Allister Coetzee – New Springbok Head Coach
Former DHL Stormers and DHL Western Province coach Allister Coetzee has been named as head coach of the Springboks for the next 4 years, ushering in an exciting new era for rugby in South Africa.
The 52-year-old former Springbok assistant coach succeeds Heyneke Meyer at a time when a number of veterans of the 2007 Rugby World Cup triumph have gone into retirement, including 3 of last year’s 4 captains.
“Allister’s appointment marks the changing of the guard at the top of Springbok rugby and is an exciting new departure for SA Rugby,” said Mr Oregan Hoskins, president of SA Rugby.
“It is a watershed moment for our game with new players developing alongside a spine of experience and it was the right time to have a new man guiding the Springboks for the foreseeable future.
“Allister was the outstanding candidate in terms of his rugby credentials, his understanding of our unique South African transformation imperatives and also in the image he will present as Springbok coach. I am delighted to welcome him back into the Springbok fold.
“The Springbok coaching job is an enormous challenge but Allister has the full support of us at SA Rugby and we will be united in our efforts to continue to make Springbok rugby strong. I want to wish him well in his new job, I also want to pay tribute to Heyneke and his management team for their dedication and service to Springbok rugby the past 4 years.”
Coetzee is arguably the most experienced man to be given the Springbok head coach’s job. He will draw on his personal involvement in 66 matches in the Springbok backroom in 2000 and between 2004 and 2007. He also has an exemplary record at Currie Cup and Vodacom Super Rugby record.
Coetzee said he was extremely honoured and humbled to coach the Springboks.
“This job comes with a huge amount of responsibility because our passionate fans rightfully demand the best from the Springboks at all times,” said Coetzee.
“Rugby ignites so much passion in our country. The team inspires all our people and every young rugby player in our country aspires to be a Springbok one day. I know full well that coaching the Springboks requires a lot of dedication, patience and hard work. I am very excited and grateful for this opportunity.”
SA Rugby CEO, Jurie Roux, said that Coetzee had been recommended for the role by the SA Rugby High Performance Committee, whose recommendation had been accepted by the Executive Council and the General Council over recent weeks.
He said that Coetzee emerged as the best candidate for the role following a robust and thorough process. “Allister was the most outstanding candidate based on his excellent track record as a coach at provincial and Vodacom Super Rugby level, which makes his appointment a great one for SA Rugby,” said Roux.
“He proved himself on the domestic front by winning the Currie Cup twice with DHL Western Province and leading the DHL Stormers to 3 SA Conference titles in the extremely tough Vodacom Super Rugby competition. And we all know of his contributions as assistant coach to the Springboks, culminating in success at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
“We at SA Rugby are pleased with his appointment and we know we have the right person to lead us into the next and hopefully exciting phase of Springbok rugby. We’re also grateful to Kobe for allowing Allister to join us in South Africa.”
Coetzee had already been involved in a number of planning sessions with SA Rugby staff said Roux. His 1st official engagement as a coach will be the opening Test of the year against Ireland in Cape Town on Saturday 11 June 2016.
SA Rugby has also assembled a vastly experienced team management to assist the new Springbok head coach with the core duties in preparing the team for the next 4 years.
Former Springbok Sevens captain Mzwandile Stick will join Johann van Graan as assistant coaches, with Ian Schwartz carrying on as team manager.
Van Graan is retained in his role as assistant, while Stick joins the coaching staff after a stellar career playing with the Springbok Sevens, where he was the captain and also a member of the team that won the World Series title in the 2008 / 2009 season. Last year Stick coached Eastern Province to the Provincial Under 19 title.
The Springboks’ strength and conditioning will fall under Dr Warren Adams, while the medical team will consist of Dr Jerome Mampane and physiotherapists Vivian Verwant and Tanu Pillay.
