Gold to appoint Sharks coach

Wonderful news about him wanting to get youth structures in place. If it means the parasitic guppies will cease plundering the cheetahs and other franchises it will be a big boost all round. 

Ex Supersport

Cell C Sharks director of rugby Gary Gold denies that the union are advertising for the position of head coach of the senior team, but has confirmed that he will not be coaching the side going forward and that the search for a team mentor has started.

Gold was employed by the Sharks as director of rugby late last year, a role he filled successfully for England club Bath for a time, and was under the impression that it would be the function he would perform in Durban.

However, like his predecessor Jake White, he ended up doubling as head coach, meaning that the requirements of a director such as overseeing succession planning, recruitment and the youth levels have been neglected, with his late arrival at the Sharks at the end of the Japanese club season compounding the magnitude of the uphill task that he faced.

Gold said in conversation in March that his plan was to bring in a coach, and after a disastrous Vodacom Super Rugby season ended in bitter sweet style with a laboured 34-12 win over a second string Stormers team on the occasion of the departure of three Sharks legends, he confirmed reports that he is poised to make that move.

“I will focus on being a director of rugby, with a head coach coming in,” said Gold.

“It was always my intention to be a director of rugby, that was what I understood I was employed to be, but it didn’t work out that way initially for various reasons. I won’t kid anyone, there is a heck of a lot of work that needs to be done, and some of the structures have been neglected and will take time to get right.

“I need to focus on getting the youth structures right to guarantee the pipeline of talent that a union needs to be successful, and there are already plans we are working on. We need to get the age-group teams to start performing, and next year there will be a lot more effort put into the Vodacom Cup campaign. 

“As director I see it as my role to work with the various coaches employed by the Sharks across all levels to ensure that the style of rugby we want the union to be known for starts coming through and is understood by all the players.”

Gold said there hadn’t been any advertisements for the position of head coach, but that he had started making a few approaches and that he had a couple of candidates in mind. It is understood that a forwards coach based overseas is one of the targets of the Sharks, but Gold said everything would be announced and made clear in due course.

“There won’t be a major restructuring and I wouldn’t call it a clean out, but there will be changes,” he said.

Gold said that one of the first tasks was to prepare the Sharks for what he said was going to be a daunting Currie Cup season but one where there would be a lot of pressure after the Super Rugby failure.

“I can’t pretend we are happy with the way the season has gone and we need to start getting things right during the coming Currie Cup season. That is going to be a massive challenge as the Lions won’t be losing many, if any, players to the Springboks for the World Cup, we know there is a lot of depth at Western Province, (Please note Dr Moz and ou rooitwit! AS beeno has been saying if you had paid attention) and we saw what the Cheetahs, with their new coach, did to the Bulls in their last Super Rugby match.”

One of Gold’s immediate challenges is to ensure that Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis, together with Willem Alberts and Fred Zeilinga, will be the only players saying farewell to the Sharks at this juncture. It is understood that star lock Pieter-Steph du Toit may still be set for a move back to the Cape to play for the Stormers, while the Stormers and some overseas clubs are said to be on the radar of Bok loose-forward Marcell Coetzee. (COME HOME Pieter how you have put up playing for the hapless guppies is beyond me!. Marcell let  a great ex loose forward like Smal teach you so you can be the best!)

“We are working very hard at keeping the other players that are rumoured to be going. It’s a complicated situation, and in some instances SA Rugby are involved in the negotiations,” said Gold.

“As you know there are new players that we have recruited that will be coming in next year. There will be a few more, but not many. I think right now the focus should be on keeping the players we have. As I have said, players like Bismarck du Plessis are impossible to replace, so we won’t be looking to do that. We need to back the young players and develop them.

“Yes, that will take time, but we know that professional rugby is an unforgiving business, so I can’t ask for patience. We are just going to have to get on with it and we are ready for the challenging times that still lie ahead for us. But at least we are now already well advanced with our wash up to the season and plans are already being put into place.”

Best o f luck Gold we dont want the Sharks to be an embarassment anymore.Beeno taking broad view of matters.

 Gold was employed by the Sharks as director of rugby late last year, a role he filled successfully for England club Bath for a time, and was under the impression that it would be the function he would perform in Durban.
Really? Why, then, was he fired prematurely?

 Beeno
I think that the problems with the Sharks in fact started when John Smit decided to terminate the services of Plumtree.   His successors did nothing to get to the root cause of the problems facing the Sharks squad - matter of fact they contributed to the problems at the squad.
Matter of fact is that the main problem within the Sharks squad was with a few prima donnas in the squad and the disruption of the team spirit in the squad.   The issue of renewal in the squad has been neglected for years and what was brought into the squad were players rejected by other squads.
I think Gold's approach in this case is clear - he is not the Head Coach of the squad and they will appoint a Head coach and forwards and backline coaches who are up to standard.   
As to the case of Pieter-Steph du Toit - I was told locally that he is interested to be as near as possible to the family farm - as he will ultimately take over the running of the farm after his retirement from rugby.   That is why he wants to move to the Stormers and even though their was a denial earlier this year,  it must be borne in mind that the transfer window only opens up on 1 July and we will have to wait a month or so before there is clarity as to both Du Toit and Coetzee.  Any prior negotiations would have been against SARU rules - so what goes at the moment is not really reliable info.      

Now Gary Gold is the Director of Rugby. However he is going to coach the Sharks team in the Curry Cup. 
The Sharks must foolishly be giving his last opportunity. If he completely fails as a coach their is no way he can step into another role. 
Although it seems their will be a new SuperXV coach, so maybe they do plan to keep Gary Gold. 
Poor defense was the main issue this season for the Sharks- and an obvious lack of game plan of what to do with the ball after Lambie was injured. 

Gold is a coach who has failed in multiple situations....he won't be any more useful as overhead.  

 The Sharks has been floundering along since John Smit took over as CEO.   The dismissal of Plumtree was a huge mistake and that is confirmed by his role in the coaching set-up of Ireland and subsequently of the Hurricanes.   He may yet be back in SA to coach the Stormers next year.
Dr Venter was more interested in his medical practice in the Strand and White more interested in getting a national coaching job in the WC.   Both contributed to destroy whatever was left of the team spirit of the Sharks and in the end public opinion forced the Sharks to advise White to go.   
Gold also was a poor appointment and he should not have been given a job at the Sharks - but the signs are encouraging that at least he is interested in starting afresh and building up the team from scratch.   They must get a real coach and especially also a top backline and attacking assistant coach.   The latter was where White fell flat on his face as well.
Some of the players are leaving - but only a few are real losses.   The real losses include only Bismarck, Du Toit and Coetzee - the rest have been overdue for replacement anyway.   The other player that they should send back to Japan or farming is Francois Steyn.   He was poor since his return from France and will only disrupt any potential backline rebuilding.              

 Marcel Coetzee is not leaving.

 Mance
There was a strong rumour in the Stormers area that he was going to Cape Town - but I i n fact hope it is not the case.   He would be a massive loss for the Sharks.  Thanks for confirming that he is not leaving the Sharks.