Newly-appointed Junior Springbok assistant coach Melusi Mthethwa is set on getting the side back on track by teaching them how to find a way to win.
Mthethwa joined Kevin Foote and Lumumba Currie to form the Junior Boks’ new coaching group following a tough couple of seasons for the young internationals.
This season, the Junior Boks lamented their disappointing finish in the World Rugby Under-20 Championship as they failed to reach the semi-finals for only the second time. What made matters even worse was the fact that this went down on home soil.
But if Mthethwa had his way, this slump wouldn't continue for much longer.
His addition to the Junior Bok set-up is an exciting one given his attack and backline expertise, but apart from those focuses, Mthethwa - who has worked with the Cheetahs, Griquas, Shimlas, NWU Puk, Leopards, CUT and Free State Under-19 and 20 sides (head coach) - wants the young group to chisel their way back to top form by using the proper tools.
“We are going to play quick, but obviously have the principles around that. We South African boys are strong, we are tough, so that decision-making in terms of when you go wide is important," Mthethwa said in Stellenbosch ahead of the SA Rugby Under-19 Academy camps.
I said to them today 'we are going to find a way. We will find a way to win'. That’s something we are going to teach them – finding a way to win.
Mthethwa also explained that ensuring that their decision-making, reaction, and execution speed are strong ranks right up there in terms of his check-list items.
We are developing clutch players in terms of making decisions and being able to have the wisdom to make decisions that are good decisions for the team and setting principles. When we offload…why are we offloading, who are we offloading to. We want to work with the principles of attack…you know, your support play, continuity, making decisions. That is the most important thing for me.
We need to applaud the skillset and making decisions, getting them to understand that they are in control and that they need to play the game. We need to encourage them to play quick and fast. We talk about intermittent lightning speed.
While Mthethwa has a well worked out list of what he wants to achieve in his new set-up in terms of the technical and performance-related side of things, rugby isn't the only area he wants to see his players achieve growth in.
The first thing for me is I always say ‘before you coach, that (player) is a human being’. So, that is the first point; just focus on the boys and where they are coming from and who they are. There is a saying that no man is an island, and that is so true, there is a story behind the boys. Then [we want to] set the standard because it is important to say ‘who are we?' and 'who do you want to be?’, and then we include them in that. Then we can take it from there…we include them because those are the values and the principles that we are going to lay down.
We want to develop these young men to be the next Springboks and to be able to get there and to have the values to be good fathers one day, so that is going to be very important. So, I think if that is in place…you know how they say a good rugby player is a good human being, that’s where we want to get to.
On what he is most looking forward to in his new role, Mthethwa added: “I am just looking forward to seeing the boys do well. Obviously, we have got a huge job representing the country and we are very fortunate, we aren’t taking it lightly".
So, I am just looking forward to getting the boys to play beautiful rugby and to enjoy what they are doing. Also, we want them to leave here with values and principles, so that they we meet them, they are good men for their wives and their mothers, and also for South Africa. If I can achieve that, I will be happy.
