JOHANNESBURG - I wonder if the suits at the South African Rugby Union know of Benjamin Franklin or Winston Churchill and that famous saying about the “failure to plan”?
Judging by the many decisions - and most of the time lack of decisions - they have taken or not taken in the past, it was as if Franklin had Saru in mind as well when he said “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”.
It might be asking for too much for some of those suits to know who Benjamin Franklin was, but they might know Churchill, after all the wartime British prime minister spent some time in the rolling hills of KwaZulu Natal during the Boer War.
If the bosses at Saru don’t know, Benjamin Franklin was one of the founding fathers of the United States of America.
“Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it,” Churchill once said.
Enough of the history lesson and back to a more recent history that continues to have a negative impact on Springbok and South African rugby - and I suppose the future as well.
It is no secret that Saru unashamedly live out the words of Franklin and Churchill, and in the latest saga of their glaring lack of leadership, they have not only left Springbok coach Allister Coetzee and his assistants in limbo, but they have once again shown how little they care for the Springboks.
It was this time last year that then Saru president Oregan Hoskins was dragging his feet and playing hide and seek along with Saru CEO Jurie Roux on whose responsibility it was to find and hire Heyneke Meyer’s successor.
Saru knew at the beginning of November 2015 that Meyer was not going to be their man going forward, and typical of the way in which they have done things in the past, they never bothered to plan Meyer’s exit and his successor's entry.
When Coetzee was eventually appointed, less than two months before his team hosted a series against Ireland, there was a scramble to assemble a management team for him.
Well the scramble was really for one signature - that of Matthew Proudfoot - as the rest of the management team had been planned for and put together... but for another coach and not Coetzee.
After a dismal year, putting it politely, by the Springboks in 2016, Saru were not direct in their criticism of Coetzee, but in statements from new president Mark Alexander and the organisation’s cagey media machinery, it was obvious that Saru weren’t happy with Coetzee and some of “his” management.
There have been reviews upon reviews on the Springboks' shocking performances last year and Saru promised to make pronouncements in January.
Typical of them, when it came time to make the decisions they passed the buck, first from the General Council and then to the Executive Council - and now the hot potato seems to be the problem of Alexander.
Meanwhile the players, management and fans will continue to suffer for Saru’s inability and failure to plan.
We shouldn’t be surprised if the Springboks have another shocking year, and sponsors refrain from associating themselves with an organisation that excels in failure.
The fact that Coetzee, be he the right man for the job or not, doesn’t know if he will still be coaching the Springboks when they play a test series against France in June (nor who his assistants will be) is in itself a sad indictment on the men that have been handed the responsibility to be the custodians of our rugby.
Coetzee should be planning how his team will restore the dignity of the Springbok brand, who will lead the team on the field and take our rugby back to the top again.
But I won’t be holding my breath for any decision to be made any time soon, for I know that those suits failed to plan and are therefore planning to fail.
Churchill could not have been far from the truth and I have the feeling that the longer this saga drags on and we “fail to learn from the past” we “are doomed to repeat it”.