It was hard not to feel frustrated when Eddie Jones arrived for the post-match press conference at Twickenham following his England team’s win over South Africa. The thought that kept on going through my mind was that he could have been coaching the Springboks.
If you think that is a far-fetched thought, think about it again. He was coming to the Stormers. And he has worked with the Boks before. He was one of Jake White’s assistants at the 2007 World Cup.
Were he coaching the Boks this year and not England, it is unlikely he’d have gone through the year unbeaten because he would have had to coach them against the All Blacks twice. But I reckon the Boks would probably have done pretty well against the other teams.
Of course, the caveat to all of this would have been that Jones would've had to be appointed when Allister Coetzee should have been appointed. In other words, as soon as possible after last year’s World Cup, and definitely not in April. Coetzee is right when he says any coach would have struggled with a two month build-up.
Anyway, the Jones bus has left the station, but I make the point on the basis that looking to the future, SA Rugby has to lose the xenophobia that has held it back. The best coach should be appointed regardless of where he is from. That is how it should work in the professional age.
As far as I can ascertain, there is no other Jones available to take charge of the Boks. But although he is contracted to the USA Eagles, I know that John Mitchell would certainly look at an offer if it was placed on his table, and he would accept working as an assistant coach rather than head coach.
The former All Black coach lost out on the Stormers job because his previous South African union, the Lions, managed to brow-beat Western Province into going against the recommendation of their director of rugby. But the arguments against Mitchell all concerned his man-management failings in past jobs, not his excellent technical and strategical expertise. Those perceived shortcomings don’t become an issue if he is appointed as an assistant.
His ability to coach the attacking game South Africans want to see is what set up the Lions for their success under Johan Ackermann.
It is my understanding that Ackermann doesn’t want the Bok job because he feels he isn't ready. Smart move. But if the experienced Mitchell, who before he coached the All Blacks was involved with England for several years as an assistant and also worked with Ireland, was prepared to work with him, perhaps Ackermann would change his mind.
As far as I know, "Ackers" has no beef with Mitchell after the Lions fallout. And they’d make a good team. Given how the Lions have flown off the platform created by Mitchell, with Ackermann learning a lot from the Kiwi, the prospect of the pair working together is an appetising one. That would be my dream team.
Okay, so maybe I am dreaming, but Mitchell with Ackermann, or even with Coetzee coming to think of it, would make me a lot more confident about next year.
Mention of Coetzee might surprise those who read my column on Saturday, which effectively said he should be dispensed with, but a really strong tactical assistant coach - someone who commands respect - could just make him a workable option to continue.
Coetzee is a good front man, he is a good man-manager, and those were the reasons Rassie Erasmus thrust him into the head coaching role at WP and the Stormers in 2010.
Ah, mention of Erasmus brings us to another obvious option. The initial plan for this year, the one that brought Coetzee’s name onto the table in the Saru boardroom, was that Erasmus would work with Coetzee, like they did successfully at the Stormers before Erasmus got fed up with the interference of Province administrators.
According to a UK-based journalists I spoke to while overseas, Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber have been quite a hit at Munster. There aren’t many - if any - cleverer South African rugby men than Erasmus.
If you take into consideration what he did at the Brumbies, where he brought in good men and heavyweight rugby thinkers to fill his backroom staff positions, then White is an option too.
In fact, White could be the best of them - provided he is allowed to take the job on his own terms, which would mean he would be able to choose his management team. I’ve always had the feeling that one of White’s big strengths is that he knows his own shortcomings, so the fears that he would be too conservative might prove ungrounded. He just needs to be allowed to appoint assistants who will bring the attacking dynamic that may not necessarily be his strength.
One thing that White does know how to do is coach winning rugby, and that is what the Boks need right now.
But he, like all the other options I have mentioned, would have to take the job on their terms. And therein may lie the biggest stumbling block to Saru’s chances of finding a coach who can do for the Boks over the next 12 months what Jones has just done for England.