The experienced Verwant, who has been part of the Springbok management since 2007, is retained in his position and he will be joined by Pillay, who has done duty with the Springbok Women’s and the Sevens Women’s teams for a number of years.
Adams and Mampane joins the Springboks after performing similar roles for the Junior Springboks the past 3 years.
3 Experienced members complete the backroom staff in JJ Fredericks (logistics), Rayaan Adriaanse (media) and Annelee Murray (PR), all of whom bring with them many years of experience in their respective fields at international level.
“These are people who are not only dedicated and passionate, but vastly experienced,” said Coetzee.
“Johann, Ian, Vivian, JJ, Rayaan and Annelee have all been involved with the Springboks before and bring with them a wealth of experience, while Warren, Jerome and Tanu have all worked with other national teams before.
“By involving experienced people, and combined with the stellar work done already by the Rugby Department in planning for the season, we’ll hit the ground running when we 1st assemble.”
SA Rugby also confirmed that Coetzee will be able to call on the assistance of consultants when the need arises during his tenure.
The Southern Kings’ Dr Conrad von Hagen, will fill in as team doctor during the June series against Ireland, while Mampane is with the Junior Springboks at the World Rugby Under 20 Championship in Manchester. Mampane will join the Springboks in time for the Castle Lager Rugby Championship.
Springbok Team Management:
- Head coach: Allister Coetzee
- Assistant coach (backline): Mzwandile Stick
- Assistant coach (forwards): Johann van Graan
- Team manager: Ian Schwartz
- Team doctor: Dr Jerome Mampane / Dr Conrad von Hagen (Southern Kings)
- Strength and Conditioning coach: Dr Warren Adams
- Physiotherapist: Vivian Verwant
- Physiotherapist: Tanu Pillay
- Logistics manager: JJ Fredericks
- Media manager: Rayaan Adriaanse
- PR manager: Annelee Murray
thestormers
Once again congratulations to Mr Coetzee on being appointed as new Springbok Head Coach. Hopefully he will bring in a new era of success for the Boks and that he is at least in the beginning given a fair chance to show his worth by the armchair critics.
It is no secret that I was and still am a huge admirer of former Bok coach Mr Meyer but just like so many others I too was very disappointed in the results in his last year in charge and thus his time to go move on had come. It is interesting to note they have kept on some of his management team notably forwards coach, team manager and physiotherapist, a pity they didn’t (not sure if they decided to or couldn’t) keep break down specialist but Boks loss is Scotland’s gain. Will be interesting to see who is brought in as scrum coach and who else is consulted from time to time.
Tukkies Young Guns won the the young guns title again by beating UJ young guns.
This has been an open secret for very long!
Whilst I am not at all impressed with the Springbok coach or any of his assistants, they will have my full Springbok support.
I wish them well and hope they prove me ever so wrong!
I am hugely concerned regarding the style of play that the Springbok coach and the team will adopt and that they won’t evolve into a team that adopts all facets of play and play an all round game.
It was already needed long ago and has not manifested… this seems to be a continuation along the same lines.
If rugby in SA is to reach the pinnacle, then more than coaching staff needs to change… there also needs to be widespread changes inside SARU.
Can’t say I am disapointed, due to the fact that we all knew it was on the cards…. call me a CONCERNED SPRINGBOK SUPPORTER!
4 @ grootblousmile:
I have reached the conclusion it is not worth worrying over things I have no control over.
SARU have less ambition than a frog in a saucepan full of water on a fire.
Quis erit, erit.
5 @ Scrumdown:
Yeah… I agree!
My life is about controlling the controllables… and thus it will continue.
At the moment my life is about rushing from one semi-controllable to the next semi-controllable and spending a kak-load of money on building work…. hahaha
Tomorrow at 07:30 my painter of many years arrives here at the house, then the 2 of us are off to a Paint supplier with a sample of one colour I really, really WANT for the outside walls of the 5 houses, then off to Coastal Hire to pick up a big stand-behind massive sander (I already booked and reserved and paid for it today), so that the Oregon Pine floors can be sanded and renovated.
