GBS and BonzaiGBS
The South African National rugby shift boss…. errr sorry, coach appeared to have resigned in interviews in New Zealand, only to then deny that he had resigned upon arrival in South Africa. Whatever the situation, his 4-year contract comes to an end at the end of December 2011 anyway, which leaves the process open for a replacement to be appointed.
There has already been wide-spread speculation as to who the right candidates might be…. but that’s not why I am writing this Article!
The reason why I am writing this is to warn SARU, and possibly teach them a few things about simple Contract Law in South Africa, to be able to avoid the new coach spinning us all the yarn of “Judge me at the World Cup”.
The current and previous coaches, going back to Rudolph Steauli all used the same mantra, and in the process Springbok results were sacrificed at the expense of chasing the supposed Holy Grail of rugby.
If you ask South Africans in general and the rugby-mad supporters populace, I have no doubt that most, if not nearly all, will be in favour of winning every Test in between World Cups rather than having a bad win / loss ratio and barganing on winning the William Webb-Ellis knock out Tournament once every four long years.
We certainly do not suffer the World Cup choke anxiety plagueing the New Zealand populace, but we suffer something far worse…
… mediocrity has become an accepted norm to judge the Springboks, the Springbok coaches, SARU, Provincial Presidents, referees… and players.
There should only be ONE Rule, ONE Measure, ONE Goal… and that is WE WANT THE BEST!
That means we definately want THE BEST of the following:
- We want the best National Rugby Adminastrative Rugby Body in the World, bar none!
- We want the best National Rugby Coach, bar none and the best Assistants and Supporting staff!
- We want the best Player management in the World!
- We want the best National Captain who is the best player in his position by a country mile!
- We want the best Players playing IN South Africa, IN our Domestic and Cross-border Competitions!
- We want the best Professional Provincial and Franchise Structures in the World!
- We want the best Rugby Academies in the World!
- We want the best Referees in the World!
- We want the best young talent gravitating naturally to the top, free from interference, irrespective of colour, creed, culture, background!
- We want to have seemless integration between Schools and / or Club Rugby through to Provincial, Franchise and National levels
- We want South Africa to be undoubtably the best Rugby Nation in the World!
Is that asking too much?
Is that over-reaching our hand?
Is that at all possible?
Well, here’s what I think!
- We already know we have the player base in South Africa to achieve these goals, and on top of that we have the recipy and the key at our disposal to unlock a vast source of yet unexplored talent in this country. It is time we started using what we have at our disposal, there are no excuses not to.
- We already know we have some brilliant Business Leaders who love rugby and we know we have the collective Rugby Passion in this country to be able to appoint, select and elect far superior Administrators than is currently the norm.
- We already know and have identified Rugby Coaches and supporting staff who apply their trade in South Africa and Overseas who clearly stand back for nobody. Think about Heyneke Meyer, Gert Smal, Nick Mallett, Cherel Calder, Os du Randt, Tim Noakes… the list goes on and on…
- We already know we have to curb the influence of the strong currencies which lure our players to Europe, Japan, UK, Italy & Australia.
- We already know and have examples of Provincial Structures which work and operate from the basis of sound Business Principles, operating in South Africa.
- We already have the blueprints of the best Rugby Academies at our disposal.
- We already have some of the World’s best referees and the capacity to produce more of the best.
- We have started to unearth more natural talent and have made some strides in bringing talent through, and have an ever increasing mass participation by the South Africa’s populace in supporting Rugby.
- We already have the core material at our disposal to be and become the best Rugby Nation in the World.
So, what is stopping us?
Do we have the simple capacity to root out the weak and to replace them with better candidates, better players, coaches, administrators?
I think this is where the taxi crashes in South Africa, where the handles fall off, where the lift does not manage to reach the top floor. We are a nation scared to make decisions, scared to make healthy choices, to take calculated chances, to shake hands… and above all to work together as one.
I say again… mediocrity has become an accepted norm in South Africa, in South African society, in judging general behaviour – whether it is in the home, the work place, the sports fields, the Springboks, the Springbok coaches, SARU, Provincial Presidents, referees… and players and teams.
It is an indictment against all of us, against the Rainbow Nation… against YOU and ME!
