Why Dave Wessels chose the Rebels over Munster

The Rebels coaching staff of Dave Wessels and Kevin Foote took some time out of their preparations to join The Late Tackle for a catch-up.

At the 21 minute mark of the show, co-host Anton ‘Worms’ van Zyl asks head coach Wessels about his potential move to Munster following the axing of the Western Force at the end of the 2017 Super Rugby season.

“Obviously with the way things panned out for the Force, it was well documented that you were approached by Munster. Some people said it’s a done deal. You ended up going to the Rebels,” van Zyl said.

“You spoke earlier about UCT [University of Cape Town], about thriving while being the underdog, that sort of ‘us versus them’, creating that connection and team culture, collective synergy.

“Was that a big incentive for you to come to Melbourne where rugby union is on the back foot in comparison with AFL and rugby league?” van Zyl asked.

“I think there’s something special about Super Rugby,” Wessels answered. “First of all Australian rugby has been a hell of a good thing for us, like would I be the head coach of a South African franchise, would I have been two or three years ago, probably not.”

“They’ve shown a hell of a lot of faith in me and I just thought the going got a bit tough, it’d be the wrong thing just to bail on them.

“To be involved in Super Rugby is special.

“People just forget that the Rebels are only a handful of years old. It’s like a startup, which is also exciting because there’s no rules.

“Whatever we create there we can pass on to Rebels of the future.

“It’s like any startup, we’ve been through some iterations, we’ve had some stuff-ups along the way but it’s time for us now to grow up a little bit. That’s the exciting thing.

“We’ve got some unbelievable players, we’ve got some great coaches, we’ve got a lot of good things.

“We came last last year, the team won one game. It’s a great challenge, it’s not going to happen in five minutes, there will be some disappointments along the way but it’s an exciting place to be.”

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