Weekend Super Rugby games highlight role of coaches
During the game between the Lions and Rebels, television commentator and former Wallaby captain Phil Kearns pointed to something that must concern many SA rugby followers.
The SA conference log had just been shown on the screen. Kearns expressed his incredulity that the two inland teams should be so far off the pace “when only a few years ago the Lions and Bulls were the dominant teams”.
Of course, the rapid demise of the Lions and Bulls is not unique in Super Rugby. Kearns’s own former team is an example of how the mighty can fall.
Watching the Waratahs now it is hard to equate them with the franchise that were once perennial contenders and won the competition in 2014.
The Highlanders, also-rans in the New Zealand conference, won the competition not that long ago.
The big swings in the fortunes of the franchises can largely be attributed to how dramatically the playing staff can fluctuate from one season to another due to the lure of foreign currency. And because it is unlikely to change, the Lions’ type of success story, which was pivoted on being able to build a team over time, is going to become more rare.
But does that mean we should suspend expectations of rebuilding franchises like the Lions and Bulls to be able to be successful now?
While it is true that patience is necessary, if we look at the Super Rugby log, with the Sharks at the top of both the conference and the combined competition, perhaps there is room to be less fatalistic.
For what the Sharks have shown is that the appointment of the right coaches and astute recruitment can have dramatic and quick impact.
We saw the impact a good coach can have in turning fortunes around, and quickly, when Eddie Jones took over England. They went from the nadir of being knocked out in the pool stage of their own Rugby World Cup to being up near the top of the world rankings the following year.
Not that we need England as a reference for there is one much closer to home: where the Springboks are now compared with where they were this time two years ago, before Rassie Erasmus took over, is mind-boggling.
There are examples of quick turnarounds in Super Rugby too. The Highlanders lost to the Southern Kings and were near the foot of the log in 2013 but won the competition two years later under Jamie Joseph.
Mention of Joseph is apt because we know what he was also able to do with Japan. Further confirmation that the identity of the coach is the most important key to turning copper into gold.
Jones had similar personnel to work with as his predecessor, Stuart Lancaster, had at England but he was able to do more with it. Sharks coach Sean Everitt had lost most of the pack that fronted the Sharks’ challenge under Robert du Preez but has adjusted his game to suit different strengths and he has recruited cleverly to fit the new dynamics of the approach.
A decade-and-a-half ago Dick Muir introduced an aggressive youth policy at the Sharks that, with the help of a few experienced players and overseas import in Tony Brown, realised quick dividends.
When the Sharks finished top of the Super Rugby log in 2007, before losing the final in agonising fashion, it was less than two years on from the Sharks being in a really dire position under Kevin Putt.
In the Highlanders team that lost to the Bulls at Loftus, only Aaron Smith among the star players that drove their championship season just five years ago remained. They are the worst Kiwi team by a long way so we shouldn’t read too much into the Bulls’ win.
But the way they won and the bravery shown in selection did provide an illustration of the potential for an aggressive youth policy to bring the hope and excitement back for supporters.
We’ve seen it happen in cricket in the past few weeks. I thought Proteas coach Mark Boucher was bonkers when he rested some of his more experienced men for the ODI series against Australia, yet his selection ended up energising the sport by showcasing talents many local fans probably didn’t know about.
I’ve always been convinced of the importance of experience, and that hasn’t changed.
But the message coming through from watching the Sharks, Bulls and the Proteas at the weekend is that it is not the be all and end all.
The Bulls have won only once so let’s not get carried away, but the other two have provided proof that having a good coach who is willing to be brave in selection can bring results that buck the expectation.
2007 was the year the Sharks finished top of the Super Rugby log, but lost in the final