Smal to stay on as forwards coach

AFTER MONTHS of speculation linking him with the vacant position of Springboks’ head coach, which is to be filled in the next fortnight, Gert Smal is set to remain part of the Irish management rather than return to his native country.

The Irish forwards’ coach has been strongly linked with the Springboks job, with several South African media outlets describing him as the overwhelming favourite to succeed Pieter de Villiers, but Smal is intent on seeing out the remainder of his contract which expires at the end of the 2012-13 season.

The normally porous South African Rugby Union have maintained there will be no comment until the process is completed, and the only name known to be on their short-list at present is outgoing head coach Pieter de Villiers.

SARU’s 12-man executive council, whose chief executive Jurie Roux has been empowered to headhunt the preferred candidates, will meet on January 26th to finalise the selection process before their recommendation is expected to be ratified by SARU’s Special General Council meeting 24 hours later – Friday week.

Initial speculation was that Western Province coach Allister Coetzee would be appointed and that he would be assisted by Rassie Erasmus. However, Erasmus has revealed that he will leave Western Province later this month, with some of the South African media speculating that he is set to join Nick Mallett as technical assistant with England after the Six Nations.

It’s been suggested that Roux has been to Dublin to interview Smal, who also returned to Cape Town with his family on leave over Christmas, but IRFU sources have said there has been no indication Smal would be leaving, certainly not before the upcoming Six Nations.

Sources in South African rugby say that ideally the newly installed head coach would start work “asap”, even though the Springboks squad won’t get together until June 3rd in readiness for the first of a dozen matches in 2012, in Durban against England on June 9th. As to whether the new man mightn’t start until, say, after the Six Nations, that “wouldn’t necessarily be a disaster”.

However, it is believed that Smal is not of a mind to break his contract nor, with his son and daughter happily placed in schools here, move his family.

With Alan Gaffney’s duties as backs’ coach being inherited by defensive coach Les Kiss and kicking coach Mark Tainton, and Declan Kidney in the frame for the Lions’ job in 2013 along with Warren Gatland and Andy Robinson (and the Lions are again grandiosely insisting that whoever is chosen cannot be otherwise employed for the preceding season), losing the highly regarded Smal would have been a big blow.

The IRFU have also interviewed a shortlist of four to succeed the departing Paul McNaughton as Irish team manager, with an announcement expected to be made this week.

However, it is understood that one of the quartet, former Munster manager Jerry Holland, will not be taking up the role due to work commitments.

The vacancy for the position of strength and conditioning coach to the Irish team is unlikely to be filled before the Six Nations.

As the union’s head of fitness, Philip Morrow had also filled in that role during the World Cup before departing to Saracens, and pending the appointment of a new head of fitness, the strength and conditioning duties during the Six Nations are likely to be shared by the provincial fitness coaches.

Kidney will today announce a squad of 30 or so for a five-day training camp in Limerick from next Monday, as well as a 22-man squad for the Irish Wolfhounds’ game against the English Saxons in Exeter on Saturday week.

However, as the latter is a quasi trial there is liable to be some fluidity between those squads come the opening match against Wales at the Aviva on Sunday, January 12th, so unlike his counterparts Kidney will not be unveiling a Six Nations’ squad per se today.

The composition of the backs is liable to be very similar to the World Cup, with Luke Fitzgerald’s form set to earn him a recall although, sidelined since St Stephen’s Day, he again missed training yesterday.

In the absence of Brian O’Driscoll, the only specialist contender for that vacancy, Darren Cave, was yesterday ruled out for up to six weeks with a cruelly timed ligament injury in his foot which he sustained in Ulster’s stunning 41-7 win over Leicester last Friday, thus sidelining him for their stand-out shoot-out in Clermont next Saturday. Thus, the odds that Keith Earls or Tommy Bowe will wear number 13 against Wales have hardened.

With Denis Leamy joining David Wallace on the sidelines, the established trio of Stephen Ferris, Seán O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip will need back-up, be it from Shane Jennings again and, perhaps, one of the young players emerging who can cover the back-row, namely Munster’s Peter O’Mahony, Leinster’s Rhys Ruddock and Ulster’s Chris Henry.

The second-row contenders have been strengthened by the form of Mike McCarthy, Dan Tuohy and Ryan Caldwell at Bath, but the propping cupboard is, once again, not exactly over-flowing.