Cape Town - Now is probably the right time for the Bulls to take a deep hard look at their coaching structures with a view to overhauling them ahead of the 2023/24 United Rugby Championship (URC) season and Currie Cup.
After two failed campaigns under their director of rugby Jake White, where they lost in a final and quarter-final against their arch-rivals, the Stormers, it has probably become time for the role of coach and director of rugby at the Bulls to be split into the two departments they are supposed to be.
A head coach focusing on getting things, including results, right on the rugby field, and the director of rugby, who can make sure that the head coach and his assistants are equipped with the best available tools (read players) to achieve success.
White currently sits with two caps on his head - if you include coaching the Currie Cup side - that's three. And juggling that many responsibilities is not working in the Loftus Versfeld corridors.
How beneficial is it to the players and team to have a director of rugby focusing on things on and off the rugby field? Who else gives input (to the coach) from outside the team management when things are not going too swimmingly? Is that not the job of the director of rugby?
This past Saturday was his side's sixth loss in a row against the Stormers and it didn't for one moment look like that statistic would change. Even when the Bulls possess the kind of players to get the desired results in the URC and Currie Cup.
It's not only the six losses in the URC that will hurt, but also the fact that a near full-strength Currie Cup side lost to Western Province youngsters twice in the domestic competition.
On both occasions, the Blue Bulls struggled against a youthful WP with the Pretoria side not having any answer to what their counterparts delivered on the field.
And in both these games, Province could not call on the likes of flyhalf Manie Libbok, centres Ruhan Nel and Dan du Plessis, or even senior props.
The Bulls on the other hand had Springbok Kurt-Lee Arendse and a host of other senior players like the versatile Johan Goosen and halfbacks Embrose Papier and Chris Smith at their disposal.
White said as recently as Saturday that they do not have enough X-factor players in their squad.
They have Arendse, Moodie, Wandisile Simelane, Papier. And if that is not enough, who is to blame for the lack of X-factor players?
Did he as director of rugby not have enough time or resources to acquire these players ahead of the season? Or were his hands tied as the head coach because preparing the squad for the season took up a lot of his time?
And ahead of the new season, will White be able to scout and find those X-factor players while he is busy coaching the Currie Cup side until the middle of June at least?
They've relieved former Currie Cup head coach Edgar Marutlulle of his duties after the tough start to the season with no indication of anyone taking over after White's job is done. And it's valuable time that White can use to find those guys with the X-factor.
“I guarantee that we will get it right, that we will work hard and by this time next year we will be a much better team from the lessons we learned in this campaign," is what White said after his team succumbed in the quarter-final on Saturday.
Is the lesson here maybe not that it is time for White to relinquish the job as head coach and focus more on that of director of rugby? Getting in those X-factor players could help the Bulls play a bit more adventurously. Currently, the dependency on Arendse and Moodie to spark is way too heavy a burden.
Maybe once White as the head coach and a host of older-generation Bulls players move on, and a new coach is in place, things will take a turn for the better at the proud Pretoria union.
Currently, though, it doesn't look like a change will come any time soon up north. But, a change has to come.
@Leighton_K
IOL Sport
* The views expressed are not necessarily the views of IOL or Independent Media.
** JOIN THE CONVERSATION: Send us an email with your comments, thoughts or responses to [email protected]. Letters should be a maximum of 500 words, and may be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Submissions should include a contact number and physical address (not for publication).