Christie
RUGBY: Jon Swift
THE decision by the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) to get national coach Kitch Christie to step down as the steersman of Transvaal’s storm-tossed fortunes should come as no real surprise.
Neither should the volte-face be examined in any other light than that Sarfu inspired the double-barrelled responsibility in the first place, persuading Christie to change his plans to retire as South African coach after the World Cup triumph.
Sarfu, as so often in the past, made a snap decision, found it to be wanting, and then walked away from it. History does, so it would seem in a South African rugby context, have a habit of repeating itself.
Christie, a straightforward and straight- shooting man, has been caught as the unwilling meat in a sandwich not of his own making.
Trying to do two jobs — often at variance with each another — was a huge task in the first place. The disastrous start Transvaal have made to their Super 12 campaign has made it an intolerable one.
One would hope that the new Transvaal coach has a somewhat smoother ride than the one which Christie accepted. The new incumbent has a veritable mountain to climb in getting Transvaal back on track.
While it is true that the coach invariably gets the blame for failure, one would ponder whether the Transvaal side — underprepared for as tough a competition as skipper Francois Pienaar has admitted they were — would have had as bad a start as the record shows had the injuries not mounted up quite so steeply and so quickly.
Or, indeed, if the feet of James Dalton and the head of Johan le Roux had not found themselves in starring roles as South Africa’s own video nasties.
The two-match suspension on Dalton and the seven-week ban on Le Roux have done some lasting damage to an image which the country has been burdened with since our readmittance to the world arena.
Pienaar encapsulated the manner in which Transvaal approached what is arguably the toughest tournament in world rugby in an almost plaintive way after the 29-15 defeat at the hands of Otago in Carisbrook.
“I don’t think anyone appreciated just how hard it would be to start the tournament by playing four games in Australia and New Zealand,” was the way Pienaar put it. Just so.
One would argue that this has not been the case with the sides from Down Under. They have all used tough tours to prepare themselves … and then drafted players into problem areas as extra insurance.
There can be no question that Sarfu’s insistence that Christie could combine national and provincial duties was a contentious one from the start. It was. The criticism came from all sides.
It is sad though that a man who has served the multiple levels of South African rugby should be left reflected in such an unhappy light. Somehow Christie does not deserve this.