Smith and Marais – who will be the last man standing?
THEY are two of the most promising and progressive coaches at the highest level of domestic rugby in the country, and Saturday’s Currie Cup final will provide the stage for yet another intriguing encounter between Franco Smith and Nollis Marais.
Winning the Currie Cup would be the crowning achievement for two careers that have walked a similar path in many respects, and proof that a more ball-in-hand approach to the game can be fruitful in South Africa.
A former Springbok flyhalf and centre and having coached club rugby in Italy, Smith returned to the country two years ago and immediately made an impact on the rugby landscape in the Free State, coaching the University of the Free State to their first Varsity Cup title.
The 44-year-old Smith’s success in the high-octane Varsity Cup was soon rewarded when he was appointed the Cheetahs’ Super Rugby coach last year. He quickly achieved tangible results by engineering the Cheetahs’ first Super Rugby win against the Bulls in the competition.
The Cheetahs, though, stumbled at the penultimate stage of last year’s Currie Cup as they lost to the eventual champions, the Golden Lions, in their semi-final at Ellis Park.
While the Cheetahs struggled in this year’s Super Rugby competition, they showed enough glimpses of being a team that could become a force with their disciplinarian coach at the helm and a sea of eager youngsters.
Now, Smith and his gang of former Varsity Cup stars stand on the verge of adding their names to Free State rugby folklore.
Smith, no doubt, would be hailed as among the best coaches the union has produced.
Marais, on the other hand, has not enjoyed as easy a ride as Smith’s.
It is Marais’s grind from the bottom to the top, however, that makes his a modern-day rugby fairy tale.
In his playing days, Marais was a hard-working loose forward and played most of his club rugby in Pretoria for Adelaar and Naka Bulls, before enjoying a stint playing club rugby in Wales.
Marais started his coaching career also at Naka Bulls, before moving to Hoërskool Overkruin. He was eventually appointed Tuks’ head coach in 2010.
His moment of reckoning came a year later when he won the national Under-21 interprovincial championship with the Blue Bulls in his first year in charge, and followed it up with two more titles in the three years thereafter.
Marais elevated his stature in domestic coaching circles by leading Tuks to their first Varsity Cup title, in 2012.
Last year, Marais was appointed Blue Bulls’ Currie Cup coach, and his young and inexperienced team lost in the semi-finals against Western Province.
Marais was handed the biggest job in the capital when he took over from Frans Ludeke as Super Rugby coach, and his squad came close to making the play-offs.
Now, they stand verge of greatness. on the