Deon Davids' compelling insight into Southern Kings' chaos and why there aren't many coaches of colour at pro level in South Africa
There were times during his four arduous years in charge of the Southern Kings that Deon Davids must have felt like he was caught in some sort of grotesque rugby groundhog day.
A perpetual and maddening cycle of losing his best players and most experienced staff to bigger teams and replacing them with untested kids. Months of nurturing and grafting undone and a mountainous rebuild required every off-season, with only the paltriest of resources to make it happen.
In 2017, their third and last season in Super Rugby, the Kings stole hearts for the way they attacked and the scalps they took, even while the axe of SANZAAR was hanging over their heads.
They beat the Waratahs and the Jaguares on the road and got the better of the Sharks at home, finishing 11th – their best placing. It was the only year Davids had anything approaching stability or continuity – no coincidence that it was the only year his team made any sort of splash or gave any kind of reflection of his considerable talents as a coach.
After two torrid campaigns in the PRO14, the franchise was taken over by new owners in March. With a year left on his contract, Davids was ready to go.
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“In the past four years with the Kings, I only had one year where I could actually build on a squad, select a squad, and have continuity with my coaching and support staff,” he explained to RugbyPass.
“That was in 2017 and we had a fantastic season. Apart from that, within my two PRO14 years, I never had that privilege. I lost some quality staff to the national set-up, so I had to get new staff who were inexperienced and it takes time to build a specific culture around your management.
“What made it even more difficult was the squad – there was no continuity in the squad and I had to rebuild every year. The European PRO14 teams have excellent high-performance academies.
“Their match-day 23s are filled with international players and stars from overseas. In my case, when you start all over again, it takes time to build a culture, to build combinations and to prepare a solid base in terms of preparation and conditioning.”
After being booted out of Super Rugby, the Kings were gutted, players gobbled up by bigger beasts on juicier contracts, leaving because no-one knew if the franchise would exist or in which competition it would play in a few months’ time.
Their captain and top points scorer, Lionel Cronje, went to Japan. Makazole Mapimpi, now a regular Springbok, and Malcolm Jaer scored 17 of their 49 tries – both were taken by the Cheetahs.
Deon Davids takes chargehttps://t.co/i5DQk6XIU3 pic.twitter.com/ZbslMIB8zq
— Southern Kings (@SouthernKingsSA) August 15, 2017
To rub salt into the wounds, Mapimpi would score 10 tries the following season. Off too went Wandile Mjekevu, Waylon Murray, Tyler Paul, Schalk van der Merwe, Chris Cloete and Louis Schreuder – all key members of their Super Rugby campaign.
Davids was left with 15 players. His own contractual situation was only clarified around a month before the PRO14 started and, incredibly, training began just 18 days before the first competitive game.
He knew it would be brutal, but he didn’t know all the work he’d put in over this bruising inaugural season would be torpedoed a year later. Another exodus struck in 2018. Twenty-one players were gone, coaches moved on, Davids scrambled to put a team and staff together, and to create a culture from nothing.
Southern Kings are absolutely bloody useless. Like really useless. Worse than a chocolate fire guard. At least you could eat that!
— Pen (@thepenGW) May 27, 2016
Overall results have been predictably heinous. In 42 PRO14 matches, the Kings have three victories. They have conceded an average of 37 points per game and had an eye-watering 226 tries stuck past them.
How could a franchise operating on this basis possibly hope to compete with even the most modest or the least fancied PRO14 sides? You could have replaced Davids with Steve Hansen, Warren Gatland or Joe Schmidt and each would have had a hell of a job getting the Kings off the bottom of their conference.
“It’s very, very difficult, mentally and physically tiring,” said Davids. “You have got to set the scene as a coach every single day. Irrespective of the challenges you face, you have got to create something the players can hang on to. That takes a lot of strain.
? REACTION ?
Our Director of High Performance, Robbi Kempson, has welcomed the "tough matches" that await our lads this coming season.
"I’m quite confident that the squad and the coaching staff will relish the challenge.”
Read more: https://t.co/gcuc4Pihx6 pic.twitter.com/Z6wB3UgssX— Southern Kings (@SouthernKingsSA) July 17, 2019
“You just come to the point when you get things right and get things going, then you get a setback and you have to start all over again. It’s difficult to start all over again every year because you want to be part of something that you can see growing from one year to the next, where you can see people and the environment getting better. If that doesn’t happen, it is desperately frustrating.
“You’re also under a lot of pressure and you can’t actually showcase what you can do because of that. It’s out of your control – not that I’m trying to make excuses, but if you look at the whole picture, it’s immensely difficult.
