More and more foreign coaches and players are plying their trade in South Africa, and this can only be good for the game
RUGBY: Barney Spender
THERE was a Welshman, a Frenchman, a Kiwi and a Pom … It’s an old tale and usually the prelude to a particularly dreary shaggy dog story but, with the hemlock having dulled the senses, suffice to say that South Africa is now playing host to a growing number of coaches and players from beyond these shores.
Not just in the club arena which was always well- served, but increasingly on the provincial playing fields.
Last Saturday, French flanker Laurent Cabannes graced the Western Province side in the Lion Cup final — albeit for just six minutes. His very presence, though, lifted the occasion to something beyond another domestic cup final and it was just a pity that Wales and British Lions scrum-half Robert Jones was kept out of the same Province side through injury.
Down in Port Elizabeth they have known about foreign ways for the last couple of years since the appointment of former All Black boss Alex “Grizz” Wyllie as coach and his influence on EP’s playing style, especially among the forwards, is plain to see.
And now Natal have followed suit by making an Englishman, Andy Keast, coach for the rest of the season. Keast, in turn, has handed over the captaincy for tomorrow’s crucial Currie Cup game against Free State to Kevin Putt — another Kiwi — and so the trend continues.
Hardly a gushing torrent of foreigners but enough to raise the odd eyebrow, especially when you throw in former French coach Jacques Fouroux’ pre-season efforts at Western Province and three other players at Natal, John Plumtree (New Zealand), Adrian Garvey (Zimbabwe) and Paul Challinor (England).
Eastern Province often team up with two New Zealanders in Simon Tremain and Greg Halford and there’s a healthy smattering of overseas club players up and down the country. They all come for different reasons.
“Despite isolation South Africa is still very highly rated around the world and it is a huge challenge to come here whether it is as a player or as a coach,” explains Wyllie.
“I enjoy being in Cape Town,” says the urbane Cabannes. “For me it’s the south-west of France, where I lived for 15 years, it’s the same thing. You’ve got the sea and the mountains and the quality of life is very enjoyable.”
He adds almost incidentally: “Also, I don’t like having a break at the end of the French rugby season. I prefer continuous rugby to keep my fitness going right through the year. I must have a bare minimum.”
Keast was brought out by Natal as the director of coaching in the province and he inherited the job as coach when Noel Olivier recently resigned. Jones was also summoned from the UK to help with Western Province’s development programme.
None of these foreigners is in any doubt that South African rugby remains a force. Keast sums it up: “It is very strong naturally. The talent here is a lot better than in many other places. Maybe it is the outdoor life but they are a lot stronger than in England — especially in the three-quarters.
“The backs also have flair and very good hands. Take someone like Andre Joubert, when he’s on form there’s no one better in the world.”
So how come South Africa, with all its indigenous talent, is still struggling to come to terms with international rugby? “To an extent the game has got overcomplicated here,” says Keast. “Look at the Kiwis — they’re a bit stereotyped to a point but they do the basics and they do them well — and they do them a lot quicker than we do.
“One thing that stands out here is the poor body positions around the contact situation and also the actual thinking about the game. There’s not a great deal of understanding about what makes things tick, maybe that’s because of the time out of world rugby. Some players read the game but others play purely on natural talent and I’d even go so far as to say that about some of the international players around.”
Jones backs up what Keast says: “Perhaps they got a bit introverted over the years of isolation and they’ve fallen behind in the ways they think about the game.
“There’s a lot of talented individuals who can do anything with the ball. But I don’t think they think too much on the field. Nowadays you need 15 thinkers on the field for 80 minutes and I don’t think that, collectively, they do that. They don’t seem to have the ability to change a game plan when it needs to be changed, they would rather just stick to their programme.”
Cabannes, who has played with and against all the great players of the last five years, puts it down simply to ability. “South Africa need a good kicker and they need to find players with a little more flair in the backline. They have found a good lock in Mark Andrews — that was a big problem for them when they played France in 1992 and 1993. But the spine of a team determines the strength of a team, that is the hooker, the number eight, nine, 10 and 15.
“In South Africa you have the hooker, the number eight and a selection of fullbacks but you are still looking for a nine and 10. You need the charniers — the quality playmakers at scrum-half and fly-half.”
Grizz Wyllie, who has also been at the sharp end of world rugby over an even longer period, as a player then as a coach, puts the problem down to interpretations of the rules as much as anything else.
