Mitchell senses need for speed
‘THE ETHOS ALREADY EXISTS’
New Bulls executive of rugby John Mitchell may have been coaching in the western hemisphere for the last 16 months, but he knows exactly which way the game is going in the southern hemisphere, unsurprisingly since he still calls South Africa home.
“The most important change is that the game is no longer slow, teams need to be able to speed up the game and tolerate the game when it’s at its most demanding,” Mitchell, who has been coaching the US Eagles team, said at his unveiling in his new role at Loftus Versfeld on Thursday night.
“That ability to ramp up the intensity is the most important, critical factor now. Last weekend in the game against the Lions, the tempo was ramped up for a 20-minute period and one team was able to tolerate it and the other was not.
“Everything we do must be geared towards how we want to play and the days of fitness being done in isolation to skills are gone. That ethos already exists here, it’s just a matter of tweaking it.
“We also need to be consistent through all teams because the best transition periods happen when new players come through your own development programmes.”
Mitchell said he could not wait to get stuck into full-time, top-level coaching again, with his US commitments only taking up part of the year.
“Things happen for a reason and I’ve been in South Africa for seven years now, I love the place and I call it home. But it was important for me to go away and learn and the aim was to go to the World Cup with the USA team. But it’s two quite different challenges, the build-up to the event and the tournament itself, and it was just a 14 to 15 week intermittent programme with them.
“I thank US rugby for being so amicable, but there’s no better lifestyle for a coach than being involved with the players every day, that’s the biggest thing I missed,” the 53-year-old said.
Even Nollis Marais, who will still be Currie Cup head coach and involved with the Super Rugby side as an assistant, was pleased to finally have the support of a like-minded coach and the players are in for a tough time as there will now be no escaping the focus on conditioning.
“I met John in Durban in 2016 and we chatted about how rugby has evolved. We have a similar way of thinking, so that will make the transition easy. I know I’m the right coach for the new brand of rugby we want to play, but I needed some assistance and it’s a great honour to have John Mitchell here,” Marais said.