Ackermann going to Gloucester should not be seen as a negative
SOUTH AFRICAN rugby bosses – from the men sitting in the offices of Saru in Durbanville to those at the Lions’ HQ in Doornfontein – should be happy if Johan Ackermann decides to move to England and take over the coaching duties at Gloucester.
SA rugby bosses should also be pleased that the likes of Rassie Erasmus, Jacques Nienaber, John McFarland, John Plumtree, Alan Solomons, Gary Gold, Omar Mouneimne, Dawie Theron, Brendan Venter and Frans Ludeke are all involved in coaching abroad.
Sure, SA are losing out to some extent with these distinguished and highly-experienced men training the “opposition” overseas and not helping make the Springboks great again, but if the rugby bosses are smart there will only be one winner down the line: and that is SA rugby – and the Boks.
You see, just as some of this country’s players learn from the best from New Zealand, England, Australia and Japan, so, too, do the coaches learn from assistants and even players.
Ackermann has been at the Lions for six years. He started as an assistant coach, learning from John Mitchell, who would have had plenty of knowledge and information to pass on, and he’d have passed on what he’s learned to his players and assistants at the Lions, like Swys de Bruin and young JP Ferreira.
They’ll be better coaches in the future because of what they learned from Ackermann, who learned from Mitchell.
And men like Warren Whiteley, Jaco Kriel, Elton Jantjies and Franco Mostert will be better and more seasoned players because they are learning about the game of rugby and themselves from different coaches, with different ideas, as well as from players, in Japan and other places.
Ackermann going to Gloucester – if he does – should not be seen as a negative for SA rugby, but rather a positive.
Imagine what he will learn from the English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Italian and French players he’ll coach? They all have different philosophies on the game and how it should be played and Ackermann will be able to bank all that information, to be stored away for when it is needed.
He’ll learn from working alongside Philippe Saint-Andre (Gloucester’s intended new director of rugby), he’ll learn from the different coaches he comes up against in Europe to the ones he comes up against year after year in Super Rugby, and he’ ll learn about how to win and be successful on different surfaces and in different conditions. The ideas that will be shared and the interactions he’ll have with new players will be like opening up a box of magic tricks.
If Ackermann is a good and respected coach now, imagine what he’d be in four or five years time?
SA, like New Zealand, could benefit from having many of their experienced coaches currently plying their trade abroad, and returning to coach here. But then Saru have to at some stage invest in them by bringing them back, and ensuring that they take charge of the Boks and the Super Rugby teams, and pass on their knowledge to the younger generation of coaches coming through the system.
The Lions won’t like Ackermann leaving – no team would – but if the structures are sound they’ll surely have someone primed to take over. And, what an opportunity for that man, whoever it may be.