Spotlight on Bok rugby coaches

As yet another Bok coach is out of a job we look at the track record of Toetie and some of his predecessors

YOU hire them to fire them. Fans could be forgiven for thinking this is the motto of the South African Rugby Union (Saru) as yet another Bok coach has found himself out of a job. In the week preceding his sacking Allister Coetzee (54), who managed the Boks for two lacklustre years, made it clear he wasn’t going to go quietly. He fired off an explosive 19-page letter to Saru chief executive Jurie Roux, claiming he’d been set up to fail and accusing his bosses of embarking on a campaign to undermine him.

They created a public impression of incompetence, he said, while cost-cutting exercises left him without the tools to do his job. Coetzee complained his appointment was “ceremonial” and that director of rugby Rassie Erasmus – tipped to take over as coach at least in the interim – was effectively his puppet master.

Coetzee is just the latest in a long line of coaches to have fallen foul of the sport’s governing body: Nick Mallett, Jake White, Peter de Villiers and Heineke Meyer all found themselves at odds with the board.

In his book The Poisoned Chalice: The Rise and Fall of the Post-Isolation Springbok Coaches, veteran rugby writer Gavin Rich likens Bok coaches to the prime ministers of countries because they’re under so much scrutiny and the weight of expectation is so great.

“He comes into the job having one half of the country seeing transformation as the most important target, while the other half believes it’s his duty to choose the best possible team and win every game,” Rich tells YOU.

“It’s a unique situation that no other rugby coach anywhere in the world has to put up with.”

Despite the claims he made in his letter, Coetzee will ultimately be judged on his results.

“For a coach who lasted as long as he has, Allister has the worst post-isolation record,” Rich says. “A less than 50% success rate when you’ve been in charge for two years just isn’t good enough.”

We take a look at how Coetzee stacks up against some former Bok coaches.