Johannesburg – Allister Coetzee has barely been in the job a week and already the wise are telling him how impossible his task is.
Naturally, some are still questioning his credibility for the job in the first place, which shouldn’t really come as a surprise. After all, the more things transform, the more they stay the same.
Many of those who have suddenly found their voice were conspicuously silent during the Springboks’ darkest days in 2015, such as the losses to Argentina in the Rugby Championship and, as we can never, ever forget, minnows Japan at the World Cup.
Cartoonist Zapiro was one of the first to publicly highlight Coetzee’s supposed no-win situation with an image that suggested he must catch the transformation ball or the success ball. Since then, Zapiro has explained that the implied meaning was a little different to that and that he was rather saying transformation shouldn’t be the national coach’s problem but further down the development chain.
That much is true but the insinuation that one cannot achieve success with a multi-racial team has hovered around every national team since the terms “quota” and “transformation” were ever bandied about.
To many, the very suggestion of a team with several players of colour is a submission to failure, mediocrity and farce. It is a cheapening of the Springbok jersey, a dismantling of a proud (one-sided, mind you) history and the beginning of the end for SA rugby.
And yet Coetzee oversaw a consistent, if safe, Stormers team for years. Never was he accused in the Cape of picking a team that was too dark. That insinuation, from corners that have regularly questioned Coetzee’s credibility, is a cheap shot, essentially saying a black coach was picked to ensure there are more players of colour in the team.
Up country, Johann Ackerman is building a Lions machine with all sorts; players from all backgrounds and regions, contributing and thriving in an environment that doesn’t label and question them but consistently encourages them to be better and bolder.
For four years, as Heyneke Meyer shredded national credibility with his one-eyed obsession – never mind a galling game-plan – there was silence, even as he regularly overlooked in-form players of colour again and again, even in matches of little consequence.
Meyer went out of his way to keep some players out, shifting flyhalves to centre, fullbacks to wing and locks to flank to ensure the players he wanted in stayed put regardless of the specialists twiddling thumbs at the back of the bus.
Imagine the s**t storm if Coetzee selected Juan de Jongh at flyhalf or Siya Kolisi at lock for no logical rugby reason, save for the fact he trusts them because of years working together. The naysayers would have a field day and start writing the eulogy for the Bok jersey.
But Coetzee won’t because, by his skin colour alone, he is already under more pressure than his predecessor ever was. Every selection he makes will be scrutinised to death, especially if it is a 50/50 call.
The unspoken issue around transformation in SA sport comes down to trust. Essentially, the naysayers to Coetzee’s appointment are so vehement as they simply cannot bring themselves to entrust their Bok visions with a man of a darker hue.
Unless Coetzee returns from Japan with the Webb Ellis Cup in late 2019, the same lot will stand and say, “told you so”. And, even if he somehow wins, it will be down to certain players rather than his abilities as a man-manager and a visionary.
Perhaps Zapiro would have been better served drawing a cartoon with a white Bok fan juggling balls marked “status quo” and “integration”.