I just read this blog called Sore Eye. Some of the reactions are posted at the bottom of the article. What do YOU think?

Allister Coetzee is a talker, a great talker, but perhaps an interminable talker. Funny, articulate, intelligent, passionate, the kind of talker who silences the braai with one-man entertainment. He’s the leading contender, they say, for Bok coach. Who knows what SARU will do, but I reckon Allister Coetzee is not the man.

Yes, Allister Coetzee is a rugby man to the core, and handles the pressure with practiced ease. I really like him – he’s a quintessential rugby man. At heart he’s a politician qualifying him for dealing with SARU’s melodramas. He’s also astute and experienced as his track record shows. Assistant to Jake White, winner of the de facto Currie Cup – the SA Round of the Super Rugby season of 2011, and transformer of the Stormers into two-time home semi-finalists. No silverware, but Jake had less before he took over.

The players also like him because he’s affable. And this is the problem. He’s not a big-stick man. Instead he has vast reservoirs of motivational talk, espoused with inimitable inserts of Kapie banter and infectious laughter. A bit too much talk, methinks, when the calculated one-liner is used by hard coaches as a whip, its utterance laced with menace.

You sense that Graham Henry has this approach down-pat, as did Kitch Christie. Nick Mallet was its most intimidating exponent. Distil the message to its essence, chilli it with some bitter F*cks, and deliver it with a snarl. Unfortunately, this is not AC style. And right now, I reckon the Boks need this severity from a cantankerous bastard with a solid coaching record. A coach who is not their friend, but The Coach.

Thing is, Peter de Villiers left a legacy of garbled miscommunication that must be culled immediately. Personally I liked his motivational speeches – as evidenced by footage inside the Bok change-room during the British Lions tour. But the mangled media-speak, combined with the little squeak, tainted the comms channels in Bok-land. You can’t blame Snor for his genetic attributes but you can say the time has come for more contrite authority. Allister Coetzee, unfortunately, is more continuity than change in this respect.

Now, what is your option? Why disqualify Allister Coetzee on this point? Have you ever been coached by a snarling ff’er? I had coached for numerous years and never had to go down that route to have my teams focused and raring to go for their games.

To be a successful coach, the players need to respect him. Respect is not earned by cursing and screaming, but by the knowledge of the game and above all by the results the coach achieves. He needs to force dicipline, but again, this is very easy if the players respects him.

6 Months ago I had Allister Coetzee as my suggestion for the Bok coaching role, but things have since changed, and, so too, has my impression of him. He has lately come across with a bit of a “lacklustre” attitude and I tend to agree with some of your statements. As nice a chap as he is, we could end up with a Hugh-Reece Edwards and Sharks scenario from years gone back, when Reecey was too “pally-pally” with the Sharks players in his coaching role. Bring on John Mitchell with Rassie Erasmus… they will sort out the Bok squad.

The idea I got from reading Victor’s book was that the coach was too nice, a people pleaser.  “Bring the whips and chains back for a bit, just not Kamp Staaldraad style.I disagree, back in those days (Amateur days) when rugby players came out of the army, the military approach might still have worked. But this is a whole new generation, and a fark you from the coach may well turn into a fark you too from the player, him pissing off to Europe and leaving our talent pool emptied. Think Frans Steyn for example and Div was not even a harsh coach.

Its a new generation and you need to treat them like adults, not like a bunch of army troepe.