New man needs a thick skin

The snatches of Jake White’s book that were released through the media over the weekend should have provided the next Springbok coach with a great pointer of the qualities that are most needed for what must surely be the toughest job in world rugby.

White, in an interview run on Carte Blanche on Sunday night, said that he had told his employers before the World Cup that he didn’t know if he had the stomach to continue fighting with them for another four years. He appealed to the next coach to be his own person and to do it his way, not to bow to the pressure exerted by the South African rugby administration.

And there you have it – coaching ability is not going to determine the success of the next coach, to survive in the job and be good at it the coach has also to be a strong person, one that will put his foot down when he has to and not be bullied.

Of course, it will probably get him fired in the end. The two strongest coaches in the post-isolation were White and Nick Mallett. But as well as being the most successful coaches outside of the late Kitch Christie, they were both in a sense shown the door by an administration that has little real understanding of coaching and which cannot tolerate those who are prepared to say as much.

The revelation by White that SA Rugby officials tried to press him into selecting Solly Tyibilika ahead of Schalk Burger for an important home test against France in Port Elizabeth in 2005 was particularly disturbing.

Apparently the administrators felt it would be a nice gesture for Tyibilika to play for the Boks in the city that spawned him. When White dug his heels in on the grounds that he needed Burger’s class against a good French team in the deciding match of a series which at that stage was deadlocked after a draw in Durban, SA Rugby threatened to relieve him of his position.

And they might well have gone through with that threat had the Boks, with Burger playing outstandingly in his usual No6 jersey, not won so comprehensively. To drop White then would have been a public relations disaster – not of course that SA Rugby have ever been that concerned about their public relations image.

That Tyibilika was not up to it as an international flank became abundantly clear after Burger was injured and ruled out of rugby the following year. In the away Vodacom Tri-Nations fixture against New Zealand some critics raved about his performance, but a close analysis of it revealed that he made no contribution in the first 20 minutes, only one in the first half, and two in his entire time on the field.

The writing was on the wall for Tyibilika when he failed to make an impression in the next few matches against Australia and New Zealand, with White eventually moving Pierre Spies in Tyibilika’s position on the side of the scrum for the game in Rustenburg with dramatic results.

This is one of the most irritating aspects of the criticism that is often levelled at White over his transformation record. He is labelled racist by his enemies, and yet it is not though he has not given black players a chance. Tyibilika, considering his ability, had more than enough opportunities, and in the Port Elizabeth test mentioned earlier, Lawrence Sephaka packed down in the scrum.

Sephaka played well in that game, but was unable to reproduce that momentum when he was offered later opportunities. Another black player who was tried and maybe persisted with too long was tighthead Eddie Andrews. And then there was Hanyani Shimange, who was long time an understudy to John Smit but battled to get a start at provincial level.

Which introduces the point – how does the Springbok coach select black Springboks when the other structures of Saru and SA Rugby are not developing them lower down? White was panned by the critics for selecting the little known Jonghi Nokwe for his first end of year tour in 2004, and worked hard on developing his skills during the course of that trip.

Sadly though when Nokwe returned to provincial level he never made the step up and never progressed. So whose fault is that? It might be the provincial coaches, it might just be that the player wasn’t up to it, but somehow I don’t think it was White’s.

Nick Mallett, when he left for Italy last week, made the point that there are plenty of talented young coaches on the South African rugby firmament at the moment, and the players are in good hands. He added though that this was occurring despite the administration, and not because of it.

The new Springbok coach is going to have to work directly with that administration, he is going to have deliver on some patently quite ludicrous requests. He is going to require a thick skin more than any other attribute or else we can stand by for more coaching musical chairs in the years to come.