The men from Cape Town dished out a shockingly amateurish performance against a well below par GWK Griquas side this past Saturday in their Currie Cup encounter and in the end had to be content with a draw. True to form, Allister Coetzee dished out the same excuses that have become his trademark response after failing to win games. Coetzee was quoted in an Afrikaans newspaper as saying that they learnt a lot from the Griquas game and would take that forward into the next encounter. This sequence of events is as common as a winter cold and the supporters would like someone to flip the vinyl and change the record. The brain trust at this union has to understand that their loyal fan base is fed-up with the team losing, claiming they’ve seen the error of their ways and repeating the same mistakes the next week.

The player intrusted with the captain’s armband, Deon Fourie had a shocker of a game and lost five lineouts on his own throw. In his defence, his task was made considerably tougher by Hilton Lobberts and De Kock Steenkamp’s inability to time their jumps. (more…)

Stormers coach Allister Coetzee pronounced himself hugely satisfied with Saturday’s big 54-12 win over the Western Force in the opening Geo Africa Tri-Series game at Newlands.

The Stormers scored seven tries, six of them in the first half, and completely swamped the Australian franchise in the first quarter. However, the excitement needs to be tempered with the knowledge that the Force fielded what amounted to a B team for this match, with most of the first choices only being introduced in the second half.

“It is not time for us to jump up and down with excitement, and we have to make sure we keep our feet on the ground,” said Coetzee.

“I said beforehand that it was about ticking the little boxes, and that the process is the most important thing here. I just want us to be 100% when we play the Lions in the first Super 14 game in February. But our performance was fine. It was good to get it together playing under the intensity, pressure and physicality exerted by the Force.”

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The Golden Lions Rugby Union Chief Executive Manie Reyneke have revealed that he has eight World-class coaches’ CVs on his desk – from New Zealand, Australia and England.

Media speculation has named White’s former Springbok assistant coach and current Western Province mentor Allister Coetzee as the front-runner for the position of Super 14 head coach.

However, Reyneke has dismissed the suggestion that they have already decided on a Director of Rugby, the position they advertised this week.

“The applications only close on Friday [October 9],” Reyneke said on Thursday.

“I have eight world class CVs on my desk – from New Zealand, Australia and England. There are also some very, very good applications from within South Africa,” he added.

Reyneke declined to name any names.

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