Stormers ‘heeded the word on Mitchell’

IT has emerged that the SA Rugby Union (Saru) and the Golden Lions Rugby Union (GLRU) put pressure on the Western Province Rugby Football Union (WPRFU) not to appoint John Mitchell as coach.

WPRFU director of rugby Gert Smal had nominated former All Blacks, Western Force and Golden Lions coach Mitchell as the only candidate to coach the Stormers.

After weeks of negotiations WPRFU president Thelo Wakefield and his board members backed down on Mitchell after calls from Saru president Oregan Hoskins and GLRU president Kevin de Klerk swayed their thinking.

“The Golden Lions had a tough parting with John Mitchell,” said Hoskins about Mitchell’s acrimonious split with the Gauteng union in 2012. “I was still president of Saru and I was intimately involved in his arbitration hearing.

“When Western Province considered Mitchell for the Stormers coaching job, Kevin de Klerk and I both spoke to Thelo [Wakefield] and said that we strongly feel that they shouldn’t consider him, given the experience we had at the Lions.

“If you appoint a coach for four years and run into problems in the first year, you end up having to pay out a lot of money.

“My concern is a financial one and I think it is very sad that Western Province are coming out of this as the bad guys here.”

Last Saturday Smal had to name long-time assistant and former star player Robbie Fleck as interim head coach for the 2016 season.

Smal has been angered by the turn of events, especially as the board appears to have made a decision based on a perception of Mitchell rather than an interrogation of his ability as a coach.

Wakefield told a newspaper this week that 52-year-old Mitchell had “poor people skills”.

He added: “We have invested a great deal in young players such as Eben Etzebeth, Frans Malherbe, Damian de Allende and Siya Kolisi, to name a few.

“It would be wrong to put them and the team management at risk [of clashing heads with Mitchell].”