In a week when New Zealand Rugby’s national executive continues to get it wrong, SA Rugby’s executive is getting it right with Rian Oberholzer’s pending appointment as interim CEO.
Oberholzer confirmed an approach had been made and by the time you read this the news may already be official that he succeeds Jurie Roux. The appointment of a permanent CEO will only be determined once SA Rugby has concluded the private equity deal expected to be finalised later this year.
New Zealand Rugby got it wrong with the appointment of Ian Foster as the All Blacks coach in 2020. Foster, an assistant to Steve Hansen’s 2015 World Cup-winning squad, averaged 50% as the head coach of the Chiefs in Super Rugby in a decade in which the franchise won nothing. He should never have been given the head coach job when Crusaders coach Scott Robertson was available. Robertson has won multiple Super Rugby titles and his response to losing out on the All Blacks coaching job was to win his sixth Super Rugby title.
Foster, with his original assistant coaches and support team, produced some of the worst results in All Blacks history, including a first defeat to the Pumas, a first home defeat to the Pumas and a first Test and series home defeat against Ireland in New Zealand.
Foster’s assistants were axed and the experienced New Zealander Joe Schmidt was introduced into the mix. Schmidt coached Ireland for eight years and was at the helm when Ireland beat the All Blacks for the first time in history. Crusaders forward coach Jason Ryan was also added for the Rugby Championship and immediately there were improvements.
Foster was a Test away from being sacked after the Springboks beat the All Blacks in Nelspruit, but the spirited All Blacks' stunning win at Ellis Park a week later saved Foster’s job and Robertson, who had been put on standby, remains on the sidelines of international rugby.
SA Rugby is now the one that leads and doesn’t follow. The appointment of Rassie Erasmus to coach the Boks in 2018 was the difference between winning the 2019 World Cup or the Boks limping home before the last four.
The All Blacks, desperately poor for most of Foster’s tenure, improved in their past six Tests, which included retaining the Bledisloe Cup, winning the Rugby Championship and ending their northern hemisphere tour unbeaten, despite the chaos of conceding three tries in the last 10 minutes for England to fight back from 25-6 to 25-all.
Foster was never the right guy, but those who put him in power were never the right people and they have continued to stumble over their lines. This week they confirmed Foster would not be the All Blacks coach after the World Cup, regardless of the outcome, and they would announce his successor in the next month. It has been one public relations mess after the other from a rugby nation, who on all fronts, off the field and through the All Blacks, for so long were the global leaders of the sport.
SA Rugby is now the one that leads and doesn’t follow. The appointment of Rassie Erasmus to coach the Boks in 2018 was the difference between winning the 2019 World Cup or the Boks limping home before the last four. Erasmus and Nienaber, who arrived as a coaching combination, continue to operate as a duo but with the latter in the guise of Bok coach and the former the national director of rugby. Both are contracted to SA Rugby until 2025.
Roux’s leadership as SA Rugby’s CEO cannot be overstated. He did an immense job operationally and the only individual qualified to add to Roux’s efforts is Oberholzer, especially in a time of transition. For so long it has been easy to put the All Blacks and NZ Rugby on a pedestal touching the heavens and, from a South African perspective, it is refreshing to afford this kind of accolade to SA Rugby’s executive leadership and the ongoing efforts of Erasmus, Nienaber, Kolisi and rest of the Bok squad.
Oberholzer, the CEO of SA Rugby from 1996 to 2003, was ahead of his time in rugby administration and was at the forefront of the drive to transform the sport in South Africa. It is appropriate that he returns to complete a cycle that started more than 20 years ago.
Mark Keohane is the founder of keo.co.za, a multiple award-winning sports writer and the digital content director at Habari Media. Twitter: @mark_keohane
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