New blood to beef up Border brains trust

BORDER Rugby Union (BRU) has bolstered the Bulldogs technical team for the upcoming 2017 season with the appointment of their former player Tiger Mangweni.

Furthermore, another ex-Bulldog, Thembani Mkokeli, was hired to take over the hot seat in the Border U20 squad for next year. In the interim he is serving as the Bulldogs skills coach.

These changes were announced by BRU director of rugby, Dumisani Mhani yesterday.

According to him, now is the time to rope in former players who can add value to the union’s teams at all levels.

The 36-year-old Mangweni, from Nxarhuni, has a wealth of experience, having played at all levels of rugby, bar the Springboks.

His rich CV includes more than 60 caps for the Bulldogs, 46 for the Blue Bulls, 22 for the Griquas, seven for the Cheetahs and two for the Stormers.

Before he made it to the professional ranks he came through the Border junior structures.

Mhani said they hope he will impart his considerable experience to the current crop of Bulldogs players.

“We have roped in Tiger to assist the Bulldogs on defence,” said Mhani.

“And this is not in anyway to say we do not have confidence in the technical team we had in 2016, but is done to broaden our scope.

“Through this we are saying there is a number of former Border players who have valuable capabilities but have been ignored, by us as well, but now is the time we rope them in,” he went on.

“It is about time we tap into the wealth of rugby knowledge that we have in the Border region.”

As for Mkokeli, Mhani said his interim role as skills coach of the Bulldogs was a learning curve, preparing him to ascend to the Border U20 top job with the former job bound to cease to exist once the latter takes effect.

“Murie”, as Mkokeli is affectionately known, has been loyal to the Bulldogs throughout his career, having never played for any other union but for Border, with more than 120 caps under his belt for the senior team.

As such, Mhani opined, it would be tantamount to selfinflicted injuries were Border to let such a former player of Mkokeli’s calibre get lost in the system.

And the 32-year-old pride of Tsholomnqa is bolstered by the World Rugby level 2 coaching licence at his disposal.

“The fact is Murie is not getting any younger and we do not want to see him getting lost within the system when he can be of value,” said Mhani. —