So, let me get off this galloping horse and get back to what I wanted to do in the first place… give SARU some lessons in the Art of Contracting in South Africa…
When a business-driven Company appoints directors, employees and representatives, the aim and often the result is a good choice, one which will keep the bank balance on the right side of positive, and if it does not prove to be the case, a swift change is expected and required and executed.
This is what needs to happen in the case of the appointment of the National coach, the resultant appointment needs to be the correct choice, it needs to check so many boxes and the resolve must at the same time be built into the structure to get rid of a sucker who does not deliver the desired results.
Some of these aspects appear to be in place already, but mostly these aspects have been sorely neglected or even blatantly ignored.
That means one must get a number of priorities clear:
- Firstly, ongoing performance, from day one must be sought and demanded. It must be made clear that the objective is World Rugby Dominance, from game ONE and for EVERY game thereafter.
- Secondly the appointee must be given the tools and assitance to make this objective achievable. In other words, he must be allowed to appoint his Management and Support structures and he must be backed both politically, financially, personally and publicly to reach that goal. Everything must be done to assist his cause, to enhance his methods and chances for success. One can have the best coach in the world, but with no backing, the failure will be massive.
- Thirdly there must be clear contractual structures in place upon his appointment, not a hap-hazard 4-year appointment, and a lick and promise attitude! Appoint this man for ONE YEAR ONLY, with the carrot dangling of possible extentions for another year at a time in the case of radical improvement from the current sad state of affairs. This implies performance clauses, making provision for termination and breach of agreement. It implies clauses detailing the support he will receive and the role he will play in current structures within SARU. It includes clear statements of rights and obligations and a clear understanding from SARU that performance is reciprocal, by both parties to the Agreement. Performance clauses in itself is problematic – should one connect it to a simple winning percentage and in that case what should that figure be? Is it not then better to rather define performance in great detail and have the overriding measurement being the IRB World Ranking No 1 spot?
- Fourthly there must be a collective buy-in regarding the objective, World Rugby Dominance.
- Fifthly SARU must take control of the resources and Nationally contract the top SA players, to be able to enforce player management of the highest order, and there must be a clear order of presidence of National Interests above Franchise and Provincial interests, with specially the 8 biggest Unions understanding and agreeing that their goals are only a stepping stone to the National Rugby objective.
- In Sixth place, strong leadership is a requirement for the National coach, not a happy-go-lucky rugby buddy bum-chum appointee, who gets along well with his mates, the players.
- The Seventh objective must be that the National coach needs to be a man of substance, with the ability to be a good spokesman, a worthy ambassador of the Nation. He needs to be intellectually sharp and precise, be the ultimate man-manager and have the ability to interact with the Media and the world and not have the propensity to have both feet in the mouth at any given time. There can certainly be no tollerance of the Media fiasco which was the departing coach and to a large extent his pre-decessor.
- In Eight place, the coach needs to be a man of principle, a man to be trusted, and a man of his word, a man who’s handshake is still his bond.
It sounds like I am cut out for the job, hahaha… but that’s besides the point, SARU can’t afford me.
I offer to assist SARU, in drafting 5 things, namely:
- The Contract of Employment and Co-operation between SARU and the National coach as well as the Contracts of the supporting staff.
- The National Contracts of the foremost players.
- The Agreement between SARU and it’s Provincial Unions detailing the Union’s responsibilities towards the National cause.
- The Multilateral Agreement between SARPA (South African Rugby Players Association) and SARU and ALL the Provincial Unions in South Africa.
- The formal Agreement between the National coaching Body (National coach and his staff) and the Provincial and Franchise coaches of the respective Test Unions.
26 @ Bullscot:
I think you would agree with me if I said we had the players at this Rugby World Cup, who could have gone all the way, had they been coached properly, had they been managed properly from a fatigue perspective… and had SARU backed them properly a couple of years ago with a permanent defensive coach, a permanent scrumming coach and had SARU’s own house been in order for the past 4 years.
