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SA Rugby boss unhappy over racial make-up of SA Super Rugby coaches

Cape Town - SA Rugby president Mark Alexander says the governing body is unhappy with the racial make-up of South Africa's Super Rugby coaching teams.

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Ahead of the 2020 season, there is no black head coach in charge of a South African franchise, with John Dobson (Stormers), Pote Human (Bulls), Ivan van Rooyen (Lions) and Sean Everitt (Sharks) in charge of the four teams.

Alexander was speaking at last Friday’s Springbok coaching announcement where he said more pressure would be applied to the franchises to afford opportunities to black coaches.

"We’re not happy with the make-up of the franchise coaching teams, even though I'm happy with the look of the Springbok coaching group. All the coaches that have come through, they're from our system," Alexander said.

The current Springbok coaching team consists of Rassie Erasmus (director of rugby), Jacques Nienaber (head coach), Mzwandile Stick (assistant coach), Deon Davids (assistant coach), Felix Jones (assistant coach) and Daan Human (Scrum consultant) - with only two of the six of colour.

"We have to put pressure on our PRO14 and Super Rugby franchises because they’re not bringing through the coaches," Alexander added.

In terms of the PRO14, Hawies Fourie is coach of the Cheetahs, while Rob Kempson is the interim coach at the Southern Kings.

Erasmus also added his voice to the issue.

"We would like to see more coaches of colour coming through, but we unfortunately don’t have control over that, just like we can’t tell them who to appoint as chief executive officer. They run their own franchises.

"I know, when speaking to the coaches at the franchises, with the Sharks being an example, they're really committed to transformation but I agree with you when you say the head coaches don't currently reflect transformation. That does make it tough for us to get guys into the national set-up because the pipeline is slightly messed up."

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