Johannesburg – Former Springbok great Morné du Plessis believes South African rugby should not hesitate to employ a foreign coach to take the national side forward.
Speculation is rife over the future of incumbent Bok coach Heyneke Meyer and possible successors should his tenure come to an end.
Meyer’s fate will be decided at the SA Rugby Union (Saru) general council meeting in Cape Town on December 11.
Saru have been reluctant to appoint a foreign coach to take the reins of the national team but Du Plessis, who managed the World Cup-winning Springboks of 1995, said it was time South Africa moved with the times.
“The world is small today, it is not just in your backyard, and you’ve got to look at everything globally,” Du Plessis said at a Laureus Sport for Good Foundation function.
“We have to do that, if the best coach comes from somewhere else and if our players have to play elsewhere and come back to play with us, so be it.
“We have to look at our playing structures and skills levels, I think we all realise that after this World Cup the game moves on.”
Meyer has come under increased criticism following the team’s first defeat to Argentina in Durban earlier this year and the shock first-round loss to Japan in the Rugby World Cup in England.
The lack of transformation of the national side and the fact the Boks had no significant silverware other than the World Cup bronze medal to show during Meyer’s tenure counts against his contract extension.
Du Plessis said while a third-placed finish was not good enough for the two-time world champions, he was confident South African rugby would prevail once again.
“We’ve won it twice and to come third is not acceptable and I am sure the team will say it themselves,” he said.
“Thirty years ago I would have been asked the same question, are we on the right track?
“Yet we won the World Cup twice, we are in the top five all the time, so I think we are doing pretty well.”
Du Plessis, who is chairman of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation South Africa, said the Springboks’ shortcomings should not always be laid at the door of the coach. He said Saru faced financial challenges, which includes an exodus of sponsors while wealthy European and Japanese clubs target the country’s talent.
It emerged over the weekend that Absa and BMW were not going to renew their sponsorship of the national team. “We’ve got to move with the world and we need to understand our challenges with our financial deficit to keep our players here,” Du Plessis said.
“We need to sort out our sponsorship issues but inherently we have a passion for the game and we live this game in every corner of the country.
“We do have challenges and we mustn’t address them once every four years when the World Cup comes around and complain the coach hasn’t transformed the team enough.”
Du Plessis added that South Africa should learn from New Zealand and how they manage to be a giant of world rugby with a population of only 4.5 million people.
“We shouldn’t always be catching up, we also sometimes have to be a thought-leader and that is why you should take your hat off to New Zealand,” he said.
“They only have a few people, we’ve got to go and look at best practice, and what they have done is best practice. They’ve got their coaching structures in order, they have the same methods, the same thinking and they put the All Black jersey first.”
– THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT