Good cop, bad cop

The best rugby decision made by a South African in the last couple of months was made by Dick Muir.

There might be many people choking on that statement. The Springbok assistant coach is not the most popular man on the planet at the moment, with many choosing to train their sights on the former inside centre rather than blame head coach Peter de Villiers for the Tri-Nations disaster.

Let’s not detain ourselves on that subject, except to say that Muir’s decision to coach the Lions at the same time as being Bok assistant always seemed an odd one and it backfired horribly. But the good that his decision to recruit John Mitchell as Lions coach could bring for South African rugby more than makes up for any poor decision he may have made before that.

Muir’s philosophy is well known to those who work in rugby. It was best encapsulated by Springbok skipper John Smit on the eve of a test match in Edinburgh in 2008. He had been informed that Muir had suggested the Boks would run the ball at Murrayfield, to which Smit responded: “We all know Dickie, he would want to run if we were playing in Iceland”.

But while Muir may at times seem overly romantic and the timing of his substitutions in matches can have calamitous results, his standing within the game among those who know him is strong.

Those who regard him as a poor selector have clearly forgotten 2006, when Muir had the guts to pick several young teenagers, including JP Pietersen and Brad Barritt, out of age-group rugby and straight into his Sharks senior team. People thought he was mad, but those selections came off, as did the recruitment later on of a young Frans Steyn.

An inexperienced Sharks team more than punched above their weight under Muir in the second half of 2005 and into 2006. They did not win anything, but Muir’s aggressive youth accented selection policy brought results.

The Sharks may have paid the price then for Muir’s running approach, and when they floundered against the Cheetahs towards the end of the season, it was clear that structure (the Cheetahs were coached by Rassie Erasmus) was getting the better of heads-up rugby.

Kudos to Muir though for recognising where he was falling down. He responded to the challenge by bring his old teammate, John Plumtree, back to Durban as Sharks assistant coach. The upshot was that the Sharks adopted a more structured approach, got a harder, pragmatic edge to their game, and were only denied Super 14 glory by a freaky injury-time try from Bryan Habana in the 2007 final.

The Muir and Plumtree philosophies were contrasting, but that was the magic of the partnership. As I wrote when the Sharks won the Currie Cup for the first time in 12 years under Plumtree in 2008, the Kiwi was Muir’s shrewdest selection.

At least until that point it was. Muir’s latest selection, that of John Mitchell, is right up there alongside the recruitment of Plumtree, and as the Lions’ rapidly improving game is showing, it was a master-stroke.

South African rugby needs the Lions to be strong. A few weeks ago they were written off as a minor union, and to be blunt about it, they still do need to go on a massive recruitment drive if they hope to be competitive in the marathon that is the new Super 15 competition.

But Mitchell has shown what benefits a strong coach with a firm grip of the technical aspects of the game can bring. Hopefully those charged with the task of plotting the future course of the Springboks will recognise that too. Tactical astuteness is missing from the current Bok coaching team.

So what then of Muir, the man who pulled off the coup of luring Mitchell to South Africa? He has a definite role to play, and hopefully in his designation as Lions director of rugby he and Mitchell will work in tandem as well as Muir and Plumtree did three years ago with the Sharks.

Everyone who knows Muir talks of the positive energy he brings, but perhaps with Mitchell there he needs to do a bit more than that. When Mithcell’s decision to move to the Lions was confirmed, I happened to be with the Wallabies in Umhlanga Rocks.

Although players such as Western Force captain Nathan Sharpe did their best to be polite, it came across that although a successful coach, Mitchell had never been popular with the players. It was felt he was a bit too brutal at times in the way he put his message across.

Mitchell might suit the South African culture better than the Australian one, but the success of the Mitchell/Muir union could depend on their ability to recognise that there may be times they have to play that old game of good cop and bad cop when relating to players who for so long suffered for lack of direction and discipline from the top.