even worse it will still be the coach's fault.
Mind you if beeno is backing him he must be bloody useless

 Oak please  to recognize a brain you have to be a brain. Now at this point we have a big problem. Sharkbokkie clearly has no clue and JW is just as bad. Ou maaaaikie is sadly floundering on the matter and crustie fan as usual gets it all wrong.Take it from Beeno - Dr Venter is a rugby brain. How he will fare with the half bakes running the Bok coaching fiasco is anybodies guess as he doesn't easily tolerate fools.
Naturally Venter would have problems with some oaks here. Bwahhahahahahahahahha

It takes one to know oaks!!

 Beeno
I am not floundering at all - I am clearly stating the obvious, namely will the Venter-Smith combination be allowed to have a say in team selection and actual strategies to be followed or will Coetzee allow them to participate as was the case thus far?        

 YOU SAID MORE THAN THAT OU MAAAIKIE but that is a fair question. I think though poor Alistair will be overawed by Venters vast knowledge and strong personality. But I could be wrong on this.

The appearance of Venter is more important than many oaks may think. Here are the views of Gavin Rich:

The announcement that Brendan Venter would be joining the Springbok coaching team to oversee the defence and exits probably should have gone further if there was complete honesty.

For 47-year-old Venter will almost certainly not just be a defence coach in the Bok set-up. He has seldom been “just” anything in any of the coaching positions he has been involved in, for his role is usually understated.

Take his stint at the Sharks as a prime example. When John Plumtree was unceremoniously exited from the Durban rugby scene in 2013, it was to Brad MacLeod-Henderson that the new Sharks CEO at the time, John Smit, turned as Plumtree’s official replacement.

Only that wasn’t really the full story. MacLeod-Henderson was a young coach who’d previously mainly been coaching at school level. The reaction of people in the know to his appointment was “How can that be possible?”

Only there was much more to it than met the eye. Venter, the medical doctor from Cape Town (well, Strand to be precise), was involved in a consultancy capacity as a technical director, but was really the coach in all but name.

But while Smit had Venter in mind for a full time role when he effectively axed Plumtree, it was never Venter’s plan.(Please note ou maaaaikie) The bottom line with him is that he just doesn’t go for full-time jobs in rugby as his other career in medicine is too important for him. There are some who work in rugby who believe that is a fault. Someone who has worked closely with Venter in several roles and jobs once told me that he felt Venter sold himself short by not committing himself lock, stock and two smoking barrels and that as a result the unions or clubs that contracted him perhaps short-changed themselves too.

That may have been the case when Venter was involved with the Sharks under Gary Gold in 2015, but in 2013 he was the brains around which a famous Currie Cup win was formulated. The Sharks went to Cape Town as rank underdogs for the final, but Venter’s brilliant tactical brain came to the fore and the Western Province weaknesses were cleverly exposed and exploited.

The only problem was that Venter never intended staying with the Sharks in that initial stint for longer than three months. History reflects that Jake White took over as Sharks director of rugby and while the Sharks managed to win the South African Super Rugby conference for the first time under White, many of the good work done by Venter directing a change in culture that the players thrived on was undone.

Venter’s line was that although rugby might be a player’s job, he should think of himself as more than that. He encouraged the growth of the individual away from the game. He promoted a family environment that had helped Saracens flourish when he was working for the English club. His approach to coaching was similar to the participatory management style of former Proteas and India cricket coach Gary Kirsten.

When White came in, he told the players they were rugby players and were owned by the union. His school masterly approach was very different, and it led to behind the scenes unhappiness that played a role in White leaving the union.(YOU GETTING A CLEARER PICTURE OU MAAAAIKIE)

Venter has many strengths. Those players who have worked with him speak highly of the environment he helps create at the unions he has been connected to, but he also clearly ranks among the likes of a Rassie Erasmus as being possessed of the sort of heavyweight rugby brain that perhaps the Boks lacked in Allister Coetzee’s first year in charge. (AS I EXPLAINED TO THE STRUGGLING OAKS IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE. RASSIE AND VENTER ARE SERIOUS RUGBY BRAINS.)

He has worked closely with Coetzee before and they have long been confidants. It wasn’t a coincidence that Venter suddenly popped up as the co-ordinator of the national coaching indaba that was Coetzee’s brain child last year. Coetzee has a high regard for his brain and his abilities. And after being out-coached by Venter in that 2013 domestic final, so he should.

I am not sure how long Venter will be involved with the Boks. Judging from his public comments so far, neither is Coetzee. What we should be fairly certain of though is that while he is officially employed on a consultancy basis and is just a designated “defence and exits” coach, his role and his influence will extend way beyond that. And that can only be a good thing.