“For 10 years they were out of it and it hasn’t been easy for them to get back to where they were which was up at the top. There have been changes in the rules and maybe they didn’t adapt as quickly as they should.
“The refereeing here certainly isn’t helping them to adapt because the referees aren’t up to it. The players are off getting international experience but how many of the refs go?
“The players get away with a lot in provincial rugby. They are still lifting at the line-outs and they aren’t retreating 10m at penalties and then they are getting pulled up at international level and they wonder why. Old habits die hard but, hell, if you give away three points it’s crazy.”
Wyllie also questions the players attitudes in South Africa and wonders whether the trimmings of top-level rugby are not proving more appealing than the actual playing.
“It’s an attitude thing. Sometimes with the players here, they have been beaten but they haven’t run themselves into the ground. Compare that with the Bledisloe Cup game a couple of weeks ago when the two teams played to the last minute because of that jersey, that’s missing.”
This is in contrast to Keast who is impressed by the professionalism of South African players: “Their commitment and dedication makes coaching much more pleasurable,” he says.
Whenever foreigners start to arrive in a country questions are always asked about whether they are needed. Keast remembers the furore in England when sacked All Black captain Buck Shelford started playing and coaching at Northampton.
“There was this debate and I remember saying, yes we do need outsiders. You can hide away and think you’ve got all the answers but the thing about rugby is that it does change and you can always learn. “
It doesn’t need years of isolation to become stuck in a rut and new ideas and approaches are always welcome. Keast sees training as one area which can change. “I am surprised by the amount of fitness work which goes on in training sessions. In England each player is basically responsible for his own fitness and turns up to training with that work already done. At Harlequins we used to have a trainer that the players would go to on a non-team training night.
“In New Zealand and Australia there is a quicker pace to training, it’s done at a higher intensity over a shorter period of time and it’s much more game-related.”
Wyllie concurs that practises are a little different while Cabannes says that in France “the practise is softer with more emphasis on the individual than on the team”.
The outsider can do no end of good for a team. At False Bay, Cabannes, simply through his presence is inspiring a generation of young players. Last season they were in the Cape Town second division, this season they are in the first and recently beat both defending champions Parow-NTC and the strong Stellenbosch side. Obviously it’s not all down to Cabannes but he has helped a lot.
But what about the standard of rugby itself? How different is playing for Racing Club de France from False Bay or Western Province?
“South African provincial rugby is certainly a better standard than French club rugby which is better than club rugby here,” says Cabannes — an observation Jones also makes about the Welsh system.
‘South African rugby is more focussed on the forward game. In France the focus is on enterprising play in the backline. We have a tradition for three-quarter flair, the backs talk to each other all the time, reworking the ball, looking for second and third phase use of it and linking up again in midfield if there is a breakdown. Here, as an inside centre you look for midfield contact — crash ball — and then second phase ball.”
Contrary to many of the reports coming back from wherever the Springboks play, Jones disagrees with the notion that South African rugby is any dirtier than other places in the world. “It’s not dirty but it is very physical. They’ve got this reputation after the Johan le Roux (ear-biting) incident, and I suspect they had it before, but generally there’s no difference between Welsh club rugby and provincial rugby in that respect. They try and play the game in a good spirit.”
But whereas dirty play isn’t holding South Africa back, poor administration is. Jones laughs at the blood-letting that has been going on since the Boks returned from New Zealand.
He was, after all, a member of the Welsh side which tore itself apart and hit rock bottom in 1991 when they were genuinely humiliated 63-6 by Australia in Brisbane. “Wales had to turn it around then. They got new people in and they said that they wouldn’t be building a side for this particular year but for four, five, six years time and that’s starting to show now.
“Alan Davies (Welsh coach) was consistent with his selection, not always to my benefit, and he has stuck with 30 odd players and keeping them together has given them confidence and him a position of strength.
“South Africa should have done that from the word go but it doesn’t appear that any plan has been put in place.”
Having played inside him at Province, Jones cites the case of fly-half Joel Stransky.
“There’s a man who is good enough to be on the bench against England in the first test and then he’s not even considered good enough to go to New Zealand and it wasn’t as if he was playing badly. You know he didn’t even get a phone call about it, I think South Africa have got to get a bit of man- management going too.”