What if I told you South African rugby was awash with black coaches?

There are two dozen in the professional ranks, but I bet you couldn’t name three without sneaking a peak at the list at the bottom of this column.

I only know around half of them, but it was a fascinating exercise collating it. It proves the transformation picture isn’t quite as bleak as some believe.

It’s not Heyneke Meyer’s imperative to lead transformation. He must buy into it and endorse it, but the real drivers are the men at the coalface, the age group and provincial coaches. All Meyer can do is pluck the fruit made available to him.

The worrying aspect of this list is the suspicion that opportunities remain limited for black coaches at the very highest levels.

A couple of names stand out; the most obvious of them former Stormers coach Allister Coetzee. He is the only black coach to have worked consistently at a high level. Chester Williams had a brief gig with the Cats, but he ended up coaching in Outer Mongolia (Romania, Tunisia and Uganda, to be specific, but you get the drift).

Remarkably, Peter de Villiers had no experience of Super Rugby when he landed the Bok job. He’s back on the outer and doing what all disaffected coaches do: sniping from the sidelines.

Other high profile black coaches include Paul Treu, who did outstanding work with the Blitzbokke and is now on the Stormers staff, and Ricardo Loubscher, who is with the Boks.

The Super Rugby franchises remain a closed shop, which must have an impact on transformation. There’s empirical evidence that white coaches continue to favour white players, which is why SA Rugby occasionally cracks the whip and reminds them to do the right thing. Change has been slow.

The one thing most people agree on is that there are plenty of black players competing at a reasonably high level. The point of departure is what we do with them. Too many fall through the cracks, at a rate higher than their white counterparts.

Like young black kids who aspire to be like Bryan Habana or Beast Mtawarira, black players would presumably respond favourably to black coaches. This might sound like a sweeping generalisation, but this is South Africa. Everything is defined by colour.

While we agonise over player numbers and targets and quotas, maybe it’s time to take a step back and take another look.

The coaches are the ones who make things happen and whether we like it or not, all the senior jobs in local rugby are held by white coaches, notwithstanding the list below.

Many black coaches are doing outstanding jobs. Melusi Mthethwa of the Leopards oversaw a first win in 10 years for his under-19s over their Blue Bulls counterparts at Loftus Versfeld last week. They’ve also beaten the Sharks this season.

Mzwandile Stick, the ex-Sevens magician, is doing outstanding work with the Kings at under-19 level. And Oersond Gorgonzola, who surely possesses the best name in rugby, is a product of the Karoo who has done yeoman work in Northern Free State for many years.

However, rugby’s conveyor belt isn’t geared towards fast-tracking these hopefuls. It’s time it was. If black coaches were pushed harder and if a bigger stick was waved at Currie Cup and Super Rugby franchises, the slow dribble would turn into a fierce black wave.

And we’ll be wondering why it took us 25 years to wake up.

 

SA’s TOP BLACK COACHES

Allister Coetzee (Kobe Kobelco Steelers head coach)

David Manuel (Bulls backline coach)

Ricardo Loubscher (Boks backline coach)

Denzil Frans (Bulls u-21s forward coach)

Hayden Groepies (Bulls u-19s head coach)

Hanyani Shimange (WP u-21s forwards coach)

Paul Treu (Stormers defence coach)

Nazeem Adams (SA u-20s assistant)

Chris October (WP u-19s)

Rito Hlungwani (WP u-19s forwards coach)

Joey Mongala (Lions u-21s assistant)

Bafana Nhleko (Lions u-19s head coach)

Bevan Fortuin (SWD head coach)

Deon Davids (SWD age group coach)

Jearus Nicholas (SWD age group coach)

Oersond Gorgonzola (Griffons head coach)

Melusi Mthethwa (Leopards u-19 coach)

Dewey Swartbooi (Boland head coach)

Stanley Raubenheimer (Boland u-21s head coach)

Tiger Mangweni (EP Kings u-21s defence coach)

Mzwandile Stick (EP Kings u-19s)

Wayne van Heerden (EP Kings u-19s)

Renfred Dazell (SA women Sevens)

Paul Delport (SA Sevens u-18 coach).