CAPE TOWN - Could a left-field pick lead the EP Elephants down the right path?
With the hunt for a new Eastern Province head coach drawing to a close, the focus will now shift to the interview stage of the process, with Peter de Villiers, Deon Keyser, Ricardo Laubscher, Jonathan Mokuena and Kevin Musikanth the five shortlisted candidates for the role. Interviews are set to take place in the first week of December.
It's no secret that Peter de Villiers is the favourite to secure the job. And with his rugby resume - a former Springbok coach who boasts a Tri-Nations victory and success against the British & Irish Lions - it's easy to see why.
While Musikanth’s coaching record is perhaps lesser known compared to the other candidates’, looking at his coaching history, it makes sense that someone like him would be considered for the coaching challenge in the unique landscape of Eastern Province rugby - a province with no shortage of talent, but no shortage of limitations either.
Silverware, however, is the one thing EP has been lacking, and it’s an area Musikanth has flourished in - especially when it comes to turning things around and doing the most with both underdog and under-resourced teams.
The current national coach of Israel is perhaps best known for his success with the University of Cape Town - where he orchestrated that come-from-behind victory against NWU Pukke to claim the Varsity Cup title in 2014, the first silverware the side had won in two years.
But it was on the back of his success on the club rugby scene that Musikanth was appointed head coach at UCT Ikeys in the first place.
Ikeys had underachieved in the two years prior to Musikanth’s arrival from False Bay - only managing two Varsity Cup victories in two years, despite having the likes of Damian De Allende, Oli Kebble and Dillyn Leyds on their books.
Overall, Musikanth ended his tenure at UCT with an 82 percent win rate in 65 games in charge, a noteworthy stat seeing as the team had been in the relegation zone in 2012 and 2013. By the time Musikanth departed for Johannesburg to take up post as director of rugby at St John's College, IKEYS had won eight trophies over his two-year stint.
And while the road he walked with UCT was impressive, what happened before he joined Ikeys even more so.
The 43-year-old joined False Bay in 2008, and some 17 years prior to his arrival, False Bay had been relegated to the Super B league in 1997 after then-coach Nick Mallett left. They slumped to Super C for brief period. In 2009, in his first year as head coach, under Musikanth they were promoted, winning the league emphatically, with all three senior teams, as well as the Under-20s, winning the SLB league title.
Musikanth then left False Bay and took up the director of rugby role at Wynberg Boys High School, in 2012 with False Bay getting relegated again the year after his departure. He was called back in 2013, where he repeated the success of 2009 - a league win and promotion as well as all senior teams and the U20a achieving a clean sweep of Super B league trophies again, making him a double Super B league-winner. Looking at that track record, it’s clear that Musikanth played a key role in laying the foundation that enabled the club to go on to become recent national club champions after 17 years in the Super B league.
It’s been a while since his days in club rugby, and currently, Musikanth heads up Rugby Israel as the Technical Director and head coach of the national teams. He works alongside former Springbok Sevens captain, Frankie Horne in the country’s Sevens project and is not shy to bring in well-known experts to assist in order to provide his teams with technical advice.
Musikanth has displayed this before too, having recruited world-renowned former Test referee Jonathan Kaplan to assist him at UCT, Keith Andrews at False Bay and Professor Tim Noakes and Hanyani Shimange at UCT.
Speaking on being shortlisted for the EP position, Musikanth explained what he thinks rugby in the Eastern Cape needs and added that coaching a Currie Cup side has always been a goal.
"I feel privileged to be on a shortlist with a former Springbok coach who has beaten the Lions and won the Tri-Nations
"The Eastern Cape has the best rugby in South Africa - if the players believed that staying in the union would make them Springboks, then EP would be at the business end of most competitions.
“With over a hundred clubs and thousands of schools, coupled with four major rugby playing universities, the rugby resources of the province are vast. It is the heartbeat of South African rugby talent and it is mindblowing that EP have never won a Currie Cup. Other unions capitalize on this resource. EP may have never won a major trophy, but South Africa wouldn’t have won the World Cup last year if it weren’t for EP. One just has to look where the World Cup-winning coach and captain learnt their rugby. This to me is the most exciting part of being on the shortlist.
"If players like (Makazole) Mapimpi didn't move, potentially they wouldn't have become Springboks. That's the wrong way around. EP have the ability to be one of the best franchises in South Africa, and that's what the aim should be.
"It's always been a dream of mine to coach a Currie Cup team. I remember when growing up watching the Currie Cup with my father, every weekend at Newlands sitting next to him on the railway stand and watching my heroes run around on the field. Currie Cup rugby is much more than a dream for me”
Looking at what he’s achieved so far and his out of the box rugby thinking , it’s clear that Musikanth can come into a team and turn it around - he’s won the trophies to prove that. often against highly-unfavorable odds.
And while the talent-loaded region that is the Eastern Cape needs more than just silverware, it would certainly be a start in turning them into the presence they can be in South African rugby.
And that right there - taking a team from underdogs into champions - is what this ‘outsider’ for job, Kevin Musikanth, has shown he can provide.
@WynonaLouw