Smit said firing of Plumtre a huge mistake

Duplication

 Yep a tiresome, silly duplication. This man can't get a team in NZ but we are so second rate we have to take NZ's leftovers. Loser think.

A   hell of a lot better coach than White, Meyer and lot other coaches over the last 20 years coaching the Springboks or the SA franchises have ever been. 

 Sure that's why he is an assistant coach in NZ and Jake is making the big bucks in France.....what a moron.

 

Sharks converge

Life

Rugby Sharks converge by Sibusiso Mjikeliso, August 12 2016, 00:54

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John Smit . Picture: JACKIE CLAUSEN

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• August 11 - 2016

It probably wasn’t his doing, but John Smit’s tenure as Sharks CEO will live in memory as the picture of SA’s 20-year struggle to come to terms with professionalism, both in how he got to the hot seat and what transpired thereafter.

Smit was plucked from the Saracens changing room and sent straight to the Sharks boardroom in the middle of 2013. And by the time he landed back in the country he had already given then head coach John Plumtree the "DCM" — Don’t Come Monday.

Smit is one of SA rugby’s most celebrated figures and the 2007 World Cup-winning captain’s achievements on the field would be hard to match. The board’s plan in 2013 was to mould him into a latter-day Brian van Zyl: both are Pretoria Boys’ High School alumni, both are adopted sons of Durban. They were cut from the same cloth, apparently.

Van Zyl was CEO between 1994, two years before professionalism officially began, and 2013. He turned the former Banana Boys into a R14m annual profit entity and the sport’s biggest brand. They had the coolest gadgets and the hottest babes too. They reached Superbrand status twice and innovation was the daily modus operandi. It helped that they got into the Super Rugby playoffs often and won the Currie Cup four times.

One day, without warning, Van Zyl was told by the board to make way for Smit. It was a classic amateur-era move and the implications weren’t well thought out.

After the early euphoria of winning the Currie Cup that year, the Sharks struggled on and off the field. The Kings Park crowd dwindled and so did profits. But Sharks chairman Stephen Saad says the downward trajectory in revenue was endemic in all Super Rugby teams and that Smit rescued them from incurring substantial losses.

"John brought a freshness and energy to the brand, and he brought sponsors. He drove the revenue and was successful at it," says Saad.

"He brought Growthpoint and Cell C. When he came we didn’t have a title sponsor because Mr Price had pulled out and we were in a panic. We thought we had another cellphone company but it didn’t happen."

In the months before Smit handed over the reins to another former Sharks captain, Gary Teichmann, who started last week, a public spat played out in the Durban press between Smit and Van Zyl. Van Zyl said the franchise, which has been struggling to break even in the past two financial years, would not be in a seemingly perilous position if he was still at the helm. We’ll never know for sure, but the claim irked Smit. When Smit brought Cell C as a title sponsor in 2013, it was the biggest in Super Rugby in the country, valued at R28m.

"I was there for 20 years but I could sense that it was going to get tougher," said Van Zyl.

"The Sharks we now know came into existence in 2000 and in the time I had the executive responsibility of running the place I never made a loss. I would have cut my cloth accordingly. I think the Sharks have lost R40m between 2013 and 2014. I would have cut player costs and wouldn’t have paid out settlements to get rid of coaches."

But Smit was fighting a battle bigger than himself and the franchise. Around 2006 something happened which later changed the face of SA and world rugby. A French comic tycoon named Mourad Boudjellal bought Top 14 club Toulon when France opened clubs up to private ownership.

Since then, he has increased Toulon’s turnover by 500% and signed a galaxy of world stars like Bryan Habana, Matt Giteau, George Gregan, Jonny Wilkinson, Bakkies Botha, Sonny Bill Williams and Juan Smith. South Africans rushed north to cash in on the euro and countries like Japan and the UK saw what kind of pull superior currency had.

SA rugby was left behind and is now paying the price because SA Rugby’s constitution won’t allow more than 49% franchise ownership to private entities. No fewer than 40 players have left the country this year, including some greats like Schalk Burger and JP Pietersen, and some like Marcel Coetzee will leave a gaping hole in the Springboks. More than 300 ply their trade outside SA.

"My personal view is that it cannot carry on like it is," says Saad. "You should not have a top brand like the Stormers or the Sharks or the Blue Bulls not making money. It’s a crazy situation. You’ve got to say there’s something wrong with the business model. This is an inherited problem from the amateur game."

Smit discovered while in charge that a second division French club had a bigger budget than an SA franchise.

Before he left, Smit cushioned the blow on Teichmann by getting the Cell C sponsorship renewed and sold 9% of KZNRU’s shares to the other shareholder, SuperSport, for R40m, funds that were used to service debt.

Smit, however, says full privatisation needs to be well thought out before SA Rugby relaxes its laws.

"As much as there are benefits of privatising franchises like they’ve done in the UK and France, we need the economics to be able to facilitate that," he says. "Privatisation would help but there’s a huge amount of change that must take place, starting with the SA Rugby constitution, which doesn’t allow it at the moment."

Rugby’s money problems extend further to the Southern Kings and Eastern Province Rugby Union (EPRU). About a year ago, when the Cheeky Watson-led EPRU was heading for ruin, Boudjellal sent an expression of interest to buy a stake in its Super Rugby franchise. No-one followed up the call.

Thus, the EP Kings, which has been liquidated after failing to pay salaries since September 2015, is facing a painful death.

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 Jake making the big bucks in France is meaningless.

Nope it's the ultimate vote of confidence. 

 Perhaps ... still doesn't change the fact that he's a self-centered arsehole.
What has he achieved since 2007 ... apart from consecutive arsehole of the year awards???

Wow, John Smit has finally twigged what many of us were saying 4 years ago. Oh well, at least he finally admits his blunder in firing John Plumtree and bringing in the hopelessly overrated Joke White . . . now he just has to come to terms with the fact that he not only brought mediocrity to the Sharks franchise but bankrupted them as well.
Great player but an incompetent administrator.
Looking forward to seeing Gary Teichman clean up the mess that John Smit, Jake White and Gary Gold have left behind.

 

As I recall RooiAAS John Smit was always your man until you called for Watson to take his place. I expect the usual denials, but it's true......you were a 100% Watson man. Great job the family did with the Kings hey Lush.

Moffie, when I want to know what the childish fork-tongued liars of the world think about anything then I'll be sure to ask you. Until then, shut your stupid trap and stop whining for my attention.
Okay?

"Okay?".....haha....okay? Stop grovelling for my approval Lush.

 There was a time when Watson was the best opensider in the country.
Being over looked as he was was a travesty.

All this delusional drivel about Master Jake  has ou maaaikie, wee cc and rooitwit battling it out for mampara of the week.Lardy John's biggest mistake was not backing Jake. He would be sitting pretty had he done so!

 Beeno I was an admirer of White until the time when he got miffed when not getting the Aussie coaching job and then returned to together with John Smit caused massive damage to the Sharks team.   That by the way why he was fired by the Sharks anybody building a team around Fat Fransie is looking for trouble .  Smit lasted 18 months more when he too was fired.   Both were bed news or the Sharks.      

 Beeno I was an admirer of White until the time when he got miffed when not getting the Aussie coaching job and then returned to together with John Smit caused massive damage to the Sharks team.   That by the way why he was fired by the Sharks anybody building a team around Fat Fransie is looking for trouble .  Smit lasted 18 months more when he too was fired.   Both were bed news or the Sharks.