Jake White says Victor Matfield and Fourie du Preez must earn their coaching stripes.
With John Mitchell having accepted the position of England defence coach, the Bok legends have been linked with the soon-to-be-vacant post in Pretoria.
However, only Matfield has coaching experience at senior level – three years as the Bulls assistant coach and a short stint with the Lions as their forwards coach during the 2017 Currie Cup – and White suggested they would benefit by starting from the bottom, like SA Schools coach Sean Erasmus, who is set to join the Lions.
‘Erasmus spent his years as a schoolmaster, went up the ranks, and I think he should take the Lions U20s, and then in a few years maybe become an assistant coach to the seniors and learn under the head coach,’ White wrote in his latest column for AllOutRugby.com.
‘If Fourie and Victor coached the Blue Bulls U19 team for the next five seasons, imagine how strong the Bulls would be in 2028. That is how it worked at schools 20 years ago – those guys would have worked their way up through the system – and that tradition is why South Africa’s big boys’ schools continue to dominate foreign schoolboy teams today.
‘Just because you’re a great salesman, doesn’t mean you’re a great sales manager, and I’m not sure Affies or Hoërskool Pietersburg would employ Fourie and Victor as their 1st XV head coaches. It says a lot about our rugby that they’ve got more chance of getting the Bulls job than the 1st XV job at the high schools they attended.’
Photo: Christiaan Kotze/Gallo Images
