Coaches of the decade

It is the talents of the players that pursue glory to the top on the pitch. But it is the brains on the bench that plan and plot the downfall of the opponents. These men and women came up with perfect plans that captured the imagination of the nation in the last decade.

Rassie Erasmus, rugby

When Erasmus took over, Bok rugby was arguably at its nadir. They had slipped well down the world order and players were leaving these shores in their droves.

In a short time, however, Erasmus restored pride in the jersey and assembled players truly committed to the Bok cause.

A rare win in Wellington last year was no flash in the pan. His team was restoring its confidence and by the time they travelled to the RWC they had the personnel and the game plan to launch a successful assault on the competition. Erasmus must take much of the credit. - Liam Del Carme

Tannie Ans, athletics

Ansie Botha, a great-grandmother on the side, was responsible for harnessing the sprinting talent of Wayde van Niekerk.

She took him over when he was a 100m and 200m sprinter struggling with hamstring issues. Botha, 77, was the one who moved him to the 400m where he won the Olympic gold, two world titles and broke the world record. - David Isaacson

Pitso Mosimane, soccer

The 55-year-old former SA international is simply peerless in terms of the gongs he has garnered in the past decade.

Mosimane's currency as a coach started to rise when he guided SuperSport United to two cup triumphs, the MTN8 in 2004 and the Nedbank Cup a year later, in what was his introduction to professional coaching.

But Mosimane upped the ante when he joined Mamelodi Sundowns in December 2012. Christened The Only One by besotted Sundowns supporters, Mosimane has brought four Premier Soccer League titles to the Brazilians in the last six seasons.

Combine that with Sundowns' 2016 Caf Champions League, Caf Super Cup, Nedbank Cup in 2015 and Telkom Knockout in 2015 and 2019 and it is a whopping nine pieces of silverware in seven years.

Jingles has simply outpaced, outfoxed and out-thought everyone in SA and it will take some doing to dislodge him from his lofty position in the coming decade.

His stock has soared so much that he not only gets standing ovations from hard-to- please fans of North African teams, they also sing his name in the stands. - Sazi Hadebe

Colin Nathan, boxing

Nathan made his mark in the second half of this decade, taking Hekkie Budler and Moruti Mthalane to world title glory, and playing an important role in the success of Dee-Jay Kriel.

He's proven his worth both as a trainer and a manager. - David Isaacson

Roger Barrow, rowing

The mastermind behind SA's rowing antics this decade. As head coach of the national squad, Barrow brought in Paul Jackson - a former national coach who had overlooked Barrow as a national rower - to work with the lightweight men's four who won Olympic gold at London 2012.

Against everybody's advice, Barrow put John Smith and James Thompson into the lightweight double sculls which won the world championships in 2014.

Barrow was also directly involved in the Olympic silver won by Shaun Keeling and Lawrence Brittain at Rio 2016 as well as Kirsty McCann's world championship gold in the lightweight women's single sculls in 2017. - David Isaacson

Graham Hill, swimming

Hill is the only SA coach to have produced Olympic silverware since readmission. He was the mentor behind Chad Le Clos's four Olympic medals - a gold and three silver - at London 2012 and Rio 2016.

He was also the coach of Terence Parkin, the Olympic silver medallist at Sydney 2004 and was the head coach that co-ordinated the men's 4x100m freestyle relay team that won gold at Athens 2004. - David Isaacson

Neil Powell

In 2013 Powell took over the coaching reins of the national Sevens team from Paul Treu. The latter had held that position from 2004 and the team was arguably in need of a fresh voice.

Powell coached the Blitzboks to a bronze medal position at the 2016 Rio Olympics. It was to prove a huge fillip for the team who duly built on that success by winning the 2016/17 World Sevens Series. They won the events in Dubai, Wellington, Sydney, Las Vegas and Paris to surge to the crown. They finished 28 points clear of runners-up England. - Liam Del Carme