I think you might even agree with me that the amount of new talent unearthed in SA in the last year or a bit more… players like Lambie, Hougie, Brussow, Minnie, Josh Strauss, Jaco Taute, Mvovo, Sithole, Bjorn Basson, Sadie… ect, ect… gives us the scope to remain strong, and for the Springboks to dominate under the right new coach and structures.
Does that then not give SARU a number of years to jack up Junior development and mould SA’s juniors into World-beaters?
Things like the Varsity Cup and the progress only now starting to appear from Academies, will serve SA well in the next few years.
Making anybody’s contract too long, inevitably has the direct effect that immediate results do not matter much. Making provision for possible contract extensions (not automatic extensions) also alleviates the perception that it is only for a year. In other words… get the desired results and you’ll stay on… for as long as you continue producing.
Why must a coach be replaced every 4 years? Why can a successful coach not stay in the saddle for as long as it works?
On the other hand, why do we have to wait out the term of a shitty coach for 4 bloody years or even 2 bloody years, just because his contract protects his arse too much?
SARU needs to lead by example, support and empower the coach. The coach should be of the calibur the Nation deserves, a coach who can achieve World Dominance with the right backing.
…. the raw material is there…
I agree with Bulscot – very good article, and you’ve got the job (could you also come and sort out all the HR cr.p on my farm), but think that 1 year is not enough for the contract. It is going to take a while (if all your 8 step plan is to be used), and no coach is going to look long term if he is on a short term contract. Thus I feel that long term development will stagnate.
I am the biggest proponent of wanting to win between World Cups, I would be much happier to lose the WC lottery, if we could only win the matches in between. It’s this rubbish of ‘judge me at the WC’ that annoys the cr.p out of me. When the WC has come and gone, and so has the coach, he’s no longer there to take the blame, and thus judging thus just becomes a comment or two on Boots and All and in the odd rag. Blaming the coach afterwards doesn’t help whats gone before. As much as I hate us losing to AB rugby, it is what I love about them, the fact that for the other 3 years and 10 months they play such awe inspiring rugby, and generally win.
In terms of the choice of a new coach, I agree, colour is going to be a determining factor for any new South African coach. The one way they would have of getting around this issue is by choosing a proven overseas coach (as in football) and use the ‘it’s best for the game’ line. Thus I would not be surprised to see a John Mitchell or someone of his ilk in the Job. With SARU in it’s current management form, the coaching role will never be given to White or Mallet.
Great article GBS!! However a 1 year contract is not long enough. It will be better to have a 4 year contract with a yearly review, with the option to terminate if set performance targets have not been met.
We have a number of players retiring from international rugby now. So the new coach will have to identify his 1st line players and combo’s and then his 2nd/3rd and 4th line players, so we will have a few mix and match sides till he gets his best combo on the field.
Remember, the new coach will have to decide on his playing style and then select the best players that can implement that style. For example, if you want to maintain the kick chase style we currently employ, which no 10 will be the back up for MS? Goosen from the FS? Because to try players like Lambie or Jantjies in that possie as back ups wont work. Lambie would do better, as his kicking out of hand is better than Jantjies’.
But I agree that the new coach needs to have in his contract a no 1 ranking within a set timeframe, plus we need a better than than 63-66% win ratio that our last 2 coaches have achieved. A win ratio of close to 80% would be better, and is achievable. That should be his bread and butter and what he gets paid to do. The WC should be there as an incentive, so he will be rewarded if he does well, but will not be judged solely on 1 tournament, as our last few coaches have been.
32 @ Just For Kicks:
OK, do not contract him for a year, make the term indeterminable, but with detailed goal-driven performance measures as the terminating factor…
… those terminating factors has to be sharp though, so sharp that it does not lead to any ambiguity, and that is bloody difficult to achieve in the contractual realm.
Have we not moved on enough in SA to have a white coach again?
Do we not deserve the best man for the job in the National interest?
If I look at the overall support for the Springboks in SA it has been an eye-opener to see the whole spectrum of South Africans wearing their Bokke supporters gear for the last few months. I have never seen such open support as in recent times. To me that is where we have progressed the most and the overall support for Bafana-bafana in the Soccer World Cup 2010 as well as the Bulls games at Orlando Stadium has been a huge PLUS in achieving the new overall support.