“Last year, we didn’t even play a friendly game before the PRO14 started as a result of injury and budget constraints. You have got to get a feeling of your players and combinations. And while we are playing in the PRO14, no other domestic competition is running in South Africa.
“Our Rugby Committee has shortlisted candidates who will be interviewed by the interview panel for the Head Coach position, and the interviewing process has commenced." – Chairman, Loyiso Dotwana
— Southern Kings (@SouthernKingsSA) July 11, 2019
“I can’t introduce the rest of the squad to other competitions to see how they develop, so I only select the players going on training sessions. Match fitness and training are two completely different things. And keeping guys positive becomes a challenge – it’s not good for a player just to come and train and he is not playing on the weekend.”
More than three months on from their last game, the cycle of chaos continues. Remarkably – although perhaps unsurprisingly – the Kings have still to appoint Davids’ successor, and the quest for the new man is playing out in a ridiculously ugly and ramshackle manner.
The shortlist of candidates was made public on social media by an Eastern Province official. Peter de Villiers, the former Springboks coach and one of the men on it, came out firing on Tuesday after reports claimed he wasn’t qualified for the job, Worcester’s Rory Duncan has apparently ruled himself out of the running, and the South African press says Steve Jackson, the Samoa coach, is the last candidate standing – even though he’s about to lead the Pacific Islanders in the World Cup finals.
This is turning into quite a mess. https://t.co/QyNLO3qn8c
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 30, 2019
Yet again, the Kings will start their PRO14 season light years behind the rest and quite possibly coach-less. The odds on them finishing anywhere but the bottom of their conference are astronomical.
Davids has emerged from all the tumult a better coach and a cannier person. He knew the Kings job would present a monumental challenge, but if that was what it took to get a crack at Super Rugby, then he was prepared to tackle it.
As a coach, Davids has always been adept at making a little go a long way. In truth, he has never known much else. Coming up the hard way in the Western Cape, he began coaching at club level, working his way up to assistant and head coach roles at three provincial teams where he was part of two Currie Cup First Division titles in among stints helping the Emerging Springboks and South Africa Under-20s before moving to Port Elizabeth in 2016.
? BREAKING NEWS ?
Deon Davids and the ISUZU Southern Kings have reached an amicable agreement to part ways.
The franchise would like to thank Coach DD for laying the foundation for the future.
We wish him well for his future.
Read more: https://t.co/NiUkrTpjuQ pic.twitter.com/dRI5SejJ5L— Southern Kings (@SouthernKingsSA) June 19, 2019
Rassie Erasmus, South Africa’s director of rugby, is said to be one of his biggest champions. The Cheetahs expressed an interest in hiring Davids to replace Franco Smith this year, but it never happened. He applied and was interviewed for the Bulls job in Afrikaans country, but that went to Pote Human.
In cataloguing Davids’ long pathway to recognition and Super Rugby, there is an elephant in the room. He has no evidence that his ascent has been consciously made more difficult because of the colour of his skin, but as the only black coach in charge of any of the six franchises last season, and with only four black assistants across those teams, the aesthetics are not good.
“It’s difficult for me to say that I have been deliberately overlooked (for certain jobs), but what I can say is that if you look back at my career, it’s always been a career of having to get used to less and having to compete at the top level,” he insisted.
https://twitter.com/theyellowcap/status/1072412865632657413
“When I coached from Currie Cup onwards, the teams I’ve been involved in, it was always a situation of having to build from nowhere and mould teams into something special, which is a struggle.
“I would love to have an opportunity where I can walk into a franchise with enough resources, be able to put my hands on quality players, and just play on an equal level in terms of what I can do. Unfortunately, I haven’t had that opportunity up until now.
“If you look back at our country, you can almost see that happens a lot easier (for white coaches) because there are not a lot of coaches of colour at this level. I’m the second or third that got an opportunity at Super Rugby level and the first to have an opportunity at PRO14 level. It’s difficult for me to say that it is deliberately the case, but that is the trend. That happens in our country. That is the picture that is out there.”
Rassie Erasmus says nothing should be read into Deon Davids joining the @Springboks to observe training sessions. pic.twitter.com/XlwrSNfP7Z
— SA Rugby magazine (@SARugbymag) July 17, 2019
In his time since leaving the Kings, Davids has been shadowing Erasmus in the Springboks camp, eager to use the rare gaps in his diary to better himself. He is keen to test his abilities in the northern hemisphere but his great dream is to lead the Boks.
The word from South Africa is that Erasmus will step back to his director of rugby role after the World Cup, which might leave the head coach’s role vacant. “It’s the most difficult position in the world,” said Davids.
