South African Rugby will only start the process of replacing Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber next year.
That places Mzwandile Stick and Deon Davids on the front row of the grid to replace Nienaber who, it was announced last week, will be joining Leinster after this year’s Rugby World Cup (RWC).
By leaving the process until next year, SA Rugby will effectively commit themselves to making an appointment from within. Should they somehow find the two front-runners unsuitable, other locally-based coaches will come into sharper focus.
South Africans coaching abroad may also come into the reckoning to join the Bok coaching group but, given the country’s unique rugby landscape, it is highly unlikely foreign coaches will be considered. Besides, SA Rugby is, for now, sold on continuity. “The process will only start next year,” SA Rugby interim CEO Rian Oberholzer told the Sunday Times.
“We have a succession plan in place. We will preferably source from within. We will try and find the ideal candidate but if we don’t find the right candidate the matter goes back to the director of rugby who will have to determine an appropriate course of action,” he explained.
With Nienaber still in the job until the end of the RWC in late October and the Springboks’ next engagement thereafter in the middle of next year, Oberholzer reminded that the organisation has time on its side. “We are in no hurry. We want to get the World Cup done and dusted before we will look at that process.”
Should they rigidly follow a succession plan, assistant coaches Stick and Davids are in the best position to carry forward the Springboks blueprint. SA Rugby’s director of rugby Rassie Erasmus will, of course, remain the commander-in-chief of all rugby-related matters in the organisation, and he will continue to chart the course for South African and Springbok rugby.
His contract expires at the end of 2025, and any incoming Springbok coach is unlikely to deviate from the blueprint put in place under Erasmus since 2018. When he took over the job that year, the Bok ship was in troubled waters but he has charted a course to calmer seas.
We are in no hurry. We want to get the World Cup done and dusted before we will look at that process
— SA Rugby interim CEO Rian Oberholzer
The man who has been along for the ride, plugging the leaks and returning the Boks to seaworthiness, is Stick. He didn’t exactly hit the deck running when first introduced as backline coach in Allister Coetzee’s coaching group in 2016.
Dark clouds soon gathered and Stick was not seen as part of the solution and was cut adrift. Erasmus, however, roped him back into the fold in 2018 and aside from the director of rugby, no-one is more familiar with the Boks’ inner workings than Stick.
Davids succeeded Matt Proudfoot as Springbok forwards coach in 2020. His coaching path also took twists and turns in the chaotic rugby nursery of the Eastern Cape. What will no doubt be raised as criticism against Stick and Davids becoming Springbok head coach, is their lack of experience in that position.
Nienaber, however, had to fight off similar brickbats in his tenure. Should Stick and Davids somehow both fluff their lines next year, SA Rugby will have to look elsewhere.
In John Dobson, the local game has a coach whose credentials have skyrocketed over the past two years, with the Stormers claiming the inaugural United Rugby Championship title providing the most thrust.
Dobson, however, has a particular approach to coaching which is not necessarily reflected in the way the Springboks go about their business. Besides, Dobson is so much part of the Cape rugby landscape, drawing him from that corridor of comfort would be akin to deploying Michaelangelo outside the chapel.
In RWC winner Jake White, South African rugby has a coaching high priest who would relish the task of coaching the Boks again — but too many men in suits need to be convinced of his teachings.
Franco Smith’s coaching stock is also on the rise. He has gained valuable international experience and would be a solid addition to the Bok set-up. So too Johan Ackermann. Should Davids be deployed elsewhere in the coaching set-up, Ackermann’s expertise as a forwards coach would add great value.
With Nienaber and his keen eye for defensive strategies lost to the Boks after the RWC, Joey Mongalo may well find himself in SA Rugby’s cross hairs.
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