Kruger to drive players to new heights
IF HIS approach to his new hobby – mountain biking – is anything to go by, Herkie Kruger’s main calling card as a head coach in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge will be incremental, rather than volatile, improvements.
A former flyhalf with the Cell C Sharks, Tafel Lager Griquas and Xerox Lions, the 39-year-old has found a release for the adrenaline he misses from playing the game in mountain biking, because “it helps a bit, especially when you’re going downhill and over rocks”. It’s a sport in which he’s encountered fellow former flyhalf, ex-Springbok Joel Stransky, who at 50 is significantly older, but also puts Kruger in the shade for performance: “That guy’s a machine, he goes for podiums and I just do it for enjoyment.”
Kruger, who was the Lions’ assistant coach in this tournament last year, will be taking a similar easy-does-it approach going into his new job, which should be quite pressured because having gone as far as the semis last year, improvement will mean making the final.
“I try not to put pressure on myself,” he explained. “Everyone says you take it one game at a time. Winning looks after itself if you look after the small things – if we do that, then the big engine will run at the end of the day.”
Asked to share his coaching philosophy now that his rugby is played in-between the ears, as opposed to the four lines, Kruger came up with a motivation that doesn’t conjure up images of multiple trophies: “For me, this is more than just coaching, it’s putting back into young men’s lives so they can be good men, husbands and fathers. I always say if I can teach them about rugby, life and Jesus I’ve done well.”
Listening to how difficult it is to get his squad in the same place at the same time Kruger might find himself having to turn water into wine.
Having left winger Aphiwe Dyantyi – even though they’ll be missing SA U20 stars Gianni Lombard, Wandisile Simelane and Manuel Ras – might help their adaptability in their opening game against the iCollege Pumas at Wits University tomorrow. —