Bulls director of rugby John Mitchell made the correct decision to restructure his coaching team now, rather than at the end of the season, writes SIMON BORCHARDT.
On Sunday night, the Bulls sent out a press release revealing big changes to their coaching teams. Nollis Marais, the Currie Cup head coach, was put on paid leave, with Mitchell, who had focused on the team’s attack in the Currie Cup, taking charge for the rest of the tournament. Marais’ Super Rugby assistants were also sent elsewhere, with backline coach David Manuel appointed head coach of the U21 team and Anton Leonard assisting him with the forwards.
Former Tuks coach Pote Human was brought in to handle the lineouts, with Gary Botha staying on as scrum coach, while ex-U19 head coach Hayden Groepes was promoted to skills and kicking coach for the senior team.
Pine Pienaar will now handle defence across the senior, U21 and U19 teams. He has his work cut out for him. The Currie Cup team has conceded an average of 36.2 points in five matches so far, although Mitchell says the team’s defence is improving and that the players still need time to adjust to a new defensive system that requires more energy from them.
Mitchell stressed on Tuesday that Marais is ‘still very much employed’ by the Bulls, but the fact that he felt it would be in the best interests of the team for Marais to go on paid leave, speaks volumes. Mitchell clearly thinks Marais still has a lot to learn as a coach and must improve in certain areas, or he would have kept him involved.
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Marais was set to be part of the Bulls’ Super Rugby coaching team for next season, but after recent events it would not be a surprise to see him involved with the Blue Bulls in the Provincial Rugby Challenge instead. Of course, Mitchell and Marais may decide before then that they can’t work together going forward, for whatever reasons, and that it would be better for the latter to leave the union and be paid out the rest of his contract.
Whatever the case, Mitchell made a smart move when he restructured his coaching team just six rounds into the Currie Cup, rather than wait until after the tournament. He has said he wants to use the Currie Cup to implement his new systems, and if the previous coaching team (with Marais as head coach) wasn’t able to do that effectively, then changes had to be made immediately.
As head coach, Mitchell can now run the rest of the Bulls’ Currie Cup campaign as he sees fit and use the tournament to prepare properly for Super Rugby.
It will also be interesting to see what happens to Bulls high-performance manager Xander Janse van Rensburg, who many in Pretoria (players included) blame for what went wrong when Marais was in charge.
Former Bulls and Bok lock Bakkies Botha slammed Van Rensburg on SuperSport’s Toks ‘n Tjops on Friday night, asking: ‘Who is Xander? He is apparently the guy who does the Bulls’ recruitment. I think if they have to review his performance, he will get the first letter of his name [an X].’
Mitchell has defended Janse van Rensburg, saying he was given too much responsibility in the past, and that he and Bulls CEO Barend van Graan would work with him regarding player recruitment. But by restructuring his coaching team, Mitchell’s message to everyone at the union is crystal clear: up your game or suffer the consequences.
Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images
