Should he stay or should he go?
The ball’s very much up in the air as to Coetzee’s future
HE SOUTH African Rugby Union have had a tough and extremely complicated decision to make: To retain Springbok coach Allister Coetzee or sack him after a poor 2016 season.
It now appears, however, that Coetzee will stay on at least for the June home series against France, after which a decision on his continued involvement will be taken.
JACQUES VAN DER WESTHUYZEN looks at the pros and cons of keeping Coetzee in the job.
He would’ve learned a massive amount in 2016 about himself as coach and selector, Test rugby and his players – that is who’s up to it and who isn’t.
Keeping him in the job at least means the Boks aren’t starting from scratch; well, not quite. And he’ll be desperate to turn things around. shake off the conservative tag that has been pinned on him since his days coaching in the Western Cape. More than once last year, Coetzee’s selections were questioned.
Firstly, he picked a captain, Adriaan Strauss, he supposedly knew would be hanging up his boots at year’s end, and then when Strauss failed to fire, he wasn’t prepared to change him, for a new leader and hooker, be it Bongi Mbonambi or Malcolm Marx.
There was never certainty around the props and loose-forwards, while the centres he picked most of the time played on reputation rather than form. A player like Willie le Roux was axed and then recalled and it seemed Coetzee was never sure about his choices.