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'First of its kind in SA': Erasmus visits black coaches initiative

(Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has hailed a new initiative that is fast-tracking the development of elite black rugby coaches in South Africa. A total of 101 nominations were received from the country’s provincial unions late last year to take part in a programme that is fully funded by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC).

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After an intense review and interview process, the group was narrowed down to 32, with 18 of them being hand-picked for the inaugural year of the programme in 2022. Participants include SA women’s U20 coach and Western Province women’s head coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt, SA sevens academy head coach Sandile Ngcobo, Bulls defence coach Joey Mongalo, as well as Stormers and Sharks skills coaches Labeeb Levy and Phiwe Nomlomo.

The other 14 coaches, meanwhile, have been participating in a development programme which includes working with an industrial psychologist to equip them to follow in the footsteps of their counterparts in future.

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Erasmus and Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber presented the latest masterclass last week in the series of course sessions presented to the participants in the past few months.

Erasmus said: “Over the years we have seen a number of black coaches with the potential fail to receive opportunities to coach at the highest level, which includes the Carling Currie Cup and Vodacom United Rugby Championship, and unfortunately very few have made their way through the ranks.

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“This triggered the need to take this process out of the hands of the franchises and take action as SA Rugby. This is the first of its kind in South Africa, so we know it will take hard work behind the scenes and that we will have to learn and adapt along the way. But it was vital to create a system that allows us to simulate that high-pressure coaching environment and bridge the gap to speed up the process where our most talented black, up-and-coming coaches can advance to the top rugby structures at the elite level of the game.

“It was an absolute pleasure for Jacques and I to present a coaching class to close to 100 participants last week and I must admit, it has been enlightening to learn from their experiences as well. The coaches who are not part of the final 15 have still been involved in the programme albeit via a different path, but this is a very exciting initiative and we have a very competent team which includes our Springboks and Springboks women’s coaches who have been involved hands-on throughout the programme.”

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SA Rugby president Mark Alexander added: “This programme marks a big step for SA Rugby to fast-track the development of our top up-and-coming black coaches and to achieve our coaching transformation goals. Our vision with this custom-made SA Rugby programme has been to bolster the standing of these coaches within the high-performance structures throughout the country with an eye on equipping them to coach at provincial and international level.

“The process to select the final group of 18 coaches was rigorous and an intense few months of learning has been planned for them. Each one of these individuals showed that they have the potential to become elite coaches.”

A statement read: “The objectives of the coaching programme include developing them to flourish in high-performance and high-pressure environments. It includes vital factors such as personal mastery, situational competence and dexterity, building mental strength and building media competence in an environment with numerous simultaneous challenges. The course runs until December.”

SA Rugby Elite coaching development participants:
Paul Delport – Springbok Women’s Sevens coach
Henley du Plessis – Toyota Free State Under-20 coach
Etienne Fynn – Cell C Sharks Carling Currie Cup coach
Laurian Johannes-Haupt – DHL Western Province Women’s and SA Women’s U20 coach
Norman Jordaan – Maties FNB Varsity Cup coach
Lungisa Kama – Springbok Women’s assistant coach
Wilbur Kraak – DHL Western Province club consultant
Labeeb Levy – DHL Stormers skills coach Vodacom United Rugby Championship
David Manuel – Madibaz FNB Varsity Cup coach
Jonathan Mokuena – University of Johannesburg (UJ) FNB Varsity Cup coach
Joey Mongalo – Vodacom Bulls defence coach Vodacom United Rugby Championship
Eddie Myners – Springbok Women’s assistant coach
Sandile Ngcobo – SA Rugby Sevens Academy head coach
Phiwe Nomlomo – Cell C Sharks skills coach Vodacom United Rugby Championship
Jason Oliphant – University of KwaZulu-Natal FNB Varsity Cup coach
Lance Sendin – SA Schools coach
Franzel September – Boland Cavaliers Carling Currie Cup coach
Hanyani Shimange – DHL Stormers scrum consultant Vodacom United Rugby Championship

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Flankly 56 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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