Poor Ian Mac

When it comes to judging the SA coaches, Ian Mac can hardly be judged given he was the last to have little to no say in the choice of his squad. What a pathetic position to be in. Imagine having to coach a side that you never selected.

By all accounts Mac was ahead of his time, advocating the flat lying flyhalf and playing ahead of his forwards. This was his plan with the Sharks and it worked........trying to implement it with Boks never worked as the Bok side was dominated by Transvaal players who failed to understand or have any desire to implement his plan. By the time they understood his plan it was too late and Mac got the boot.

He also admits to being less assertive than he should have been and always went with the majority vote instead of insisting on his way or his selections.

What you're said here is almost spot on...sometime back I met Pieter Muller @ the Keg in Hillcrest and Ian Mac came up in the conversation...he rated Mac as the best coach we have ever had...and virtually all the Natal Shark players of that era will agree.

Indeed he was ahead of his time...the sad thing is LL was too thick and conservative to recognise this...Mac laid the foundation stone (of style, strategy and players) prior to Kitch Christie...Kitch was an excellent coach too but he reaped the benefits of Mac's ground work...there's no question of that. The players themselves are the best judge of that...Ian is spoken of with great respect today.