TELFORD VICE, Durban | Friday 11.50pm.
WHOEVER coaches Natal next season, it won’t be Andr Markgraaff.
The former Springbok coach has “withdrawn from negotiations with regard to his appointment as head coach of the Natal Sharks from next year”, according to a statement issued by the Natal Rugby Union (NRU) on Friday.
“At the 11th hour, Andr has unfortunately decided that his relocation from Kimberley to Durban, which would affect his family and business, would be just too difficult from a logistical point of view,” said the chairman of the NRU management board, Keith Parkinson.
That sends the NRU scurrying back to a shortlist which may once have included Francois Pienaar, who has been in Durban this week on supposedly unrelated business. The World Cup winning captain earlier ruled himself out of the running.The leading candidates for the job could be Phil Pretorius and Hugh Reece-Edwards.
Pretorius, currently with the Falcons and among the early favourites for the Sharks position, has impressed Ian McIntosh, the retiring incumbent he would replace at King’s Park. Reece-Edwards is McIntosh’s long-serving assistant at both provincial and international level.
Pretorius and Reece-Edwards were unavailable for comment on Friday.Markgraaff’s imminent investiture as successor to McIntosh’s dynasty, which includes four Currie Cup titles with a fifth more probable than possible, had been all but assured. So much so that the NRU issued a classic “refusal to confirm or deny” statement in the wake of a Sunday Tribune story two weeks ago predicting as much.
A media release officially announcing Markgraaff’s appointment seemed certain. The fax machine duly whirred into action on Friday – but it produced an altogether unexpected message. — MWP