SA should make capital of best coaches, not lose them to TV

Saturday Comment

HERE could be an interesting answer to a question on where you would find the most intellectual coaching capital in South Africa.

The biggest collective is not at any of the franchises or even in the Springbok management, but in the SuperSport studio.

If you look at how long they’ve coached at the highest level, Nick Mallett and John Mitchell possibly boast more experience than several of the top local franchise coaches put together.

And now I’m hearing that ex-Sharks coach John Plumtree could be joining his mate Mitchell in the studio, which will really take the intellectual capital of the “comments men” through the roof.

It’s great for the rugby viewership, but I can’t help thinking it’s a crying shame that these men aren’t being used more effectively for the betterment of the game in this country rather than entertaining and informing us with their views.

With his heart no longer in it after the appalling way his exit was handled by the Sharks’ board and the incoming CEO John Smit, it is understood that Plumtree got his wish this week – a good golden handshake and an early release.

He saw no point in sticking around for the remaining three games when he had already been axed and the results made no difference to his future.

He would also have had the Sharks over a barrel legally as there had been a verbal commitment to a two-year extension to his contract.

He will probably stay in the country until the end of 2013 so his kids can complete the schooling year, but then it’s likely he will take a good job in either the northern hemisphere or in his home country, New Zealand, and be lost to South African rugby.

There are some people who won’t cry over that, but I can’t see it as a good thing.

Whatever you want to say about Plumtree, with his Kiwi background and extensive coaching experience that started off at Swansea way back in 1997, he brought a different angle to what other South African coaches did.

At their best under Plumtree, the Sharks were the one South African team that looked capable of playing a style of rugby that was away from the usual template of subdue and suffocate before penetrating.

Mallett dubbed the Sharks “the off-load kings of South African rugby”, and they were that during their thrilling and highly entertaining surge to the Super Rugby final last year.

That they weren’t able to replicate that this year was very much down to the debilitating injury crisis that afflicted the Durban franchise.

Much like the Stormers, their past success was what tripped them up, with all their appearances in both Super Rugby and Currie Cup play-offs accentuating the knock-on effect of too much rugby.

If Plumtree was leaving behind some of the disciples who have learned off him in the past few years, I would be less concerned.

But assistant coach Grant Bashford, after gaining so much experience under first Dick Muir and then Plumtree over a period of eight years, will also be removed from the Sharks management after the Super Rugby season is completed.

If you ask Plumtree, he will tell you that Bashford had a lot to do with bringing through that attacking style that saw the Sharks sweep to an impressive victory in the 2010 Currie Cup, when that competition meant more than it does now, and also during their late-season winning run last year.

Being re-deployed as the head of age-group rugby at the Sharks will mean that at least Bashford is not lost to the South African game.

But he would make a greater contribution to South African rugby higher up in the food chain.

If the Sharks think they can just throw his intellectual capital away, shouldn’t the Stormers be looking at employing him somewhere in their system? Perhaps as a specialist attack coach? As someone who would like to the see the Sharks do well, it concerns me that Brad McLeod-Henderson is the front-runner for the role of Sharks coach, to serve under director of rugby Brendan Venter.

It concerns me because he has little coaching experience beyond school level – he has coached Hilton – and also because he reputed to be Smit’s best mate.

Some would have questioned Smit’s judgement when he it seemed he was instrumental in getting another good friend of his, Deon Carstens, into the Bok team for the first Test against the British and Irish Lions in 2009.

That wasn’t a selection that worked out, and I hope Smit isn’t making a similar mistake now.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, Venter is a rugby genius, and he would be a good appointment provided he is fully committed. But it should be of concern to Sharks fans that their team is going from being coached by one of the most experienced coaching teams in the country to one which could boast no top-level experience at all apart from Venter.

And the experience that the likes of Mallett, Mitchell and Plumtree, plus others such as Bashford, have built up during their years in their respective jobs should be regarded as gold.

If you disagree with my contention that there should be a place for old men in rugby, consider this – Graham Henry was appointed to the All Black job at the age of 57 and won the World Cup at the age of 65.

T