Jimmy Stonehouse
Former Steval Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse, 1 of the country’s most undervalued coaches, is rumoured to have thrown his name into the hat for vacant coaching positions at the Cell C Sharks, Vodacom Bulls and Southern Kings.
4 Of South Africa’s franchises will be looking to fill their vacant head coach positions before the start of the revamped and extended Super Rugby tournament in 2016.
Stonehouse took up a coaching job with Japanese club Toshiba Brave Lupus earlier this year after he declined 2 previous offers from abroad with the hope of landing a job with a South African franchise.
The Bulls head coach position opened up over the weekend when Frans Ludeke resigned after 8 years in charge of South Africa’s most successful Super Rugby franchise.
The Southern Kings put out feelers to the Emirates Lions assistant coach Swys de Bruin, who has been an integral part of the Johannesburg side’s resurrection from Super Rugby outcasts to finishing as the 2nd-best team in the South African franchise this season.
However, De Bruin declined, citing unfinished business with the Lions which left the EP Kings and Southern Kings coaching positions in limbo.
Both the Cell C Sharks and the DHL Stormers are also looking to fill their vacant head coach positions with new Sharks Director of Rugby, Gary Gold, confirming he would not fulfill the coaching role any longer and the Capetonians looking for a replacement for Allister Coetzee, who is Japan-bound.
Stonehouse has a proven track record and was awarded the SA Rugby Union’s Coach of the Year award in 2013 after the Steval Pumas were promoted to the Currie Cup Premier Division, following their unbeaten run in the ABSA Currie Cup First Division competition.
The 51-year-old Stonehouse is believed to be among the favourites to take the reins of the Southern Kings when they make their return to Super Rugby.
The Southern Kings’ coaching stocks have been depleted since Director of Rugby Alan Solomons left to coach Edinburgh in 2013 and head coach Matt Sexton returned to New Zealand at the end of that year.
Sport24
@ grootblousmile:
Slapchips is a legend.
That is all you need to know.
…. 😉
@ grootblousmile: your honour, the defence would like to call a recess. ❓
@ Stormersboy: He was indeed the intercept king. I think he wrote a book on it. I’d like to check my library for my copy.
@ grootblousmile: I hear the pain GB and you guys certainly have a dilemma on your hands. The history tells us; conservatism is the fall-back position the union usually takes. Creativity has never been on the agenda. So expect more of the same. A new coach steeped in Blue Bulls history(and conservatism) is dusting off his tracksuit right as we speak. Would like to be wrong about this but I’m afraid I’m probably right.
@ grootblousmile:
No actually I was not punting Slapchips to be the next coach, I said he could have included his name in the hat, afterall the way in which he has left Loftus is fairly nefarious. I Also said I would like Rassie to be in consideration and I would prefer him to be in consideration as well, because he works with some of the most talented and some would say egotistical players in the country, he is tactically astute, respects forwards play and is a strategist, so can implement strategies he sees fit.
“You say it’s immaterial who you think would suit the Bulls Head Coach position, but yet, this line of questions I have posted to you is EXACTLY because you suggested Pieter Rossouw as coach, so no it’s not immaterial, I would really like to know why you rate him as a coach.”
I suggested that they could at least throw his name in the hat, I never suggested that he is the best candidate. It is Immaterial who the Bulls union name as coach, if much of the other factors stays the same, namely the same forwards coach (roux), same “technical guy” (matfield)… so yes, in my opinion it is immaterial who the head coach is if his support staff remains the same, that may be one of the reasons Slapchips left, because he attempted to go against the grain (which is apparently suicide at the Bulls), then for the next few weeks we saw skop en jaag, after a few glimpses of exciting rugby throughout the season, the last month and a half was disastrous.
1-4
it is simply impossible for backlines to perform when they do not have the forwards to secure quick ball, the difference between the chiefs and canes this year has been the fact that Rettalick was missing, what the NZ teams have is the forwards to secure quick ball, we have premadonas in the backline, look at jacque dup, his sole job should be to clean and and secure quick ball, the Cheetahs murdered us at the breakdown while he was standing either at first receiver of running off ten, we simply don’t have the forwards to give our backline space, i garantee the Bulls backline and Stormers forwards would have been a CONSIDERABLE force if they played together, the bulls have spies, steggies, lappies, mellet, strauss did not have his best years, Trevor was not given much game time by the end of the season, mysteriously, while Greyling, and even flip was disappointing, Vic, Steggies and Lappies were star performers in the tackle stats though, but we do not have the team to secure quick ball and that is a MASSIVE stumbling block for any backline.
