Lifeline for Coetzee means more pain for Bok fans

SA RUGBY’S decision to retain Allister Coetzee and the bulk of his staff at the helm of Springbok rugby was as inevitable as it was flawed.

At a time when rugby is crying out for a Springbok team that will again compete at the highest level of the game‚ all we can expect is a holding pattern in mid-table – at best.

There will be no closing the gap on England‚ New Zealand and Ireland.

Coetzee’s first year in charge yielded a 33% winning ratio – four wins out of 12 tests – which alone should have been enough to get him sacked.

But that only tells a small part of the story‚ which has been well documented over the previous months of his tenure.

Poor selections‚ muddled gameplans‚ porous defence and regression rather than improvement over the course of last season do not suggest any miraculous turnaround just because Franco Smith has been added to the coaching staff.

Smith‚ the Cheetahs coach‚ has a good track record and will no doubt add some value to the Bok set-up‚ and Brendan Venter‚ the well remunerated consultant coach‚ will also bring huge vats of rugby IQ when he is formally unveiled as defence coach.

But like a government with a president out of touch‚ all the best people in the world won’t be able to carry out their work if the boss undoes it with one or two bad judgment calls.

On last year’s November tour to Britain and Italy‚ this correspondent spoke to several people in the squad and there was discord over tactics and team culture.

How is that suddenly going to be rectified with all the same personnel in place‚ bar one?

The outlier is backline coach Mzwandile Stick‚ who was never appointed by Coetzee it has to be said.

He is the only casualty in the coaching reshuffle announced this week.

Stick is inexperienced and was too hastily ushered to the top table of rugby‚ but equally his influence in the squad set-up was so minimal that sacking him – and that’s what it was – was unfair.

Smith essentially took over Stick’s duties on the Novem- ber tour‚ in an embarrassing situation for both parties‚ but performances were worse.

The entire set-up and planning last year was a shambles and Coetzee’s late appointment has been used as an excuse for why matters deteriorated so alarmingly last season.

But if anything‚ the Boks should have been worse at the beginning of the 2016 international season and gradually improved over the course of the year as Coetzee put his plan into action.

Yet, they won three of their first four tests and then lost seven of the next eight‚ including to Italy in Florence. The excuse that there was no time to plan and prepare doesn’t hold up when matters became worse the more time the squad spent together.

There are myriad reasons why SA Rugby retained Coetzee‚ some which will only be known to the inner circle.

For one‚ there aren’t too many “world-class” coaches out of contract at the moment so finding a replacement isn’t easy or cheap.

Secondly it would have cost a huge amount to sack the incumbent because his performance clause doesn’t kick in until year two of his four-year contract.

There was also political pressure to retain Coetzee and the only solution around the problem was a typical South African rugby answer – fit a square peg into a round hole by adding more lieutenants to prop up an ailing general.

In a statement on Monday, Coetzee promised improvement which, when you consider the current standard‚ isn’t promising much at all.

He also continued with the line that 2016 was “unacceptable” and that there were “no excuses”.

It’s all just hot air that the rugby public must inhale without question.