Like England under Lancaster, Boks will slide under Coetzee

England’s 2015 World Cup low forced change in their rugby, even though there were many who believed Stuart Lancaster should have remained in the top job.

Lancaster spoke of processes, systems and of a next generation who always seemed to be a year too young and never quite the right age to take responsibility for the failures.

Lancaster’s England could not beat the Springboks in five attempts and won one from seven against the All Blacks. It did not surprise to see England so easily dismissed at the 2015 World Cup.

Even then, the talk quickly turned to the World Cup in 2019. Lancaster’s “youngsters” would then be just the right age.

Lancaster, like SA’s Allister Coetzee, was defiant.

He believed he was the man for the job. He believed he had the right players. He believed in England, even if the rest of the world mocked England.

He pleaded for patience and singled out the solitary win against the All Blacks and the 14-all draw against the Springboks in Port Elizabeth as examples of how good his team could be.

The emphatic defeats to the All Blacks in New Zealand and Twickenham that followed and the series defeat in SA were dismissed as learning experiences. The 30-3 defeat against Wales in Cardiff was put down to one of those days.

Lancaster was a good bloke and well liked. He won the sympathy vote.

His patriotism was always an exhibit that favoured entrusting him with long-term objectives, despite the shortterm failures.

England’s hierarchy was comfortable making a case for a stay of execution.

Typically of those who cannot front the mistake in having made the wrong appointment, they spoke of calm and composure and of not being reactionary to England’s abject failures.

Nick Mallett, a Tri Nations coaching winner with the Springboks in 1998 and the 1999 World Cup bronze medallist, had spent five years trying to turn Italy from the whipping boys of the Six Nations to a team that lost with respectability.

He was viewed as the obvious choice to get the England job ahead of Lancaster after Martin Johnson’s awful four-year tenure.

Johnson was another example of an appointment based on popularity and without merit.

Johnson was a magnificent captain and at the helm during England’s 2003 World Cup success. He had no coaching experience but was given the England job on his playing merits. England idled during his four-year tenure and then imploded at the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.

Mallett, post Johnson, was asked to apply for the England job. It was as good as giving it to him. He was also English born and a graduate of Oxford.

The English rugby media had a healthy regard for Mallett.

When his 1998 Boks were at their peak, the UK Independent newspaper described him as “the Oxford graduate son of a headmaster who taught SA discipline and unpredictability”.

The English Rugby Union, despite talking of wanting the best and appointing the best, could not translate talk into action. Mallett’s job application presentation included involving All Blacks coaching icon Wayne Smith as his primary assistant.

The “Mallett and Smith” appointment never happened. Lancaster, a man of “salt of the earth” English qualities, was anointed a messiah on patriotism and not pragmatism.

He was sold as the right appointment, but for all the wrong reasons. He was not the best and his team over four years would prove never to be the best.

Australia’s Eddie Jones was the right appointment for Lancaster’s England post, even if he was not necessarily a popular choice.

Jones spoke about winning matches. He never spoke of processes, structures and a four-year plan in which losing was excused. He never mentioned a style of play.

Jones’s England beat Scotland 15-9 in his first Test in charge. Jones was euphoric. His team won and that is all that mattered. Winning restored integrity and the more a team won the more they won respect, at home and abroad.

England, who beat Uruguay in Lancaster’s last match, have won 15 in succession with Jones. They will whip Italy to make it 17 and victory against Ireland in Dublin will equal the All Blacks’ world record of 18 successive Test wins.

Jones has benefited from not playing the All Blacks, but it in no way lessens his impact.

England made the right appointment eight years too late. In a year that right appointment has transformed their global rugby standing.

It is often said all that man learns from history is that man never learns from history.

The South African rugby hierarchy can learn from England’s mistakes.

Instead they will not when they reward Coetzee’s mediocrity and failures of 2016 with yet another lost year of disappointment and insignificance.