New Baby Boks coach wanted
The South African Rugby Union (SARU) announced this week that they will begin the process of appointing an SA Under-20 coach that will lead the Baby Boks for the next three years.
Applications will be sought for the position of the head coach and assistant coaches to cover the 2011, 2012 and 2013 IRB Junior World Championship competitions.
The appointment for a three-year term will allow the coach more time to ensure that the Baby Boks are not only competitive at the World Championship, but are victorious at the tournament.
SA junior sides last tasted success in an international junior tournament back in 2005 when both the SA U19s and SA U21s won the previously held IRB U19 and U21 competitions. Since 2008, the junior tournaments amalgamated and changed to an U20 tournament now known as the IRB Junior World Championship.
The new coach’s first role will be to identify a group players capable of representing the SA U20s at next year’s World Champs in Italy.
He will have the luxury of calling on players who have already tasted international rugby and have been exposed to SARU’s structures. More than 50 players currently forms part of SARU’s Elite Squads (U18 High Performance squads of 2009 and 2010).
Then there are players who are excelling in the current U19 and U21 South African inter-provincial tournaments who will also be eligible for selection for the forthcoming tournament.
This year’s U20s, under the leadership of head coach Eric Sauls and his assistants Nico Serfontein and Pine Pienaar earned the bronze medal during the IRB Junior World Championship held in Argentina.
They conceded two defeats, a Pool C loss to Australia (42-35) and a 36-7 semifinal defeat to New Zealand. The Baby Boks though eventually went on to defeat England (27-22) in their third-place playoff game.
In the 2009 tournament Sauls was assisted by Serfontein and Deon Davids while at the 2008 World Champs, Jerome Paarwater and Donald Ngwenya acted as Sauls’ assistants.
SARU are also in the process of finalising a couple of SA U19 international friendlies which are being planned for the month of November where the prospective coach could also build his team from.
