Bulls brainstrust for Springboks
SARU announced on Friday that an agreement has been reached which allows them to negotiate with four coaches employed by the Blue Bulls, with coach Heyneke Meyer’s support staff set to be revealed on Sunday.
The new Springbok mentor hit a snag in assembling his management team, as the coaches that he wants to involve are still under contract with his former union the Bulls, but it would appear that he now has the green light to sign them up.
SARU will hold a press conference on Sunday at which they will update the media on the the appointment of a Springbok management team and other SARU appointments, with whom negotiations remain ongoing.
This means that it is very likely that Meyer will be able to unveil Bulls fitness trainer Basil Carzis as his conditioning expert, Bulls defence specialist John McFarland as his defensive consultant, and Bulls assistant coaches Johann van Graan and Ricardo Loubscher as his forwards and backline coaches respectively.
The highly-respected Van Graan has been in charge of the powerful Bulls forward pack for some time, starting under Meyer’s reign and continuing under Frans Ludeke.
Former Springbok outside back Loubscher joined the Bulls coaching staff in 2007 when he took over from Todd Louden who moved back to Australia, and has coached the Blue Bulls Vodacom Cup backline since Pieter Rossouw joined the union.
The English-born McFarland has won three Super Rugby titles and four Currie Cups at his time with the Pretoria franchise, and the former London Irish boss even followed Meyer to Leicester when he took charge of the Tigers.
Carzis was lined up by the Springboks last year ahead of the World Cup, with vice-captain Victor Matfield particularly desperate to get him involved, and it would appear that he will finally be able to make that move.
Unconfirmed reports in the media have suggested that SARU had to fork out R2.5-million to the Blue Bulls for the quartet to be made available.
