In your newly released book, you speak of the importance of ‘vision’ as a coach. How did that define your early years as a coach at the Bulls?
The bigger the vision, the more the energy. That’s not just rugby, that’s any endeavour in life. I usually say it's like a magnifying glass. If you take a magnifying glass and there's no focus, there's no energy. But if you focus in on one specific area you know where you're going, and that energy can be strong enough to start a veld fire. So, the vision was always to be one of the best teams in the world – or the best team with the Bulls.
I always said to the guys, if you look at an old school photo, the first person you look at is yourself. It starts right back there.
You have to line up the vision of the team with the individuals, and I was fortunate enough to get a lot of young, quality players at the Bulls. We didn't have a big budget but we wanted to be the best team in the world in the southern division.
Those guys also knew, and I promised them that if the Bulls do well, they would be superstars … It's always been important to align the vision of the leader with that of the individual and the company.