Keo sails into Sa coaches

Professional coaches in South Africa, with the exception of Jake White and Nick Mallett (of recent vintage) are a protected breed; rewarded for bowing to elected officials and excused for mediocre results. The winners (like Mallett and White) came with egos and opinions and a disregard for those whose status is the result of politicking and electioneering.

White, in particular, is a dirty word within South African rugby’s presidential corridors. He won the World Cup, but was dismissed by those who felt he failed to honour the president and his men.

White then excelled in Australia with the Brumbies and in one season at the Sharks won the South African conference and guided the team to a semi-final. Yet he wasn’t even a consideration for Coach of the Year. He wasn’t liked so his results didn’t matter. ( Unfortunately half bakes on this forum never had the nous to appreciate White!)

Naka Drotské, as one example, was a popular guy for nine years, so it never mattered that the Cheetahs propped up the stable (Naka was agood coach but his palying stocks were mercilessly raided year after year by the parasitic Sharks and Bulle in particular). Similarly the Lions, and Frans Ludeke was excused sustained failure at the Bulls over the last three years because he knew his place to be secondary to those who govern from the memory of South Africa’s days of sporting isolation.

Allistair Coetzee, at the Stormers, regressed with each year in charge in terms of the potency of the Stormers. The Stormers imploded, choked and won nothing but he has been lauded as if a five-time champion.

There will always be hope in our game but it’s the honesty that has been missing for the last 20 years. We’ve won the Tri-Nations/Rugby Championship and three Super Rugby titles and at a national level the Boks have beaten the All Blacks 14 times in 51 matches. But the only coaching heads that have rolled without hesitation have been those who have been successful.

There should be no rejoicing that four of the five Super Rugby coaches are gone as of the end of this month. There should be embarrassment that so many of them were allowed to stumble along without accountability to results for so long.

We’re a nation of supporters that passionately defend the mediocre but can’t acknowledge excellence. And until that changes, there will be no change in Super Rugby results.

Yes K eo but this only just one problem.

 "Most of our coaches are not up to SuperXV standard in backline attacking play. If the coach does not understand backline play- how can they coach the backline."

Is this not the problem with Heyneke Meyer? A good, some will say outstanding, forwards coach, but is out of touch with backline play, but he refuses to surround him with expert backline coaches. Who are the current backline coach(es) for the Boks and what are their claim to fame?

 It's bitterly disappointing that there appears to be no hope on the horizon, 20 years since re-admission and still there's not a foggy about backline play. Ackers at the Lions I feel is heading in the right direction and has done exceptionally well but we need others to follow.

Meyer lost the plot when he chose an average ex quota Bulls/ Bok center as the national coach. Talk about the blind leading the blind.

1. 3 conferences with 8 teams per conference. 
2. The top 5 teams in the conference play each other once during the first month. 
3. Only the top 3 of each conference goes through to the Super 9, only carrying over log points earned against other S9 qualifiers. 
4. Now they only play teams from the other conferences. 
5. The top 4 goes to the playoffs. 
   

1. The 2 teams that did not qualify for the S9 as well as the other 3 teams in the conference, those outside the S15, play a similar structured competition.
2.  This will give aspiring teams a taste of super rugby and the chance to play abroad.
3.  The top 2 in each conference automatically qualifies for the next years SR home conference, with a chance to make the Top9. 
4. The bottom teams of each conference must play relegation matches against a challenging team that wants to crack into SR. This teams will typically be from countries outside Sanzar (Japan, Argie, Islands, US?)
5. This will give us more rugby, but things will stay interesting and lower teams will still have something to play for. This year, the Blues, Cheetahs, Rebels and Force's seasons were over after 5 weeks, but they had to tag along for the ride...another 13 weeks of empty stadiums and playing with little motivation. Torture for the fans and players. The fools at SANZAR should all be quartered. See Greg is off to Argie. I hope he does not fck up their rugby.
   

Only one coach has raised standards in SA senior rugby in the 21 st century.....and he has been treated like garbage. In this instance Keo has it right.

Keo forgot to mention Kitch Kristie who had a 100% test record and won a World Cup, but got sacked while he was still in hospital by the politicos.

Draad, I once read who did sack Cristie, but this will confirm that he did not just resigned due to poor health. No, all knew the man has reached the end of his life, but someone still had that cruelty left in him to tell Kitch that his services are no longer needed.

 http://mg.co.za/article/1999-04-23-kitch-christie-dies