WP bosses hopeful Treu issue will be resolved

Cape Town - WP Rugby president Thelo Wakefield says the union is hopeful that the discord between assistant coach Paul Treu and the rest of the Stormers management team can be sorted out.

READ: Thelo Wakefield hits back at Corne Krige in open letter

Treu made headlines last week when it was reported that he had stormed out of a season review meeting.

The 47-year-old reportedly said he “has had enough of being treated poorly” and was “not going to take it anymore”.

It is believed that Treu and another of the Stormers' assistant coaches, New Zealander Paul Feeney, do not see eye to eye and that he also feels head coach Robbie Fleck does not value his input.

Netwerk24 reports that Wakefield, WP Rugby CEO Paul Zacks and director of rugby Gert Smal on Wednesday held a meeting with all the members of the Stormers coaching staff (Fleck, Feeney, Treu and Russell Winter) to discuss the matter.

According to Wakefield, the issue was “exaggerated” in the media and he believes the coaching quartet can continue working together.

“It was a fruitful meeting and was held in good spirits. All members have committed to finding solutions. The aim was to determine the facts. It was part of our season review,” Wakefield said.

The WP president added that the issue was an “internal matter” and that they have an “exceptional” group for next season.

Treu represented the Blitzboks between 1999-2003 after which he coached the national Sevens side from 2004-2013 during which time he oversaw the victorious World Rugby Sevens Series campaign of 2008/09.

Earlier this year, the Stormers shuffled the roles of their assistant coaches, while Fleck remained head coach.

Treu, formerly the team's defence coach, became the 'assistant coach for structural play'.

What it meant was that Treu coached the team until the third phase on attack, while on defence he took charge from first phase until the next set-piece.

Feeney, last season’s backline and skills coach, was put in charge of 'attack and defence from unstructured play'.

Winter, last season’s forwards coach, became assistant coach for 'forwards and contact situations'. This area included the 'breakdown'.

The changes were made to create more synergy between the coaching staff, the Stormers said.

The Stormers won only six out of 16 matches in this year's Super Rugby competition and failed to reach the playoffs.

The Cape side narrowly avoided the wooden-spoon in the South African Conference, pipping the Bulls on points differential.