Eddie Jones is a name you whisper quietly down Newlands way, but you must say it anyway for Jones has shown the way for SA rugby.
The Australian may have skulked out of the Cape in favour of a pot of cash (and miserable weather) with England, but he has proven that you don’t need a lifetime to transform. England were a rabble when he took over, but a pragmatic hand and a return to the fundamentals soon had them purring. They laid waste to everyone in the Six Nations and even pocketed that rarest of gems, a Grand Slam.
Jones, once England’s bête noire, is now their hero, his Cheshire cat grin a permanent reminder of sport’s grand capacity for surprise.
On Friday, South Africa will enjoy its own key moment when the new Springbok coach is announced. Anyone other than Allister Coetzee being the man would constitute a major surprise. There has been the usual flip-flopping of names, but his has been ever-present.
Coetzee will have a fair old job to do. Under Heyneke Meyer the Boks ended up bobbing on the waves, neither here nor there. Their size and strength always had them in with a shout, but they weren’t spontaneous or exuberant.
Meyer’s time was up the moment Japan embarrassed the Boks in the World Cup last September. The team was in two minds about how to play and Japan, with coach Jones looking on approvingly, went full throttle. It was a shambles.
Coetzee will come in and mouth the usual homilies about tradition and history and what have you, but all that matters is being number one. The Boks need to get back to being the best team in the world and not one that snaps at the ankles of the All Blacks and Wallabies.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The Boks need to get back to being the best team in the world and not one that snaps at the ankles of the All Blacks and Wallabies[/pullquote]
The Boks did a fine job of winning friends and were media darlings the world over, but none of that should matter to the new coach. You win the PR battle if you win on the field. That is all that should count.
Coetzee needs to lay down his marker early. No-one can question his rugby intellect, but he must display the energy and sharp focus that the job requires. There can be none of the laboured thinking that characterised his last few months at the Stormers.
He must also show a capacity for fresh thinking. He has to make a big call on his playing philosophy – will he be ballsy or brittle? Meyer wasn’t bold enough to embrace a new game, an uncertainty that seeped into his team, most memorably against Japan and Argentina, in Durban last year.
As teams like the All Blacks and even Argentina have demonstrated, clever, creative and imaginative rugby can get you far. If the Boks can blend those qualities with their surplus of strength, they can claim the high ground.
Whatever Coetzee does, winning must be at the core. SA rugby fans have high expectations. Winning will see him feted. Losing will see him torn to pieces.
He won’t be a man alone. One of his first jobs will be to appoint a captain. Meyer set his stall out early by naming Jean de Villiers and sticking with him. It was a left-field call, but it was a smart one that brought much success.
Jake White did a similar thing with John Smit.
There aren’t many standout candidates, but Duane Vermeulen, SA’s Player of the Year two years ago, is the right sort of choice. He’s rugged, respected and experienced.
Coetzee will have to build a new team around his captain. Meyer was wedded to the older brigade, some would say to his detriment, but they’ve moved off and there are now holes all over the place.
Fortunately there’s much to work with – players like Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth and Willie le Roux are still babes in arms – and the emergence of players like Elton Jantjies (again), Warrick Gelant, Edgar Marutlulle and Malcolm Marx is a salve for all those wondering from where the next heroes will emerge.
As a player for Eastern Province, Coetzee was cheeky, combative and fiercely competitive. He must have the Boks playing in that very image. – © Sunday Tribune