Ken Borland

Pote Human is one of the most well-liked coaches in the country but it was not enough to save him from the changes sweeping through Loftus Versfeld in the wake of former Springbok coach Jake White’s appointment at the helm of Bulls rugby.

White had already made it clear that even though his designation is director of rugby, he sees himself having a very hands-on, on-field coaching role. That means there is no room for Human when it comes to guiding the SuperRugby side and the Blue Bulls Company announced on Friday that there would be an amicable parting of the ways.

Human joins a raft of changes at Loftus Versfeld, with chief executive Alfonso Meyer also standing down at the end of the month and 17 players reportedly set to get the chop, including captain Burger Odendaal and Springboks Cornal Hendricks and Juandre Kruger.

“The Blue Bulls Company would like to confirm that it has come to a mutual agreement with Super Rugby head coach Pote Human regarding the early termination of his current contract, which was due to end in October 2020. The BBCo were open and transparent in informing Human that the contract would not be extended. Given the current situation, with no rugby expected to be played in the near future, both parties mutually agreed on exiting with immediate effect, thus also allowing Human extra time with his future planning,” the union said in their statement on Friday.

And just to prove what a nice guy he is, Human expressed his gratitude to the Bulls and went on to call for all involved with the Bulls to support White.

“My time at Loftus has been amazing to say the least. It has been an emotional rollercoaster, with many highs and lows. But through it all I have made friendships and memories that I will treasure forever. I have dedicated my life to this beautiful game and trust me there is no better place to do that than at Loftus Versfeld.

“I would sincerely like to thank the BBCo for giving me the opportunity to live my dreams and for affording me the privilege to work with some truly amazing people. I’d like to wish them every success going forward and it is important for Jake to get the backing and support from all stakeholders. He certainly has my support and I wish him all of the best,” Human said.

History will record that Human did not win any trophies with the Bulls, making the SuperRugby playoffs last year and the Currie Cup semi-finals in 2018, but his coaching prowess should obviously be measured by the resources at his disposal, especially a glaring lack of playing quality due to the extremely poor recruitment that took place at Loftus Versfeld before his stint as head coach.

Meyer praised the influence Human has had on the lives of both players and staff.

“Pote is known as more than a coach at Loftus and has influenced the lives and careers of players and staff alike. He is a nurturer and a mentor, and has made a lasting impact on many great players. Pote is an absolute gentleman of the game and has been an asset to the Bulls Family. However, it is time for us to part ways, and we wish him everything of the best with his journey ahead,” Meyer said.

Pote Human admitted that the time is coming when he has to start rotating players, but for now the Bulls coach is able to just freshen up his squad in one or two areas, as he did on Wednesday when he announced a team with three changes in it to face the Chiefs in their SuperRugby game at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Centre Burger Odendaal and flank Ruan Steenkamp, both probable first-choice players, return to the starting line-up after prolonged injury absences, while a shoulder niggle for regular fullback Warrick Gelant has convinced Human to rest the Springbok for this weekend and bring in Divan Rossouw as the last line of defence.

Dylan Sage and Tim Agaba, the players displaced by Odendaal and Steenkamp, are both on the bench, along with returning lock Eli Snyman.

When one considers that available players such as Roelof Smit, Marco van Staden, Jaco Visagie, Aston Fortuin, Travis Ismaiel and Johnny Kotze are all unable to get into the match-day 23 right now, then one can see that Human suddenly has the depth to start rotating players and ensure his squad stays fresh in the toughest competition in world rugby.

“It’s getting more and more difficult to select the team but it’s a good place to be. Some Springboks do need game-time off as well, but we have Marco, Manie Libbok, Johnny and Travis all back and available and it was close between Jaco Visagie and Corniel Els for the substitute hooker position this weekend. So it’s a nice position to be in,” Human said at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday.

The Chiefs, despite their mediocre start to the campaign, remain extremely dangerous opposition and the Bulls will need to shut them down at source on Saturday. The Bulls pack have certainly rolled up their sleeves in the first month of SuperRugby and Jason Jenkins and Hanro Liebenberg did well enough as the starting lock pairing against the Sharks in their last game for Human to persist with them as they tackle Brodie Retallick and his forwards.

“We kept the same locks because they did very well against the Sharks and they will be very physical, which is what will be needed against the Chiefs. We will try and force our game on their’s and if we can win the battle up front then we’re halfway there. We have the pack to do it so I think we’ll be okay.

