Straeuli’s experience has him roaring at top of his game

WHEN Brian van Zyl started to near the end of his long stint as Sharks chief executive, he was grooming Rudolf Straeuli to be his successor.

It was the Sharks’ loss and the Lions’ gain that it did not turn out that way.

Van Zyl did not see out the end of his contract period, being replaced by former Springbok captain and Sharks playing stalwart John Smit.

The people responsible for making that decision were going for the name and what Smit had done on the field, rather than any experience accumulated in administration.

The Sharks have paid for it, with the South African Rugby Union, credited with inventing professionalism in this country, heading downhill on the field in terms of results and off the field in terms of finances.

Not long after the revolution that changed the whole Sharks operation in 2013, Straeuli, suspecting he did not have a role in the new dispensation – he was the Sharks’ commercial manager – took up the position of Lions chief executive.

It may not have been a coincidence that his arrival back at the union he had represented at the end of his playing career was the start of the Lions’ rise to their position as the most successful union in SA.

The balance of power is now measured by what is achieved in the fullstrength Super Rugby competition.

The Lions were just edged out of being conference champions by a controversial draw with the Stormers in Cape Town in Straeuli’s first full season in 2015, but they have not looked back since.

They won the South African Conference in 2016 and last year comfortably, playing in the final in both years, and they look destined to make it a hat-trick of domestic titles this year.

Not that Straeuli will be happy just to be ahead domestically.

It is understood that after that first season, when the Lions made dramatic strides, Straeuli called in the team’s coaches, understandably happy with the way the campaign had gone, and dressed them down for getting ahead of themselves.

“This isn’t a time for celebration. You haven’t won anything yet,” is the gist of what he said.

Straeuli knows a thing or two about the importance of having the chief executive and the head coach on the same page.

The foundation of the Straeuli-Van Zyl relationship was built when Straeuli was Sharks coach, working under Van Zyl, in 2001, a year in which the Sharks made the final after being rockbottom before. But Straeuli got to feel the effects of a poor working relationship with the chief executive in 2003, his final year as Springbok coach. That was the nadir of his career in rugby.

Although he proved his talentspotting abilities by blooding many of the players who later won the World Cup under Jake White, for a long time he was remembered for the infamous Kamp Staaldraad fiasco and other events that marred that World Cup year.

However, he was still young as a coach, and it was only out of a sense of duty that he took the job.

He knew he lacked experience, but when I interviewed him in 2013 for my book on Bok coaches, he gave me the impression he felt he might have survived had he received better communication and support from Sarfu, instead of being made to feel he was man alone in dealing with the huge pressures faced by a national coach.

At the time of the book interviews, Straeuli was still at the Sharks.

He spoke perceptively about the challenges faced by not only the Sharks and South African rugby, but the sport as a whole, and had ideas and solutions showing chief executive potential.

He has travelled a road that Smit and other chief executives who have a playing background did not.

After being a player he became a coach and then worked in the commercial side of the administration.

Those who have dealt with him (other union chief executives, even coaches), say Straeuli has become a highly respected administrator.

When Straeuli became Bok coach the timing was out because he had not done the time, but for his current role his accumulation of experience has made the timing perfect.