We need to build on that, and let’s face it, the world loves winners….
33 @ Lion4ever:
A 4-year contract simply runs until after Rugby World Cup 2015…
Snor had performance clauses, and a yearly review… has that been good enough?
A thousand times NO!
The performance targets must state that the New coach is required to win ALL matches against IRB Nations below No 3 in the rankings list… and at least 70% of matches in the Rankings of No 3 and above.
The Performance target must be to schieve the No 1 IRB ranking spot within 2 years and then maintain that spot for more than half of the time thereafter…
The performance target must be never to fall lower than No 2 spot once it is achieved / maintained…
Do we strive for mediocrity, or do we strive for excellence?
Can the current situation be allowed to be perpetuated indefinaltyly?
33 @ Lion4ever:
Rugby was a shambles in 2003 in South Africa… yet White building a new team managed to take the 2004 Tri-Nations…
What I’m trying to say is, there should be no excuses for the new coach, the Springboks will have to perform from the word go, under him. To me that is non-negotiable!
Who’s leaving the Bokke… John Smit, Victor Matfield, Danie Rossouw, Bakkies Botha, Fourie du Preez, Gurthro Steenkamp…
There is a replacement for John Smit in Bissie and hooker depth is not a problem.
Andries Bekker should be Matfield’s logical replacement (with Juandre Kruger and a few others in the wings).
A few very good No 4 locks are available already.
Fourie du Preez has an able replacement in Hougaard waiting to be unleashed… and scrum half depth in SA is looking good.
Beast Mtawarira will replace Gurthro Steenkamp… plus there’s guys like Coenie Oosthuizen just itching to go.
There are no excuses…. none!
There’s a lot of work waiting for SARU and the new coach, yes…
After this World Cup, most Nations have to rebuild at the same time…
The All Blacks will lose Mils Muliaina, Brad Thorn… and a few others
Walabies will most probably lose Rocky Elsom and one or 2 others
England will lose Johnny Wilkinson and at least another 3 or 4 others
France will lose a couple…
Argentina should lose at least 3…
The new coach in SA won’t have excuses….
GBS, JW basically had the same team that RS had in 2003. The talent was there. All JW had to do was get the guys to believe in themselves, and that’s what he did. But we all know he had a definite plan, and to get there he sacrificed certain results, 49-0 to Aus glares at us. He did not have the same performace clause the PDV has.
The thing with the performance clause, is it has to implemented to be effective. Did SARU do that?
I am not saying we do have the depth, what I am saying is that we have to take the players we do have, get the right combos to play the game the new coach believes in. When we rested our guys for the away leg of the 3N, we had some very good players on the park, yet we still lost by substantial margins. Wrong combo’s for the playing style PDV used. Get your combo’s right, and the back ups in place and you will have a near 80% win ratio. If you wanted to play carnival rugby, who would pick at no8? Spies or Vermuelen? Who which of these 2 would you take with to Europe?
37@ grootblousmile:
Who do you think are the “few very good No 4 locks”?
40 @ Scrumdown:
There’s development potential in a few guys…
Mostert
Flip van der Merwe
Elstadt
one day when i’m grown up
i’ll be springbok coach
and i’d not give a damn what you guys think
so there!!
41@ grootblousmile:
development potential yes, but not good enough to take on the AB’s tomorrow if needed.
IMO we are VERY thin on REALLY good locks, 4 or 5. But hey, WTF do I know?
#42
but
until then
..
hello al my TJOMMIES!!
#44
(just in case one of you get a position on the Board) 😆
43 @ Scrumdown:
Yip, but just remember, the All Blacks will lose Brad Thorn too… so will ohters. How long does a guy like Ali Williams have left… and the Wallaby Vickerman?
It is not so bleak… we just need SARU to come to the party and empower the new coach… and the new coach needs to be a quality man…
So we might be a No 4 lock light… Wallabies will still be light in the props, thin at lock… All Blacks are thin at flyhalf after Dan Carter.
England are thin in a few spots, specially between the ears.
Ireland have some who will go.
Argies will lose Ledezma, possibly Roncero and some of the aging locks and loosies.