Then off with the painter to the 1 building premises, show him how to properly operate the big sander (he is doing the sanding as well before giving the wooden floors a good clear epoxy made specially for wooden floors and which uses a catalyst / hardner in the process), then getting a list of brushes, rollers, ceiling sticks and painting parafanalia from the painter, then giving the rest of the building team there a good instruction and prioritization list and time schedule…
Then off to one of the other addresses where building and renovating happens… and seeing if the new pallisade fence holes and shit is right and giving the prioritization list and instructions there…
Then off to the building suppliers for the list the painter needs… and then delivering it… and just steadying the ship there if something is amiss.
Then off to the office to actually start work for the day on my normal long list of day priorities…
Then in the afternoon, after drawing some moolah at the ATM, it is back to the building sites for inspection and paying some of the casual mamparras and directing what needs to happen next.
Then tomorrow night it is back to the grindstone at my office… till I suppose well after midnight…
…. and so the days go… and my life operates under these strange and unusual circumstances…
No rest for a sinner!!
1. I am not a big AC fan, despite being a lifelong WP/Stormers supporter. However, I do believe he is the best available(SA) man for the job. Jones would have been my first choice but be that as it may. Alastair has my full support and I have a sneaky feeling he is going to be a bigger success than his predecessors. He’s far more relaxed than Heyneke, who was a nervous bloody wreck which had a rub-off effect on one. It also wont happen overnight I suspect. It all depends on the talent he has at his disposal to kick off with but I think he will build. WE WILL SEE.
@ grootblousmile: Naand GB. A friendly tip: Watch that bloody sander. In the wrong hands, it can make a moerse mess of your Oregon pine floors. Spoken from personal experience. Not a good idea to expect a painter to undergo a crash-course in floor sanding because it doesn’t usually work. Result can look like a shiny choppy sea. Not lekker.
8 @ Tassies:
Thanks Tasse!
Luckily the Painter is quite savvy and I have already taught him many things… and he learns quick and listens well. He has’nt been just a painter in my life… for a very long time.
I am a woodwork officienado, I used to build fancy wooden furniture as a hobby from of the absolute pick of the SA hardwood varieties like cherry wood, iron wood, stinkwood, hard pear, wild pear, teak, outeniqua yellow wood and a few others and I have about 150K’s worth of serious woodworking machinery here at my place, from bench routers to thickness plainers to lathe with copy attachment, to radial arm saw, to big bench saw and other serious stuff.
I did my own oregan floors in our house so well that one wants to eat the floors… never mind from the floors, they are so beautiful.
Old Reuben Muchave is not a chancer, he is clever and his hands and mind is rock solid. I will spend good time with him teaching him how to always go with the grain and how to slowly do the right job…
Would have liked to do it myself, but I simply do not have the time to do so… so I have to use my trusted man for it.
@ grootblousmile: well thats a relief GB. I wouldn’t try it myself because it takes skill and patience. Neither of which I have just now unfortunately. My current oregon pine floors were done professionally and the results are very satisfying. My old(previous) 1926 Rondebosch home, we stuffed up the first time. Burmese Teak. Fortunately we could fix the mess because the old parquet floors were bloody thick. The walls of that building were about 15 inches and contained old seashells which had been used in the original construction. Twas a lovely old lady. Just too close to the suburban railway line(noise) for long term comfort.
10 @ Tassies:
I have one room with teak parquet block floor (the skinny parquet blocks, about 2cm wide by 15 or 20cm long), of about 36 square metres at the one house I bought… the other wooden floors are all Oregon Pine.
Luckily Parquet floor made from teak is super, super hard… so one goes in one parrallel direction with the big sander and in the process the cross-laid blocks (half of them) are sanded accross the grain, whilst the other half is sanded with the grain, but because the teak is so hard it does not really matter, as long as one finishes off with a good 100 grit grain final sanding grit belt on the big sander.
