Mark Alexander unhappy with coaching make-up of Su

SA Rugby president Mark Alexander said they are not happy with the coaching make-up of the South African Super Rugby franchises.

The Lions, who recently released their Super Rugby coaching group to be headed up by Ivan “Cash” van Rooyen, doesn't have a black member and so do the Bulls whose head coach is Pote Human.

The Sharks, who are coached by Sean Everitt, have Phiwe Nomlomo as a skills consultant while the Stormers have Rito Hlungwani and Hanyani Shimange in their coaching group as a forwards coach and scrum consultant respectively.

“We're not happy with the makeup of the franchise coaching teams, even though I'm happy with the look of the Springbok coaching group. All the coaches that have come through, they're from our system,” Alexander said.

“We have to put pressure on our Pro14 and Super Rugby franchises because they're not bringing through the coaches.”

Springbok Director of Rugby Johan “Rassie” Erasmus said it was unfortunate that there's a few coaches of colour, but that's a matter that's out of their hands.

Erasmus though said the lack of coaches of colour in the Super Rugby set-up affects them from a selection perspective.

“We would like to see more coaches of colour coming through but we unfortunately don't have control over that, just like we can't tell them who to appoint as chief executive officer. They run their own franchises,” Erasmus said.

“I know, when speaking to the coaches at the franchises, with the Sharks being an example, they're really committed to transformation but I agree with you when you say the head coaches don't currently reflect transformation. That does make it tough for us to get guys into the national set-up because the pipeline is slightly messed up.”

Erasmus though noted that SA Rugby has often, if not all the time, graduated coaches of colour into the SA Rugby set-up once they've moved into the Super Rugby scene or excelled at Currie Cup level.

“Every single coach that has been pushed through to Super Rugby level, SA Rugby has used. When former Bok coach Allister Coetzee made it to Super Rugby level, SA Rugby took him up and used him. When Deon Davids was pushed up to Super Rugby, SA Rugby took him and used him as a coach,” Erasmus said.

“When Mzwandile Stick did relatively well with the Eastern Province Under-19's, SA rugby took him into the system and used him. When a Super Rugby franchise delivered a coach of colour at the highest level, SA Rugby has taken them up and used them. There's many other examples like the SA Schools coaches who are now used by the franchises.”