France will have a new coach, bound to pick some new players…
44 @ Ashley:
Hello Coach Asbakkie!
gbs @ 47
hello broetsie!
gbs
btw, have you seen the live draw on tv (2008 was it)?
is the draw @29 the real deal is it just something someone put on youtube to generate hits?
46@ grootblousmile:
The 6 million dollar question is, who will the new Bok coach be?
IMO SA doesn’t have anyone with the qualities you list, and SARU WILL NEVER CHANGE as long as I have a hole through which I urinate!
End of story morning glory!
49 @ Ashley:
Fark, that was some company making a draw to see which journalist will cover which nation or something…
gbs @ 51
thanks … couldnt believe that that was the actual draw … my sound is off, so couldnt check for myself … lol
32@ grootblousmile:100%, agree with all your comments, and agree that surely we have got over the –
‘Have we not moved on enough in SA to have a white coach again?
Do we not deserve the best man for the job in the National interest?’,
and, yes, we as South Africans are well past that, but, not, amongst the leadership of both this country and SARU And that is where the problem will always be.
#41 and 43
Good players, but Flippie has been having some really bad brain farts recently. I think maybe he is trying to take over the bad boy image of Bakkies. Mostert has had limited chances, but imo did well in those few minutes he played.
@ Bullscot:
26
I dont want to attack you but i attack the mindset you are promoting. NO we are not out of sync with world rugby, g%%dammit cant everyone see it, we outplayed the Aussies on Sunday, for fark sake we fall exactly into the trap NZ and Aus wants us to fall into, self doubt. They create this scenario and we start undermining ourself, they crook man, and if they crook long enough that becomes the new law the new norm. We are too political correct and they just walk over us. 2010 was the same we were robbed and we capitulated and they got us again, this world does not like nice guys like us ….enough said i get so bloody upset with us trying to find fault with our coach instead of standing by him and tell them they ARE NOT PLAYING TO THE RULES.
Now i will read further and see what else are said, but i am almost certain that we fell on our backs capitulating.
grootblousmile wrote:
my goodness GBS you cant see anything good in this effort by the Boks, they outplayed the Aussies , dont you at least agree on that. Victor toyed with their lineout. Guthro ran great lines, we missed 3 of our best and you call this a shit team , a shit coached team, a leaderless team. THERE is just one reason why we lost mistakes, some by us but most by Bryce Lawrence.
grootblousmile wrote:
They should have fired him after year one, cruel? Yes he said the wrong things.
After year 2 he could not be fired , no ways , we won the 3N and BIL
year 3 he jumped on the JW band wagon , rate me after the WC
See no easy way.
56 & 57 @ superBul:
You know what, I’m not going to defend my stance against these comments of yours…
Suffice to say that your views differ too radically from mine about Peter de Villiers, so much so that I’ll never convince you otherwise and you’ll never convince me that he was a good coach or good in general for Springbok rugby.
That’s where we respectfully differ and the difference will remain.
Unfortunately I have higher expectations of a National coach and his attributes and expect more of Springbok rugby and SARU compared to what you and Peter de Villiers clearly aspire to.
I stand by my views set out in the Article and in my comments on the comment thread of this Article…. whether you understand my arguments or not or whether you agree with them or not.
That is all I have to say, I will digress no more.
Stem saam met GBS. Daai gesnorde sot het maar net aanhou speel met Banana, Boesmangat JP en Ouman Smit. Het almal vergeet? Die Bokkies het hul gat solid gesien daai 1ste helfte. En was lucky om nie verder agter te geloop het nie. Eers toe Bissie opgekom het, het die hele game geswaai. Tot ou Pocock het begin verdwyn. Dink net wat Aplon, Bissie en Hougie kon doen van die begin ag!
Ek is al so gatvol vir mediocrity. Al van kindsbeen af kon ek nooit enige verloor van die Bokke verduur. Ons is die elite van die rugbywereld, en selfs ons 2de span is veronderstel om die WB te kan wen. Maar ons administrasie is so kak soos die WP s’n, wie se 2des ook die CB behoort te wen.
Rugbyprof wrote:
Haai dis nie Keo hier nie, ons beledig nie mense hier. In elk geval ek sal nie, mag nie , gaan nie.
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