Ken Borland

Nollis Marais and Pine Pienaar are old friends who have been up and down the Bulls’ coaching structures ever since they arrived at Loftus Versfeld in 2011, but now they have been reunited on the SuperRugby coaching team as director of rugby Jake White announced his overhaul of the senior staff on Wednesday.

Marais was the Bulls’ head coach in 2016-17, a period marked by poor results and an even worse working relationship with high performance manager Xander Janse van Rensburg, who has subsequently been investigated for fraud and corruption. Marais was demoted when John Mitchell arrived at Loftus, but White has now elevated the man with probably the best junior rugby record in the country to the new position of dedicated breakdown specialist for the Bulls SuperRugby team and all sides representing the union.

Pienaar has been the Bulls’ defence coach but has now been shifted to the role of technical advisor, with Joey Mongalo, a former Bulls Currie Cup player, taking up the defence role he fulfilled at the Lions under both Johan Ackermann and Swys de Bruin.

“Teams have always had consultants or forwards coaches addressing the breakdown as part of their broader roles. This will become a key focus area for us going forward, especially with the breakdown laws being changed.

“It also speaks to the type of rugby we will be looking to play. Nollis has been around the block and knows exactly what we need. I have no doubt that he is the perfect man for this job,” White said in a statement released by the Bulls on Wednesday.

White had previously announced the appointment of Russell Winter, formerly with the Lions and Stormers as the forwards coach, and former Springbok flyhalf Chris Rossouw will continue as backline coach.

The Bulls have released Daan Human, who helped turn Lizo Gqoboka and Trevor Nyakane into one of the best propping pairs in SuperRugby last year, to the Springboks and White said a new scrum coach would be announced “in the near future”.

CJ van der Linde, who played 75 Tests for South Africa and was a member of White’s 2007 World Cup winning Springbok squad, and subsequently coached with him at Montpellier, is favoured to replace Human.

In the last week the Bulls have also boosted their playing resources by confirming the return of Springbok wing Travis Ismaiel and the signing of talented youngsters in former Western Province hooker Schalk Erasmus and Walt Steenkamp, a 2.03m, 121kg lock who has played for both the North-West Leopards and the Free State Cheetahs.

Richard Pybus has been one of the real legends of domestic coaching in South Africa, having won nine trophies with the Titans and Cape Cobras franchises, but he began his career guiding lowly Border into a position where they were competitive against the big guns of local cricket. So when the former Pakistan and West Indies coach says plans to change the domestic structure, increasing the top level to 12 provincial teams, are not addressing the true problems in South African cricket then his views should be considered seriously.

“It’s a terrible idea,” Pybus said of the plan to do away with the six franchises at the top table of domestic cricket. “They are trying to fix the wrong thing. The issue is the administration of the game and not franchise cricket. Why are Cricket South Africa in their current financial position? They should review that. Why pull apart a highly effective system, the same sort of model that has given Australia consistent success?

“The issue is not our model but getting our administration right. Our problems are not about the franchise game, that’s giving us what is needed, which is incredible competition, the best 66 players in the country going up against each other. The franchise system was directly responsible and supported our national team getting to number one. We want strength versus excellence, not to dilute that,” Pybus told The Citizen from his house in Hermanus.

The 55-year-old Pybus said the domestic system needed to reflect the differences between the high-performance needs of the Proteas pipeline and those of growing the game.

“Our cricket has lots of layers and it needs to be clearer whether those layers serve the recreational game or the Proteas, with a lot of layers not really serving either of them. A lot of our cricket should not be professional and any changes should be about strengthening that level. We have a brilliant, multi-cultural game and it also needs to be inclusive.

“The development programme does have some issues, there are not enough players coming from Black communities, but that has nothing to do with franchise cricket. There are geographical and historical reasons for those issues. Coaching is also a real problem and it will take a generation to transform that because we have pushed all our senior coaches out, that intellectual capital is gone,” Pybus said.

