Why are coaches in SA below par?

When looking at the CC team of the Cheetahs a name stood out for me - the name being Fred Zeilinga who has done very well for the Cheetahs this year - better than for instance Catrakillis did for WP.  The other thing that is bothering me about our coaches has been the performance of the Bulls in CC this year after a disastrous few years under the Ludeke - Matfield regime.
Under White Zeilinga was going nowhere - he was getting worse and worse every match.  The Bulls have been a wonderful recovery story after three years of atrocious performances in both the Super series and the CC  and is there for everyone to see.
There are three basic reasons for both of the above and those are -
*   selection of favourite players way past their sell-by dates - with a result that they under-perform; 
*   usage of overkill in discipline and handling of players with the result that they just go through the motions in games and play without any enthusiasm whatsoever; and
*   a playing style that should have been in the dustbin years ago and not applicable to the present playing environment.
In practice Zeilinga played at flyhalf occasionally last year in Super 15 with the atrocious Francois Steyn - a favourite of Jake White - running the backline and in the process destroying the Sharks backline.   White is known as a petty dictator and Steyn with his superiority complex was his side-kick in that.   White knows sweet fanny adams about backline play and that caused a series problem in the Sharks backline as well - with the result that "stampkar" rugby being played.   As an aside - White is training Montpellier at present and they won their first game in the Top 14 competition and lost the second one against much weaker opposition.  Is he going to last at Montpellier???????
In the case of the Bulls - they had one of the most useless coaches in SA in charge.  His real side-kick as attacking coach for the Bulls was Matfield - who also played for the team and was at times the team captain as well.   Under that regime the situation was that the useless players were retained and better players were ignored.  Matfield had the same attitude as Fat Fransie - he was the Lord of the Manor and his main function was carrying changeroom stories to Ludeke about players - making the younger players very unhappy about the coaching set-up.  Especially the backline players suffered under that regime - and the younger players were so unhappy that they become players just going through the motions in games.  There are numerous examples of that - Sadie could not succeed with the Bulls - Serfontein became a stampkar 12 destroying his natural talent and Engelbrecht - a wing - was used at 13 where he never really made the grade.   Pollard suffered as well and he lost a lot since his games last year.  
The difference came into the Bulls team with Ludeke gone and their handicap as attacking coach with the Springbok squad - a disaster for the squad and a massive bonus for the Bulls.   
In a new playing environment the players prosper without having the reputation players and staff there to handicap the teams.  That is to my mind the way to go - get rid of the dead wood and get some real performing  players into the set-up.                                   

Correct, just look at Gold's record with the Sharks.
Dismal to be kind to him......but an absolute disaster for rugby in general and for supporters. What was John Smit thinking?
He is not the only coach to fall into that category.
Stormers, Queens and the ex Bulls coaches are all overrated as was Victor Matfield as attacking coach.
Bring on Carlos Spencer, if you can afford to pay him that is.
Very few excellent coaches would want to be paid in Rands........Euro's and Dollars is what is all about.
SA cannot afford to pay the money top coaches demand.

 AJ
There is a story about Eddie Jones being paid R5 million to coach the stormers - not much in Euro's or dollars - but R5 million a year still makes for a grand living style, ie better than you would live in England or Europe for an equivalent amount of money.
However, Carlos Spencer left the Kings in a huff because Watson was not paying the players - latest report is the players are on strike and chances are that the Eastern Province Kings will not be able to field a team this weekend.   
To be quite frank John Smit buggered up badly by -
*   firing Plumtree and appointing first of all Venter, then White and then Gold; and*   contracting some of his has-beens pals to play for the Sharks (Fat Stevens, Botha and Wentzel.
White did damage to the Sharks from a team management perspective by having favourites in the team who together with him terrorized youngsters like Zeilinga - causing them to lose the plot completely.   The Sharks will take years to recover from that disaster and Gold is not the coach to achieve that.  They should start by getting rid of the Fatso's (Steyn and Alberts) and then start looking for some backline players - their backline is not functioning like it should. 
The Sharks could still get Spencer at a reasonable pric e - so I think they should go for him     

Dear Ol Maaik at least you understand our mental problem...coaches are just part of the way in SA... are either opportunists in world rugby...especially in SA where loyalties are strong and manipulated under false or risky promises for accolades and gain...just a part of SA ...sold out to dishonest men for gain... dishonesty, manipulation and deception, fools the sheep in SA and has now become a major part of our economy...a spin off from America...nothing counts except selfish and personal gain and accolades. Heyneke however does not really belong to this mould...I think he's an honest man and a knowledable rugby man but conservative...plays the safe game...its just his nature...the problem with the dumb ignorant SA rugby supporter is that they do not question authority...draconian laws have been introduced to comply..

 
Could it be that these days coaches aren't prepared to go the extra mile. It's just too much effort to guide an obvious talent to their full potential.

I could never figure out why HouGat wasn't taught a kicking game. The addition would have made a massif difference.

He was left to sort himself out and has subsequently fallen by the wayside.

   

 

 CC
A few years ago - when Hougaard's problems became endemic Meyer said his coach (at the Bulls) will fix the kicking and other problems by giving him specialized coaching in scrummy play.  . His Blue Bulls coach (Ludeke) left the specialized scrummie coaching issue of Hougaard to guess who?  Victor Matfield of all people.   The result wa s that Hougaard learnt nothing nd the problem was never fixed.     

All balls  

Moz you have lived too long in the USA system...its not balls...even an intelligent man like you...,victim of USA propaganda...you are programmed...bleep bleep

We long for devoted rugby coaches like Doc, Kitch and Mac