Sharks looking for a new Super Rugby head coach

Sharks Director of Rugby Gary Gold has confirmed that the Durban Super Rugby franchise are looking for a new head coach to lead the team next season.

Gold says that he will be stepping back to focus more on the normal duties that a Director of Rugby focuses on such as the recruitment and development of players including the age level systems.

The Sharks boss says that they will not be advertising the position but they have started making a few approaches and that they have a couple of candidates in mind.

“I will focus on being a director of rugby, with a head coach coming in,” Gold told SuperSport.

“It was always my intention to be a director of rugby, that was what I understood I was employed to be, but it didn’t work out that way initially for various reasons. I won’t kid anyone, there is a heck of a lot of work that needs to be done, and some of the structures have been neglected and will take time to get right.

“I need to focus on getting the youth structures right to guarantee the pipeline of talent that a union needs to be successful, and there are already plans we are working on. We need to get the age-group teams to start performing, and next year there will be a lot more effort put into the Vodacom Cup campaign.

“As director I see it as my role to work with the various coaches employed by the Sharks across all levels to ensure that the style of rugby we want the union to be known for starts coming through and is understood by all the players.”

According to reports the Sharks have identified a forwards coach from outside South Africa but Gold would not give any indication of who they were targeting and that announcements would be made in due course.

“There won’t be a major restructuring and I wouldn’t call it a clean out, but there will be changes,” he said.

Gold said that after a troubled Super Rugby season he is expecting the Currie Cup season to be daunting as there will be a lot of pressure on the team to turn things around.

“I can’t pretend we are happy with the way the season has gone and we need to start getting things right during the coming Currie Cup season.”

“That is going to be a massive challenge as the Lions won’t be losing many, if any, players to the Springboks for the World Cup, we know there is a lot of depth at Western Province, and we saw what the Cheetahs, with their new coach, did to the Bulls in their last Super Rugby match.

Gold also said that he wanted to pay special attention to retaining players after they had lost Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis, together with Willem Alberts and Fred Zeilinga with rumours of Pieter-Steph du Toit eyeing up a return to Cape Town. Another player who has had interest from other teams is Bok loose-forward Marcell Coetzee.

“We are working very hard at keeping the other players that are rumoured to be going. It’s a complicated situation, and in some instances SA Rugby are involved in the negotiations,” said Gold.

“As you know there are new players that we have recruited that will be coming in next year. There will be a few more, but not many. ”

“I think right now the focus should be on keeping the players we have. As I have said, players like Bismarck du Plessis are impossible to replace, so we won’t be looking to do that. We need to back the young players and develop them.

“Yes, that will take time, but we know that professional rugby is an unforgiving business, so I can’t ask for patience. ”

“We are just going to have to get on with it and we are ready for the challenging times that still lie ahead for us. But at least we are now already well advanced with our wash up to the season and plans are already being put into place.”

Yesterday the Bulls announced that they are looking for a new Super Rugby coach and the Stormers are looking for a replacement for Allister Coetzee.

The Southern Kings will join Super Rugby in 2016 which means that four of the Six South African Super Rugby franchises are looking for coaches.