Retention, recruitment, and team culture. This is what success in rugby is built on.

Or more to the point, these are the three key areas Reds coach, Ewen McKenzie, focussed on when he set to turn the Rubbish Reds around into a log-leading Super Rugby championship contender in just over a year, according to an interview in the latest issue of SA Rugby Magazine.

I have written a number of columns in recent times on coaching, unions, structures or the so-called recipe for success. Of course there is no such recipe or blueprint but rather, what principles are applied within any team, club or union.

The simplicity of McKenzie’s ‘blueprint’ is extraordinary. Where we often fall into the trap of trying too many things, over-analyze or trying too hard, we forget that success is usually and most often found if we apply basic principles.

What is even more extraordinary, is the timeframe in which McKenzie achieved this, but for me that says more about the person than the principles that needs to be applied.

Professional rugby is not for sissy’s, patience is a commodity seldom afforded to individuals in this cut-throat environment where success is only measured by the trophies in your cabinet, or success on the pitch for those 80 minutes which is broadcasted to the thousands of stakeholders of the game. In fact, I think at times we often afford coaches in South Africa too much time to stamp their authority on a team or to turn teams around with the all too familiar, 3-year plans we hear about so often.

The reality in any professional environment is that your are judged only by what you can be measured on, and coaches will always be measured by what is produced on the pitch right now.

Whereas I always cautioned that we are not patient enough as a rugby nation, I am now starting to lean a bit more towards the idea of coaches either starting to make an impact within the first 12 months of their stint, than a promise that they will produce results in 3-years time.

I am starting to believe we are making it far too easy for coaches to bullshit their way into high profile, high paying jobs, and also allow them to continue to bullshit the stakeholders and supporters of those teams throughout the period they are allowed to stay in power.

Excuses like coaches inheriting the problems of their predecessors are also starting to wear a bit thin. When a coach is offered an opportunity he knows very well what he is getting himself into, if he does not possess the expertise to change the situation around in a short space and time, perhaps he does not deserve the position in the first place.

The biggest problem with the patience and time afforded over 3-or 4 year periods, is that if success is not achieved, or change not effected at the conclusion of that timeframe you have not only lost all those years, but also have to convince your stakeholders, investors and supporters to be patient for the next 3 to 4 years for the next guy to come in and fix things.

We might just also consider trying to take the stance of ‘if he cannot change the situation in 12 or 18 months, he won’t be able to in 36 months’.

In conclusion this brings me back to McKenzie’s three key areas of success; retention, recruitment, and culture.

From a South African perspective and given the first two key areas are largely financially driven, failure in those areas are simply down to bad business which will include bad planning or bad investments (poor player recruitment and not investing enough in feeding structures). Accepting this it becomes clear that any coach needs the buy-in from his bosses in the union for those areas to succeed, most importantly, there needs to be a plan to the extent of; ‘this is what we have, this is what we want, and by this date is when we need it’.

The third key area, culture, who some might say is the most important, is as much influenced by the two preceding areas as it is by the man that takes charge.

For weeks we have debated whether the ‘type’ of coach or that his personality is sometimes perhaps not suited for the role he is looking to occupy, specifically when it comes to the ‘team culture’ that exists within different unions or franchises, and although I cannot get myself to track back on the fact that it does play a vitally important part, considering what McKenzie has achieved at the Reds in the last 12 to 18 months, suggests to me that even something like a ‘team culture’ which is hard to define or measure, starts with the ability of the coach to run the show professionally, built on the foundations of proper planning.

And to be honest, given from what I see from most of the South African franchises now and in the past, where tunes change from one week to the next and out of the ordinary signings, call-up’s and recruitment takes place, we fail at the very basics.