The coaching situation in Super 15 has developed into an embarrassment to SA Rugby. This started with the totally needless removal of Plumtree and the embarrassment caused to Sharks Rugby by the lunacy of John Smit. That was followed by the appointment of Venter - a pal of Smit - who decamped shortly afterwards to further his medical practice in the Western Cape. He was followed by Jake White - who did nothing to replace the toxic environment in Sharks Rugby and in fact added to it. The pubic could not take the rubbish dished up as rugby in 2014 and the players also revolted against th situation - causing White to decamp before he could be fired. The Sharks now has Gold - a coach who failed wherever he took over coaching of anything. So how long is he to last?
However, the situation in other franchises - other than Ackerman at the Lions - grew worse week after week. The first to go was the Prince of the Midgets and Microlights - Alistair Coetzee. He is off to Japan and there has been numerous offers to pay for his one-way flight ticket if he leaves asap.
The next to go was Naka Drotske. Naka showed some coaching class in 2013, but the attack followed soon. The main reason here was the constant and continuous poaching of their best players by other SA Franchises and even Foreign Clubs. As soon as they develop some talent - the vultures pounded. His successor is already suffering badly and his only resource for the future is the Shimlas University team to augment his meagre player resources.
Now the knives is out for Ludeke as is evident from the following newspaper report:-
"Despite the pressure mounting following their third consecutive defeat on their Australasian tour and their subsequent slide to ninth place on the Super Rugby log, Bulls coach Frans Ludeke said he could not afford to worry about his future at the franchise.
The Bulls faced their final match of the four-week tour against the Rebels in Melbourne on Saturday and would be desperate to avoid a whitewash. “My mind doesn’t want to go there (possibly facing the axe), I am open minded about the whole thing but obviously I can’t make the decisions, so I don’t give it the energy because I have a job at hand,” an under fire Ludeke said on Wednesday.
“It is a must win for us and we owe it to ourselves and our campaign with what we’ve done at home also where we pulled it together. “We were second on the log when we came here, so we were in a very good situation and we played well.” Ludeke said a few results on tour could easily have swung in their favour had his charges been more accurate and he was adamant they were the same side that went on tour as the South African Conference leaders.
In their tour matches against the Blues and the Brumbies, the Bulls lost by a five and six-point margin respectively and could have won those matches had the bounce of the ball favoured them. The Bulls have two relatively easy matches remaining in the regular competition against the Rebels and the Cheetahs in Pretoria and can still clinch a playoff berth while also hoping for results elsewhere to aid them in their cause.
“I didn’t change from four weeks ago, I am the same person and the team is the same. We didn’t get the result and I will take the responsibility for that,” he said.
A defeat against the Rebels would certainly be the death knell to their campaign and even if they win both their last two matches but fail to reach the playoffs, Ludeke’s position could be in jeopardy. Ludeke, whose contract with the Bulls expires in October 2016, said his fate lay in the hands of the Blue Bulls board that would be meeting next Friday.
“I’ve got respect for the people that appointed me and if they want to change there is nothing I can do about it,” Ludeke said.
“My job is to ensure we finish well, we are obviously in a situation that we don’t enjoy, we would like to be in the run and make the playoffs. “That is why we will fight ‘till the last game to make sure because there is still hope, we need favours, but there is still hope.”
Ludeke said he had positive discussions with the board and his future and what was needed to make improvements at the union. “We’ve got the board meeting on Friday in a week and then we will know, so I don’t want to preempt what will happen at the meeting,” he said."
So what went wrong with the Bulls over the past few months. The list is long, but inevitably has to start with two deficient players - Spies and Matfield. Both are serious handicaps in development of a proper functioning team and the idea of Ludeke to bring them back into the game ad detrimental effects from the word go.
Since I started with the forwards lets continue. The Bulls for decades has been known as the team with the strongest props and that has vanished voer the past three Super 15 season.
They continue playing players like Stegmann and Flippie - whose main attributes are their competition as to who should give away more penalties for ill-discipline.
However, other than the Matfield and Spies monstrosity - the main problem with the Bulls have been the total inability of the coach to provide proper backline coaching. The Bulls has had Slaptjips as backline coach, but he ultimately could not take it anymore and walked out on them. Just imagine having Matfield as the Bulls attacking coach.
However, in the end the real problem is that despite having some top quality backline players, the backline functioning became a joke - a remnant of 19th century rugby. The real situation - which cannot be denied - is that the Bulls backline is malfunctioning and that the real source for that is Ludeke and his inside circle of cronies.
There is urgent need for the departure of Ludeke and to get a proper coach in his place.
