Race had nothing to do with Allister’s appointment

ROBBIE FLECK appears to have a plan that has given him quiet confidence that his Stormers could get the better of the Lions at Ellis Park tonight, but there are several reasons why the home team should start as favourites to win.

Fleck has impressed me since taking the reins as the Stormers head coach in the offseason. Apart from the shrewd tactical brain that was in evidence when the Cape side got the better of the Brumbies at Newlands a couple of weeks ago, he is also organised and apparently quite unflappable.

The Lions were good in beating the Sharks last week, but in the early minutes they showed some vulnerabilities. They recovered at Kings Park but the week before that, against the Crusaders, the weaknesses in the Lions’ game were clear for all to see. The Sharks let themselves down with poor execution and poor discipline.

If there are Stormers fans who want to find something to give them confidence, it comes by way of the bench. Siya Kolisi, Rynhardt Elstadt and Damian de Allende will all come onto the field at precisely the point you might be expecting the strong-finishing Lions to take make their move. That may be part of the Fleck plan.

But back to what the Lions have going for them, and why I thought it was unfortunate the sports minister should feel it necessary at this past Tuesday’s Springbok coach announcement to pronounce that Allister Coetzee isn’t a “token” appointment. Who would think he was?

My reaction to that statement was similar the one I had to a fellow journalist who tweeted after Kagiso Rabada’s first big-wicket haul against Bangladesh that it was a good example of what could happen when black players get pushed through and fast-tracked. Huh?

Anyone who knows anything about the sport would know that race had nothing to do with Rabada’s elevation, and it is the same with Coetzee.

My first prize would have been a foreign coach to take charge of the Boks, someone who has proven ability at coaching the modern style that the South Africans should be moving towards, and which was in the minds of many of the critics who hammered Coetzee’s predecessor during last year’s World Cup.

But I do understand the stumbling blocks to the Boks having a foreign coach and if the new man has to be a local, then there really was no alternative option to Coetzee. And unless you’ve been on Mars for the last five years, you’d know his credentials have nothing to do with the colour of his skin.

Three conference titles in Super Rugby and two Currie Cup titles may not be enough for those who’d have liked the Bok coach to have won the main competition, but it is better than any other South African coach has managed in the last five years.

Johan Ackermann would be the alternative, but he hasn’t been around the block like Coetzee has, and he has not been through the school of hard knocks that makes for a mature coach ready to take on the job of national coach.

The reason the Lions have grown like they have is because it is only now that the Johannesburg-based team has started to become marketable again and successful enough for the players to start having international ambitions.

The advantage the Lions have over the Stormers is continuity. Whereas the Cape team, like the Sharks and the Bulls in particular, experience a mini clean-out at the end of each sea- son as performing players get lured to overseas clubs, the Lions have been largely untouched. They have also been untouched by Bok selections.

While the Bulls, Stormers and Sharks coaches have had to contend with the challenges to team culture and continuity that are experienced when players are not just franchise players but also Springboks for much of the year, Ackermann hasn’t had to deal with that.

Neither has he had to deal with the money issues that become more of a focus once players feel they are starting to become more successful, and thus more marketable.

The Stormers team that plays in Johannesburg tonight is representing a franchise that has a new coach who, while not quite rebuilding from scratch, is in charge of a team that has experienced more change in key areas over the past few years than the Lions have. The core of the Lions team played together in the Currie Cup – and not just last year, but the season before that too.

That is not the case with the Stormers, who because of injuries will also start tonight with a flyhalf who is making just his second Super Rugby start. Jean-Luc du Plessis is a talented player and he did well last week, but the Jaguares at Newlands are a much easier proposition than the Lions at Ellis Park.

Now that the Lions are starting to do well, their players will attract greater attention from the national coach. Those players will also become more coveted by other franchises and overseas clubs. When that happens, their coach will face pressures that he hasn’t experienced before.

Let us see Ackermann face those pressures before suggesting him as an alternative to Coetzee who, as the Saru president correctly put it, has walked the walk. And he’s done it a couple of times over.