Cape Town – Imagine travelling from Pretoria to Durban on the morning of a rugby game, then coaching a team in a Currie Cup encounter, and then moving back home on the same night, and then taking charge of another team in a URC match the next day.
That is the schedule Jake White will have to deal with on Friday and Saturday as the Blue Bulls face the Sharks, which will be followed by the Bulls taking on Zebre.
White decided to move former Currie Cup head coach Edgar Marutlulle back to the Bulls junior teams in the midst of a 10-match losing streak across all competitions, and opted to take over that role as well.
It is quite similar to the Stormers and Western Province set-ups, where John Dobson and one management group coach both teams in the URC and Currie Cup.
Dobson recently travelled back from Dublin, where the Stormers had drawn with Leinster on the Friday night, and made it to Durban on the Sunday for WP’s game against the Sharks – although assistant coach Labeeb Levy has been taking charge of the Currie Cup side whenever Dobson has been busy with the Stormers.
White admitted this week that the arrangement was “not ideal”, but he felt it was necessary. “It is a challenge, but I knew it would be like this. I am going to Durban on Friday morning, and then the whole team are flying back on Friday night, as we are playing early enough in the day (3.30pm kickoff against the Sharks),” the Bulls director of rugby said.
“That is how it’s going to be. We can just do what we can, and I have to see how far we go in both competitions. Next week, both teams are playing at Loftus Versfeld, against the Lions in the Currie Cup and then Leinster in the URC.
“So, it’s actually easy, and then the next week is only Currie Cup rugby, and I can be with both teams.
“It’s not ideal (coaching two teams). I would love to have extra hands on deck, but to be fair, I’ve got three really good coaches working with me in the Currie Cup – unlike for example the Stormers, who are using the same coaching staff throughout.
“So, that’s another way we could have done it: keep the same staff together. But after last year, we just felt it was a lot to ask the same coaches to do reviews and previews every week as well.
“It’s part of the job, and the situation demands it now. It’s something we’ll have to look at going forward, in terms of how we are going to package the Currie Cup, the coaches, the rotation… It’s not an exact science. I will vasbyt this year and see how it goes, and hopefully get it right.”
Once the season is over, the Bulls will conduct a full review on the coaching situation, having already been knocked out of the Champions Cup by Toulouse in the last-16.
“Then we will reassess everything – URC, Champions Cup, Currie Cup. What works and doesn’t, what kind of squad and coaches we should have, how many coaches in each group…” White said.
“Having been sick (which required surgery in January) – and I don’t want to use it as an excuse – during that period of time, I had a plan and stuck to the plan, and maybe if I’d been around and seen and felt different things in the group, maybe I would’ve done it differently. But it is what it is now.”
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