How Allister Coetzee will measure up against the rest
WHEN, as expected, he is installed as Springbok coach on Tuesday, Allister Coetzee will join illustrious company.
Coetzee and All Blacks coach Steve Hansen will be the only two coaches of teams ranked in the top eight who have not won a Super Rugby or European Champions Cup (former Heineken Cup) title.
Hansen never held the position of head coach in Super Rugby and the same goes for Argentina’s Daniel Hourcade.
Joe Schmidt: Ireland
The 50-year-old analyses the opposition like no other. Like Coetzee, he too has a schools background.
He won the Ranfurly Shield with Bay of Plenty and went on to win two Heineken Cups with Leinster. He had a 85% win record in European competition by the time he quit.
Ireland won the Six Nations in 2014 and 2015 but now he has to rebuild.
Warren Gatland: Wales
The much-decorated Gatland is viewed by many in Europe as the game’s most successful active coach.
He, however, had a 47% win ratio with Ireland but rebuilt his reputation at Wasps. His crowning moment came in 2013 when his British & Irish Lions side beat Australia.
The 52-year-old can be surly in press conferences, especially when he defends his record of just three wins in 35 tests against the three southern hemisphere powerhouses.
Eddie Jones: England
Jones worked with Coetzee as part of the Springbok coaching staff in the lead up to the team’s Rugby World Cup success in 2007 in France.
Unlike Coetzee, Jones is a plotter and schemer who doesn’t mind controversy to achieve a desired end.
As head coach he has won Super Rugby, the Tri-Nations, the Asian Five Nations and the grand slam at his first attempt with England.
Plotting Japan’s success last year over the Springboks in the Rugby World Cup in the UK was arguably his sweetest victory.
With England, the garrulous and opinionated Australian is well on his way to knighthood. One of the grizzled 62-year-old’s obvious obstacles is the generational barrier between him and his players. The former teacher has been described as charismatic, egoist and defiant.
Noves is certainly strong willed. Upon quitting test rugby as a player, he said: “I will enjoy club rugby in an ambience and a lifestyle that agrees with me.”
He enjoyed it so much he spent 23 years as coach of Toulouse, winning 10 Top 14 and four Heineken Cup titles along the way.
Coetzee will find him an interesting adversary.
Michael Cheika: Australia
Like Coetzee, Cheika also has an anti-establishment background. The fiery Aussie is the only coach to have won the major international club competition in each hemisphere.
He is seen as an innovative and uncompromising coach who expects his players to push the limits of human endeavour.
It helped the Wallabies win last season’s Rugby Championships before a World Cup campaign that ground to a halt in the final when they lost to New Zealand.
Steve Hansen: New Zealand
Like Coetzee, much of his early success was achieved in the shadows. Hansen won the National Provincial Championship twice while at Canterbury and he was assistant coach at the Crusaders when they won Super Rugby in 1999 and 2000.
Wales, however, slipped to 11 consecutive defeats under his stewardship. He was All Blacks assistant coach for eight years but since taking over in 2012 has won three Rugby Championship titles and last year’s Rugby World Cup.