One of the more pleasing aspects of the Proteas’ previous season was how well head coach Mark Boucher and his assistant Enoch Nkwe dovetailed together, which is probably not too surprising given the similarities between them in coaching philosophy.

It could have been a lot more awkward than it was when Boucher took over as head coach in December, Nkwe effectively being demoted to assistant coach because he had been the interim team director when the Proteas toured India in September/October.

But Nkwe is the sort of coach who always puts the team first and Boucher has always been known to be a great team man. As a player and coach, the record-breaking wicketkeeper’s attributes of honest communication, competitiveness, toughness, courage and discipline are well-known.

They are shared qualities that bind them together.

That the 37-year-old Nkwe has a similar coaching philosophy to the 43-year-old Boucher became clear when I was fortunate enough to sit in on the virtual coaches conference he held with the Lions recently. Apart from the many coaches within the Lions system, including his successor as franchise head coach Wandile Gwavu, there were coaches from as far afield as the Eastern Cape, Uganda and New Zealand logged in to hear Nkwe share his thoughts, and the Soweto-born former all-rounder certainly left them with many great insights to ponder.

Nkwe sees the coach’s role as being to create an environment that enables the team to reach success.

“It’s important that you are all speaking the same language, you need the environment to be freed up and authentic. There needs to be clear role-definition which is one of the most powerful coaching tools and it can determine the brand of cricket played. And if the whole process is done properly then the coach is in a much stronger position to have tough conversations.

“You’ve got to be totally honest, one can feel sorry for the player but you can’t sugarcoat things or beat around the bush. It may be uncomfortable at the moment, but going forward the player will have respect for you because of your honesty. Don’t be scared or shy to have those honest conversations; the players know the moment you are bullshitting,” Nkwe said.

In order to discover his own coaching philosophy, Nkwe, who began his coaching career as player-coach for Dutch club HCC Rood en Wit in 2005, said he looked at his own character and what he consistently did as both a player and coach.

He came up with the word ‘competitive’, a word closely associated with Boucher himself.

“You need to master the little things, you’re not going to get everything right but you strive for a level of excellence. And you have to find a way to make it work. Things are not ever going to go all smoothly, and when things are not great, that’s when you have to overcome the challenge. You have to keep finding ways to be successful. There’s always a way and you can’t feel sorry for yourself,” Nkwe said.

You can imagine the exact same words coming out of Mark Boucher’s mouth. To be courageous also seemed to be second-nature for the gritty Eastern Cape product.

“You need courage and consistency to promote your vision and the confidence to go into a new environment and not compromise your beliefs because then you will lose the team. If you want to be liked, then coaching is not the industry for you,” Nkwe said frankly.

Boucher himself has spoken positively of their burgeoning relationship.

“Enoch and I have had some great conversations and I think we understand each other. We certainly have the same ideas and agree on how to do it. We know we’ll have hard calls to make but we’re not scared to make them.

“He has a good relationship with the youngsters I don’t know properly yet and he takes a load off my hands. I appreciate it and we will just keep working hard together and drive our vision together,” Boucher said recently.

Nkwe has also been a great respecter of new Director of Cricket Graeme Smith, ever since their paths crossed as schoolkids. Nkwe played for St Stithians and Smith was at King Edward VII. The future national captain would skipper Nkwe in the Gauteng Schools side of 1999, Smith’s second year of Khaya Majola Week cricket and the first of three years in which Nkwe played. Interestingly, both Smith and Nkwe scored centuries on their first-class debuts.

“Graeme was always a great example to me, he worked out at 15 years old that he needed to make peace with his technique. He knew he was not the best-looking batsman but he had a clear vision of what his strengths were and he made sure he thrived on that and his mental strength. I remember at Khaya Majola Week in 1999 just trying to understand how he could score so many hundreds at such a young age.

“Graeme found a way to make it work, he didn’t fight his technique. It was pure mental strength and he was lucky to have a coach that encouraged that,” Nkwe said.