5.
Does this really address Slapchips responsibilities? Maybe he left because his suggestions were not heard, this seems like Matfield and Ludekes job.
6
This is a problem at the Bulls, dominating personalities who refuse to admit that they are wrong and adapt to change.
7
Change the support staff as well and ill delightfully use my imagination as to who the head coach could be.
8
I would like Rassie, Slapchips to join another SA franchise, and with the backlng of the local authority could prove to be quite a weapon… the fact that he has been at the Bulls so long, and so easily kicked to the curb is worrying when Wessel Roux has been involved for years, same scrum for years.
@ Victoriabok:
Grant HAttingh stole more balls in the lineouts than Vic, he had an extremely underrated season my my opinion, probably his best at the Bulls.
Funny you mention scrums, I had a look at this today
It was obviously a big moment for the springboks, but i watched that scrum on repeat like ten times, i cant for the life of me imagine, 20 years later in 2015 a scrum moving like that and not collapsing, infact, if that game was played today, it would likely have been a France penalty that will push the game in extra time.
36… sorry, France still needed the try, penalty would not have been enough
@ MacroPolo: you guys are the experts when dealing with the Bulls brand. As an outsider, things don’t look good. The franchise needs a fresh breeze. More likely to happen will be a perennial thunderstorm. Hope I’m wrong.
Tassies wrote:
That’s the way I see it as well. A whole new business plan and with that unlikely to happen, Slapchips well may have jumped a sinking ship… changing the first mate (coach) means nothing if the same crew is still there… hell the fact that the first mate had to jump ship as well is even more terrifying 😆
@ MacroPolo: in fact they were just being sensible. A scrum collapse might have resulted in a mass drowning.
@ Tassies:
The scrums are an absolute disaster, just a bunch of penalties… this was a good discussion.
Naas Botha. There’s your answer. I knew I had the solution all along and it was sitting right under my snout. Is there an agent’s fee going for this one? He could recruit Nick as his assistant. Mr Saarks could be technical guru being as skilled as he is on the touch-screen. SOB. I’m beginning to think I’m a bloody genius.
@ MacroPolo: Marshall and Wilson are excellent technical exponents of the game. Love listening to their commentary, wit and passion. Some of the greybeards should take the time out to listen and maybe we’d see a better game.
34 @ Tassies:
Yeah… specially the Bulls, have this midset of going back to what worked previously… and in my mind it is exactly where they will make their biggest mistake going forward!
Let me make a prediction…
I think the Bulls will delay naming a Super Rugby Head coach for 2016 for as long as possible, in the hope that if Heyneke Meyer’s tenure at the Springboks is not extended for 4 more years, that they could rope him and Ian Schwartz back into the fold… in that attempt to go back to what previously worked.
The Cheetahs made an extremely brave move to appoint Franco Smith… and it could either work brilliantly or crash spectacularly in 2016 as a whole.
Now, what I am suggesting is for the Bulls to make an equally big and brave move, by appointing a coach outside their own ranks and letting him have his will as far as support staff and players is concerned. Like MacroPolo says, the Bulls would have to oust Wesseltjie Roux and Pine Pienaar too… create a whole new team around a new coach, but even deeper than that, they also need to fire Xander Janse van Rensburg on the spot, NOW!
**************************
35 @ MacroPolo:
I am of the opinion that the Bulls head coach was’nt domineering enough, did not have an abrasive enough personality, did not enforce his will hard enough… and was too much of a gentleman…. and as a result was too soft, not innovating at all… and the less than proper results followed.
I’m outta here MP. Good chatting and theorising. You gotta love the game, warts and all.
cheers
@ grootblousmile: and that pretty much sums up what most of us understand to be the status quo. Just more succinctly put. Nite boet. Till tomorrow.
46 @ Tassies:
Tjorts Tasse, have a good one!
@ Tassies:
Cheers tassies. Sorry for disappearing. Has to leave early for cape town
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