Hunt gives up hopes of landing the Bafana job
THE Springboks’ head of athletic performance, Aled Walters, has been released from his contract to join an overseas club in June, SA Rugby confirmed yesterday.
Walters joined the Boks from Munster back in 2018 with Rassie Erasmus, and played a key role in the Boks’ World Cup success as he headed up their strength and conditioning.
Erasmus, director of rugby, paid tribute to the important contribution Walters made during his tenure with the Boks.
“It’s obviously sad to lose someone of Aled’s ability, but we understand that the unprecedented times we are in, brings about difficult challenges and we respect his wish to return to the UK,” said Erasmus.
ACCOMPLISHED PSL coach, Gavin Hunt, has given up on his ambition to steer the Bafana Bafana ship.
Hunt has been to several interviews for the Bafana job without any success in the past and now feels that an opportunity to lead a national team, if it comes, may not necessarily be with South Africa. Molefi Ntseki is the current Bafana coach.
Hunt is a four-time PSL title winner and is currently in charge at Wits. He has set his sights on coaching foreign national teams in his pursuit to fulfil his dream of coaching at the World Cup. “I’ve had more interviews than I have had breakfast for (the) Bafana job,” Hunt said.
Hunt has done it all in the domestic front.
“When you walk into the room and you don’t know any of the people that will interview you, that’s the problem. I always say with the national team job, no matter where in the world, they’ve got to identify the person that they want and interview him. I remember in 2010, myself, Steve Komphela and Gordon Igesund, we would go into the room like little school boys. We went there one by one and we had 45 minutes to do the presentation. I said, what am gonna talk about in 45 minutes. You ask me the question and then I’ll talk. It was crazy times. Interesting, you learn from those situations,” Hunt explained.
The 55-year-old has won four league titles, an ABSA Cup, Nedbank Cup, MTN8 and the Telkom Knockout trophies in his glittering coaching career. “My ultimate goal now is the national team. It is not going to be
“Aled has made an enormous impact since joining the Springboks in 2018 and I know that while the whole squad will be sad to see him go, he will also have our very best wishes for the future.” here (SA). I know it is somewhere. I want to coach at the World Cup. That has to be the ultimate. Be it Ghana or somewhere, I don’t know. There was a bit of talk with Ghana at one stage, but in Ghana they’ve got five presidents and everyone is an agent. It was just talk on the phone call. Zambia also (wanted me) when Kalusha Bwalya (was still the president of the Zambian Football Association) after Herve Renard left,” Hunt said.
At the moment, Hunt says he is still happy at Wits. “If I was out of work, I’ll jump into something. Right now, I have the right project here. It is a right club with stability. The only thing, I do miss is the glamour. All the razzmatazz and the supporters. That’s something frustrating, but also a motivational factor. I think in football everything is about timing, especially for big jobs. When I talk about timing, I’m talking about guys like Pitso Mosimane and Roger de Sa. When Pitso joined (Mamelodi) Sundowns, he was out of a job after he left Bafana. It was the case with Roger and Eric Tinkler when they joined (Orlando) Pirates. It was similar during my time with the likes of Gordon Igesund and the late Ted Dimitru. They didn’t just leave their jobs. So, that’s timing,” he added.
Hunt has been linked with Kaizer