I would dare to predict that South African cricket will realise in future just how lucky they were to have Smith, Boucher and Nkwe working together to steer the Proteas out of their current turmoil.

The number of South Africans playing or coaching in New Zealand has been an interesting angle for critics of the local system to pursue in recent years, and former Highveld Lions batsman Devon Conway looks set to become the latest immigrant to don the Black Cap.

Conway has transformed himself since his move to New Zealand in 2017, from a workaday batsman who just could not nail down a regular place in South African franchise cricket, to a prolific run-scorer for Wellington.

And according to former Titans and current Otago coach Rob Walter, another former South African who moved to New Zealand, the dramatic change in Conway’s fortunes is because he now gets to routinely test himself at the top level of domestic cricket.

Born in Johannesburg and educated at St John’s College, Conway played for Gauteng Schools for three years from 2007. He made his first-class debut for Gauteng aged just 17 years old. Clearly he was considered a top-class talent.

The following season he averaged 59 for Gauteng, but made a move to Pietermaritzburg for the 2010/11 season. He was quickly moved into the Dolphins franchise team, but in nine games only scored two half-centuries and averaged just 21.28.

He was back in Johannesburg for the 2012/13 season and became a prolific run-scorer for the Gauteng Strikers side – averaging 53.57 as he scored 12 centuries in 52 matches.

But he had to wait until February 2014 to be promoted to the Highveld Lions team. He was given five matches that season, but only averaged 22.85 with a highest score of 38 in 10 innings.

He could only score 54 runs in five innings in 2014/15 and his appearances were sporadic thereafter. When he emigrated, Conway had made 12 appearances in all for the Highveld Lions, averaging just 21.29 with only one half-century.

It seemed he was one of those cricketers who were brilliant at the level below but just couldn’t make the step up when given decent opportunity in franchise cricket.

But it has been all change since he moved to Wellington.

Conway was the leading run-scorer in both the first-class and T20 competitions in 2018/19 and was named New Zealand’s men’s domestic player of the year.

Last season he fared even better, being the leading run-scorer in all three formats. His spectacular exploits included an epic 327 not out against Canterbury, just the ninth triple-century in NZ history, and a 49-ball century in the Super Smash.

So how did he go from being a struggling journeyman in South Africa to a star who New Zealand can’t wait to rush into their national team?

“He’s played unbelievably well and has ridiculous stats in all three formats. He’s unstoppable at the moment, he’s made a double-hundred and hundreds against us, so even though I didn’t see much of him in South Africa, I’ve seen enough of him now!

“The difference is he’s found his game a bit and he got regular opportunity. Now he’s playing consistently, week in, week out, every game for Wellington. It’s what some guys just need and I hope to see him do as well at the next level,” Walter, who left the Titans in 2016 after winning four trophies in three seasons, told kenborland.com

If New Zealand do go to Bangladesh in August then Conway, who will be 29, looks certain to go with them, having been cleared to play for his adopted country by the ICC last week. He will join fellow South African-born cricketer Neil Wagner, the left-arm fast bowler who has won the hearts of his new country with his determined displays. Other Saffer emigrants to play for New Zealand have been Grant Elliott and current Tuks coach Kruger van Wyk.

Conway has already been part of Black Caps training squads but will be competing with the likes of Tom Latham, Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor for a place in the NZ batting line-up.

But Wellington coach Glenn Pocknall said he would certainly co-sign Conway’s selection.

“He’s consistently out-performed all the players he’s competing with for the next level, and in some cases he’s out-performed guys who are incumbents in the Black Caps team. It’s pretty hard to ignore his sheer weight of runs.

“He’s pretty experienced for a guy who’s 28; he’s played 100 first-class games in New Zealand and South Africa. He’s played a heap of cricket and he’s such a cool customer regardless of the scenario.

“We played a final the other day and he produced again. He consistently steps up in those big matches and scores runs against very good bowlers. Going into an international set-up he wouldn’t be changing anything, he’d take it all in his stride and perform really well,” Pocknall told the stuff.co.nz website.