What’s nice about the houses I bought is that they all have the nice high pressed lead metal ceilings throughout most of the houses except for some bathrooms, showers and much later extra additions.
The inner door frames are all Oregon Pine too…. so it will be real nice to do justice to the houses, whilst still at the same time keeping the overall spend under control.
I bought at really, really good prices, very well below municipal valuation… bought one on auction from a deceased insolvent estate and the others from insolvent estates… on all occasions also well below what was still outstanding on the bonds… and the banks just let go…. so no risk of over capitalizing.
My Return on Investment on all of them will be in excess of 22% per year, so within 5 years the properties will have paid for themselves through rental income… and I don’t have any bonds to consider because I bought cash and am renovating also on a cash basis.
They are all keepers and not renovated for resale… just renovate, renew… and rent out!
I have been astounded with the high rental market here in the Panne, and prospective tennants are already pestering me to stand a chance to rent… I can and will really be able to hand pick and choose my customers!!
Buying cheaper houses, fixing them up does add huge value and great returns.
On the story of AC. I wish him well. However, I also feel that we will be seeing another 4 years of skop en jaag rugby.
Lion4ever wrote:
We’ll have the best defence, never leaking any tries like the Stormers did when he coached them
But never scoring any as well
http://www.supersport.com/rugby/springboks/news/160413/Boks_will_be_attackminded_Coetzee
Ja Snor het dit ook gesê
En Heyneke ook
Hulle het altwee probeer hardlooprugby speel
Dit het goed gelyk teen swak spanne
Maar nadat hulle amper hulle g@tte gesien het daarmee teen sterker spanne was dit maar weer skop en jaag
Die Springbokafrigter mag nie verloor nie
@ Victoriabok:
@13 tend to take the view of give the man a chance first see how it goes. He will have a wider choice of players to choose from and different coaching staff to when he was at Stormers so may be able to use a different game plan. On current form though you have to think a lot of Stormers will be in the squad against Ireland
@ Bullscot:
I think you are correct that the Stormers will make up the majority of the players against Ireland. If Mr Coetzee was wise he would choose most of players from the Stormers, Lions and Sharks. With one or two from the Bulls and Cheetahs.
I wish AC all the very best for his tenure as Coach of the Springboks. (with certain reservations concerning Test Matches against NZ).
A new age,
a new broom.
A huge amount of potential in SA to harness and develop.
Let us all hope the Vultures, Jackals, Provincinals, Politicians, etc ,etc…………………. let him get on with his task. It will be difficult enough without their interference.
Great Teams are not made in months, sometimes not even years. Often its the next Coach who benefits from the groundwork made by the incumbent.
Good Luck Allister.
cane.
16 @ Lion4ever:
Hi Lion4ever you can’t argue against that based on latest Super rugby form, have not watched the tournament this year but looking at the table it shows the Stormers as the best of the South African teams, so even it is a pattern that coaches tend to favour players they have worked with at their provinces this would be justified if there are quite a few Stormers guys in the squad. Surprised though you think more players from Lions and Sharks should get picked than Bulls, yes yes I am a Bulls fan but even so it is only because of the strange way Super Rugby works that Lions are above the Bulls on the overall table as they have earned 1 less point than the Bulls. Also the Sharks have only managed to win half of their matches and with the likes of the du Plessis brothers overseas and Coetzee injured and Pat Lambie still not back from injury this will surely decrease the amount of Sharks in the squad.
16 @ Lion4ever:
Do you think any of the Kings players maybe deserve a look in with an extended squad not necessarily match day 23, sounds like they have a few good loose forwards and one in particular I read being praised a lot is Cloete?
My guess in terms of which franchises will have the biggest representation at the moment from highest to lowest – Stormers, Bulls, Lions, Sharks, Cheetahs, Kings (if any). Could be close between Bulls and Lions.
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