“The scrums have been a big plus point for us, with Daan Human [scrummaging coach] coming in and he has done unbelievable work. I’m old school: If we can do well in the scrums and get go-forward then we’ll be okay,” Human said.

Squad: 15-Divan Rossouw, 14-Cornal Hendricks, 13-Jesse Kriel, 12-Burger Odendaal, 11-Rosko Specman, 10-Handre Pollard, 9-Ivan van Zyl, 8-Duane Vermeulen, 7-Jannes Kirsten, 6-Ruan Steenkamp, 5-Jason Jenkins, 4-Hanro Liebenberg, 3-Trevor Nyakane, 2-Schalk Brits, 1-Lizo Gqoboka. Replacements – 16-Corniel Els, 17-Simphiwe Matanzima, 18-Dayan van der Westhuyzen, 19-Eli Snyman, 20-Tim Agaba, 21-Embrose Papier, 22-Manie Libbok, 23-Dylan Sage.

As we have seen so often in rugby, making changes to long-standing rules of the game almost invariably brings unexpected consequences and there has been a lot of talk recently about doing away with one of cricket’s most famous traditions, a move which I believe will boomerang badly on the sport.

South African captain Faf du Plessis was the latest to bring up doing away with the toss, although his beliefs lost some credibility because they came straight after the Proteas had been mauled in their two Tests in Sri Lanka.

Various high-profile Australians have also backed the ending of the toss, but again, these comments were mostly made after they had lost the Ashes in England.

Proponents of the eradication of the toss propose that the visiting team just gets to choose whether they want to bat or bowl, thereby supposedly removing home advantage, which the anti-toss advocates say has become a major problem in world cricket.

Happily, a couple of months ago the ICC Cricket Committee discussed doing away with the toss and decided that it was an integral part of the game and should be spared.

No doubt they had a better grasp of the actual facts surrounding the issue. Home ground advantage has always played a role in cricket, as it does in just about every sport, but winning or losing the toss actually does not have a major effect.

In this decade, the team winning the toss still only wins 43.78% of Test matches, so it is not a massive advantage. There is a slight benefit because only 35.13% of teams that lose the toss go on to win the match. Historically, Australia are the only side that wins more than 50% of the Tests in which they have won the toss, and even then it’s just 50.49%, only slightly higher than their overall success rate of 47.16%.

I believe giving the visiting team total control over what they do first would have a major bearing on the game, which is where the unintended consequences come in, especially in countries like India or New Zealand.

It’s fair to say the weather is out of the control of the people who prepare the pitches in those countries and they can only do so much to negate the effect of overhead conditions. Doing away with the toss would grossly undermine teams like India and New Zealand – in the heat of the sub-continent, dry, dusty, deteriorating pitches are almost inevitable and India would be batting second every time; conversely, New Zealand is usually pretty damp and overcast and the Black Caps would find themselves sent in to bat every time.

It would happen often in England as well that the home team would automatically have to bat at the most difficult time and it could also affect the Proteas at home.

What it boils down to is the ICC actually using the mechanisms they already have in place to ensure fair conditions – they already have rules in the playing conditions when it comes to unfair pitches and they just need to enforce them more diligently, especially when it comes to the sub-continent and even some South African green mambas.

The perception that away teams are struggling does have some basis in fact. In this decade, the visiting team has lost 51.75% of Tests, up from 46.40% in the 2000s. It is interesting, though, that the away team has been winning Tests in the last 20 years at pretty much the same rate as they have been doing through the history of the game.

It is, of course, the number of away draws that has dropped significantly in recent times; down from 47.31% of Tests in the 1960s to just 20.76% in this decade. That is obviously a positive but it also points to the rise of T20 cricket and batsmen being able to hit the ball but not defend against the turning, seaming or swinging delivery.

The problem is not the toss, it’s modern-day batsmen being ill-prepared for foreign conditions, and sometimes the ICC allows the home union to get away with cheap shots in terms of pitch preparation.

Sanzaar obviously had to make changes to SuperRugby because the crowds were not reflecting the status of the competition, but I struggle to understand why South Africa have to give up two teams.

Our previous wins at the Sanzaar negotiating table have been because we could always use the threat of going to Europe and our TV figures to get our own way.

So why do New Zealand keep five franchises and South Africa have just four, but we’re a much bigger nation! I know the argument based on the performance of the teams, but in 2013 we had four teams in the top eight and in 2012 three sides in the top six. So we have had the strength, and the Bulls were a dominant force in SuperRugby from 2005-2010, which is not so long ago!

