Great Players Hindered By Poor Coaches In South Africa
South African Rugby is currently in a crisis at the moment if they wish to remain a world super
power. The country has been playing the same incredibly structured game strategy for over two
decades which has now become more of a hindrance for player development to top level than a
world cup winning formula. This all stems from the poor quality of coaches who have lacked the
creativity in game change and forced them to focus more on how that strategy is implemented rather
than to develop the actual skills of the individual.
Currently South Africa has such a great talent pool of great rugby players but the support behind the
players lack the ability to bring the game to the next level. Player talent is clearly evident in the
depth of player on a professional level in the country and the vast amount of South African’s playing
professional rugby throughout the rest of the world. What is also evident is the inability for South
African coaches to get their players to perform at their highest levels. This has created an influx of
foreign coaches into South Africa itself who have shown to turn teams around almost overnight.
One great example of this is John Plumtree (New Zealand) who took a losing Sharks side from
bottom to Super Rugby title winners in just a couple of years, and John Mitchell (also New
Zealand) who took a completely down and out Lions team from zero to hero overnight leading them
to the coveted Currie Cup Champions.
the strongest teams with the best players have been shown up on many occasions simply due to
poor ball handling errors or moves that are too predictable. Although there are many record defeats
against the almighty Springboks, currently ranked 3rd in the world, the most notable record defeat
was the recent win of Japan over South Africa which was more commonly related to an easy to
counter, predictable game plan of the Springbok side.
