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D-Day for Bok management
25/04/2008 07:41 - (SA)
Cape Town - All eyes will be on the South African Rugby Union's headquarters in the Mother City on Friday when the remaining pieces in Peter de Villiers' Springbok management puzzle will finally be put in place.
The names of the Bok team manager, the assistant coaches and technical analyst will officially be made known although the names of the appointees have already done the rounds on the rugby grapevine.
These appointments will provide the new Springbok coach De Villiers with specialist expertise and managerial back-up as the national rugby side prepare for upcoming international assignments.
The Sharks coach Dick Muir and the Stormers assistant coach Gary Gold will offer De Villiers a formidable team in their roles as assistant coaches, and their input has been in evidence in the Super 14 competition where their teams are riding the crest of a wave.
Muir is likely to concentrate on guiding the backs, and Gold, a former London Irish coach, will work with the forwards.
Gold has already put pen to paper and Muir will sign on the dotted line when the Sharks return from their Australasia tour.
Renewing
Peter Maimane, the Lions manager, has got the nod as the new Bok technical advisor, largely on the recommendation of De Villiers.
The two will be renewing their association after they served together in the same roles when the SA Emerging team won the IRB Nations Cup tournament in Romania last year.
Two years ago Maimane applied for the Springbok manager's job but he lost out to Zola Yeye, the manager of the victorious 2007 World Cup winning Boks.
However, the appointment of the new manager is likely to be subject of heated debate on Friday.
Speculation is rife that Liston Ntshongwana, a former Transkei rugby player and who captained the African Springboks against touring sides in the 1970s, will replace Yeye.
Ntshongwana's name also surfaced as a Bok team manager in 2006, when he was one of three candidates strongly recommended by the Minister of Sport Makhenkesi Stofile.
Ntshongwana is a prominent businessman and former diplomat who could fit in well with the post which has been amended so that it will be more of a ceremonial one than in the past.
The expected appointments of Maimane and Ntshongwana should win Oregan Hoskins' organisation kudos with the quibblers like former Saru deputy president Mike Stofile who have recently claimed that there is no room for blacks in South African rugby.
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Rugby