So I struggle to comprehend how a team like the Cheetahs, who are such a strong rugby region, can be facing the axe. Everyone understands that the Kings will have to go due to their financial woes and because they are propped up by Saru, but it will be very disappointing to lose the Cheetahs after they have been in SuperRugby for so long. And the Free State and Griqualand West region has provided a heck of a lot of players who have gone on to greater things.

What really concerns me is that the Springboks will miss out on an extra 30 players to choose from, while New Zealand will have a pool of 150 SuperRugby players, a 20% bigger selection pool.

And it’s easy to say we will retain more players because we will now have more money, but as Faf de Klerk’s offer from Sale shows, guys can still earn more than triple what they’ll get in South Africa by going overseas. I believe we’ll actually retain fewer players because there will be less opportunity with only four franchises. Our coaching ranks will also be diminished with less opportunity for them too.

The funny thing is, a year ago Sanzaar said everything was fine and a big fuss was made about how the new format would mean much less travel for South African sides – a maximum of two flights overseas.

The tournament did need expansion and Argentina have now been able to keep their best players, they haven’t gone to Europe, because there’s a clear pathway for them to develop and express themselves at the highest level. We’ve seen that with the Sunwolves too.

People say it’s not our job to develop rugby in South America and Asia, but that’s shortsighted. Rugby has to be a global game, if it just stayed within the Commonwealth and Argentina, it would die.

Exposing a team from Japan to higher levels of rugby has certainly brought an improvement to their play. There were 22 000 people at the Bulls game in Tokyo and the excitement was incredible, especially considering that the last game in Tokyo saw the Sunwolves lose 83-17 to the Hurricanes!

But there was a great atmosphere and huge interest in the Bulls game, but more on that shock result later on.

In my view, the SuperRugby format should be a 16-team competition – so five New Zealand and South African franchises, four from Australia and the Sunwolves and Jaguares – with everyone playing everyone else once. You would have two three-week tours as part of that.

Six teams would then progress to the playoffs, with the top two sides initially having a bye straight into their home semis against the winners of the quarterfinals, which would be third versus sixth and fourth against fifth.

This weekend I am really looking forward to the match between the Lions and the Stormers, which should be a high-tempo, all out attacking game, but the side that defends best will win it. For the main Easter weekend game to be between the two conference leaders is going to provide a great spectacle.

The quality and skill level of the Stormers last weekend against the Chiefs shows that they have reached a new dimension and you have to credit Robbie Fleck and his staff, and the players, for their willingness to play like that. It’s really high-risk, high-reward rugby and, believe me, it has to be coached!

What was especially pleasing was the way they really matched a New Zealand team at the back end of the game, when it’s normally been a huge struggle for South African teams.

The Sharks also had a good win, even though they are not scoring a lot of tries. They are playing off the other side’s mistakes, like their spectacular intercept try against the Jaguares.

They hung on in there against the Argentinians and it was an important win for their conference, although they will be a bit disappointed they gave the Jaguares a point. But it’s good that they were able to grind it out, hopefully they can get on a roll and get their confidence going.

The humidity in Durban made the ball very slippery and there were similar conditions for the Bulls in Tokyo, a match I was fortunate enough to attend. It was very wet and the Sunwolves managed the conditions better. The Bulls are not far off but they were simply not good enough last weekend.

They took time to get into their stride, they struggled to get control of the game. But then they had control when they were nine points ahead, they were in the pound seats, but the yellow card obviously had a huge influence.

After that the Sunwolves took a scrum with 10 minutes to go and scored the matchwinning try. The lesson for the Bulls is that when a backline player like Jan Serfontein gets a yellow card, then you must replace him. It’s better to have a full backline because you need that speed on defence. It was standard procedure when I was with the Springboks that if a backline player got a yellow card late in the game then we would take a forward off and replace him. Otherwise you’re defending with six versus seven, which is why the Sunwolves were able to break out so easily.

The Sunwolves were also able to keep the ball in play and did a good job of nullifying the Bulls’ lineout maul threat by standing off. That meant the Bulls had to mostly play from static ball. The home side were also very good with their kicks and chips, while the Bulls could have done much better with their chips, especially the one from their own 22 that led to a try.

The Bulls will be really hurting, but they now have a lot of games at home. No other team in the competition has had such a tough start away from home, and the Bulls will now hope they can get some form and a winning run at Loftus Versfeld.

John McFarland is the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan and was the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game. Before that, McFarland won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.