Brendan Venter
John Smit has defined the role that Brendan Venter will play at the Sharks with the former Saracens Director of Rugby coming in once a week as a technical advisor.
Smit’s big appointments since his former World Cup-winning coach Jake White walked out has been to bring in two men who coached the CEO during his playing career – Gary Gold, who was assistant coach to Peter de Villiers and Venter, who coached him at Saracens.
Gold has been installed as the hands-on head coach of the Sharks and will be assisted by the three Currie Cup coaches in Brad Macleod-Henderson, Paul Anthony and Sean Everitt.
Venter will be adding technical support and advice with Smit hoping to tap into his ‘intellectual property’ of how the game works.
“Brendan will provide intellectual property in terms of where the game is going, discussing trends and helping with detail,” Smit told the Sharks website..
“He will come in once a week depending on the emphasis of the skill-set for that week.
rugby365
“But really, it’s to get the influence of Brendan’s energy.
“He does a lot of research on the game and he understands the game – all around the world.
“It’s just to have another brain amongst our coaching staff.
“It must be said, Gary asked if there was a chance to have Brendan involved. That’s the reputation he has and the impact he had on the players in last year’s Currie Cup.
“Having a role alongside Gary is a massive plus for the players.
“And Brendan sees something special here and would like to be a part of that.”
Venter has been involved with the Sharks before a a technical advisor, working alongside Mcleod-Henderson, Everitt and Anthony in the successful 2013 Currie Cup campaign.
Interestingly, Anthony is another coach who has helped the Sharks CEO as a player when he was a coach at Pretoria Boys High where Smit was at school.
Commenting on whether he hopes Gold’s appointment marks the start of a period of long term stability, Smit admits that: “Without doubt, I hope so. Hopefully from now on it’s all good stuff.
“Our job is to get everything right at the Union, not just at a Director of Rugby and team level – what everyone sees; we want to get everything right and we won’t stop, even if it requires more change.
“We won’t stop until this is the perfect franchise.”
Smit, having worked with Gold previously at the Springboks, says it does help to make a decision easier when you not only know what a coach is capable of, but his personality too.
“It was instrumental knowing what kind of person Gary is when making the appointment.
“I made no secret of the fact that whoever was brought in needs to be good inside, to their core, before looking at their skill set.
“A year relationship with Gary taking the pack of forwards during what was an enjoyable time to be in Bok camp had a huge role to play.
“It’s one of those relationships that when the opportunity arose to chat to him about his enthusiasm to join us, it was a no-brainer. And he reacted enthusiastically.”
Gold has made no secret of the fact that he embraces a philosophy of playing attacking rugby, that scoring tries will win more games than kicking a few penalties.
That’s what the fans want to see and something Smit is thrilled about as well.
“The coach’s vision is one that appeals to me; the process to get a replacement was an exhaustive one.
“We looked at a number of candidates, assessed the pros and cons of each. I understand how Gary thinks and how he works, and I certainly understand Brendan’s point of view as well.
“For me, with anyone who comes in and creates change, you’re looking for like-minded people who have a similar vision and can help each other.”