Timing of coach appointment tells a story

The chances of Rassie Erasmus being involved in the Springbok coaching announcement, which is now scheduled for 27 January, appear to have diminished with confirmation that the director of rugby role we have been speculating about is not quite what we thought it was.

Erasmus had been linked in some reports since the World Cup with a new position that will be created by the South African Rugby Union in 2012. With his technical abilities and his proven record as a director of rugby at Western Province, Erasmus, who did wonders as Peter de Villiers’s technical adviser in 2011, was considered the perfect candidate to take on a role similar to that being filled by Rob Andrew at England.

However, Saru officials have made it known that the position they have been talking about is not the same as director of rugby. It is not on the same level, and while some coaching ability and knowledge may be a pre-requisite, the new position is going to be more of an administrative one.

The Springbok coach will not be answerable to the person who is appointed, and neither will there be much, if any input, from the appointee into the running of the Springbok team. It doesn’t sound like a job tailored for Erasmus. And that means that unless Erasmus decides he is prepared to take on the role of head coach again, something he has time and again said he is reluctant to do, he is not a candidate to play a significant role in plotting the Springbok way forward in 2012.

Indeed, it is now looking more and more probable that the new Springbok coach will not be coming from within the ranks of the Super Rugby franchises. With the official rubber stamp only being applied to the next Springbok appointment at the end of next month at a special Saru General Council meeting, it would be impractical to engage a Super Rugby coach who is contracted for the Sanzar competition which starts just four weeks later.

All of the candidates who are currently Super Rugby coaches are contracted long term, and that would mean the franchises would have to be prepared to release the appointed coach from contract at a critical stage of the build-up to Super Rugby. Given that they had already pleaded with Saru before the World Cup to move the process along so that it doesn’t extend into next year, it is unlikely they will be amenable to a request to look for a new coach less than a month before the competition starts.

So if the announcement will be made on 27 January, with the council only meeting to discuss the appointment a day before that, it suggests the chances of someone like Stormers coach Allister Coetzee, still punted as a favourite in some circles, have lengthened considerably.

Instead it appears to confirm the information that I have been picking up, which is that the new coach won’t be a current Super Rugby employee.

Gert Smal, currently assistant coach of Ireland, is the name that is getting more and more airplay among those sources that can reasonably be regarded as reliable. It isn’t a secret that Smal was the Saru chosen alternative when they were thinking of sacking Peter de Villiers after the 2010 Tri-Nations.

But Smal does have a contract with Ireland and it might take some time to get him out of that, which could mean that the incumbent coach, De Villiers, will be offered a short-term extension into 2012. While it is unlikely that Saru would appoint De Villiers long term, and it is understood they are looking for a complete clean-out, the England series that starts the international season takes place in the middle of the Super Rugby season.

With the first England test due to be played just one week after a round of Super Rugby derbies, that leaves absolutely no time for any new coach to introduce anything meaningful. Wouldn’t it make sense for the Boks to go into that six-day build-up to such an important series at least with the stability of having the coach they are used to?

The new man who will take charge of the next four-year cycle can then be eased in when it is less frenetic, though it is hard to say when that will be given that the new four-team southern hemisphere competition kicks off almost immediately after the conclusion of Super Rugby.

Either way, unless a Super Rugby coach and his current employers are busy negotiating with Saru behind the scenes, which appears unlikely as we would probably have heard about it, it is starting to look as though the next four-year cycle will be yet another where the Springbok coach is not appointed on the basis of Super Rugby results.