“But if you have come through so much hard work and challenges that I’ve faced, being in Super Rugby, being in the PRO14, having been involved in three Junior World Championship campaigns as an assistant, being with the Emerging Springboks, having coached at the domestic level in the Currie Cup and Vodacom Cup – all the levels in South Africa. That’s the only box I haven’t ticked and I’m confident I would be able to slot in there.
“I’ve got a good understanding of the players, a good knowledge of those players – a lot of them I’ve worked with at junior level – so if the opportunity is there, and they would consider me, I would be confident that I could make that step up and make a contribution.”
Amid all of this, Davids has never forgotten his roots. He is visiting clubs around the Western Cape, eager to smooth the path for the next batch of black coaches. “I understand what these guys feel and fear,” he explained.
“I said to them, ‘I’ve been through this whole reel, you don’t have to go through the same 360 degrees that I have – I can make it shorter for you. I’m here to assist and give you some advice and make you look differently at stuff’.
“If I can do that and inspire and bring through some aspirant black coaches or whoever wants to listen and learn, I will do that with an open heart. That’s my passion, that’s my heart and I love to do that.”
WATCH: Episode three of the RugbyPass Rugby Explorer series sees Jim Hamilton take a trek through South African rugby, including a stop-off in Port Elizabeth
Comments on RugbyPass
I've never been convinced that Patty T is a test match all black. Otherwise I probably agree it's the best side available to beat the poms. Caveat that Codie Taylor is yet to be seen and could very likely warrant selection by June. I hope that Razor brings the young loosies, half backs and locks into the training squad and develops/ selects the best
7 Go to commentsYou doing the same thing I disliked about the example of Samisoni Taukei'aho, Nick. He’s great the way he is, you’re trying to do what modern-day coaches frustrate me doing, turning everyone into the perfect athlete. Next thing you’ll be telling me you’ll bench him until he’s hit that arbitrary marker, and can’t overtake the current guy who’s doing all his workons. He’s a young Kieran Read, through and through, plays wide and has threat, mainly (and evident in your clips) through his two hand carry and speed. Just let him work on that, or whatever he wants, and determine his own future. Play God and you risk the players going sideways, like Read did, instead of being a Toutai Kefu. I mean I was in the same camp for a while, wanting our tight five to have the size, and carry ability, as the teams they were getting beat by. Now I’m starting to believe those teams just have better skilled and practiced individuals, bigger by upwards of 5kg sometimes, sure, but more influentially they have those intrinsic skills of trust and awareness. Basically our guys just didn’t know wtf they were doing. Don’t think I’m trying to prove a point here but hasn’t Caleb Clarke been in much better form this year, or does he just ‘look’ better now that he’s not always trying to use his size?
43 Go to commentsThe pack lacks a little in height for the line out and I wouldn’t be completely convinced by some of the combinations till we see it in action.
7 Go to commentsThe side is good but lacks experience. International playing bona fides udually trumps super rugby form for good reason. And incumbents are usually stuck with. Codie Taylor should start or come off the bench. B Barrett will start at fullback. Blackadder has not earned the position, Finau has. TJs experience and competitiveness earns him a starting role, Christie or Ratima off the bench
7 Go to commentsPretty good side. Scott Barrett should be the captain. Ethan Blackadder a great choice at blindside. He is going to go from strength to strength having made a couple of starts for the Crusaders. Scott Robertson rates him highly. Perenara could start a no 9.
7 Go to commentsI question and with respect. Was enough done over the last few years to bring through new blood knowing the Whitelocks and co couldn’t last forever. There should have been more done to future proof the team. New squad new coach, he and they weren’t set up well. IMO
6 Go to commentsJacobsen will definitely be in the 23
7 Go to commentsLots of discussion points, Ben, but two glaring follies IMO: 1. Blackadder at 6. Has done nothing so far this season to justify his selection. Did you see him going backwards in contact at the weekend? Simply has not got the physical presence at 6: we need a Scott Barrett or a Finau (or wildcard Ah Kuoi), beasts who are big enough to play lock, like Frizzell. If Barret played at 6, Paddy could be joined at lock by Vai’i or one of the young giants we need to promote, like Darry or Lord (if he ever gets on the field). Blackadder best left to join the queue for 7. 2. Not even a mention for Christie? Ratima gets caught at crucial times at the back of the ruck when he hesitates on the pass. The only way he starts would be if Christie and TJ are injured.
7 Go to commentsWhat a dagg in more ways than one
6 Go to commentsRegroup come back next year but sack some of the coaching team and don't be like the ABs last minute sacking. If Crusaders don't do well ABs don't do well.
5 Go to commentsProctor Definitely inform again this year had a hell of a season last year and this year is looking even better. Still mixed feelings about Ioane tho.
4 Go to commentsDagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
6 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
5 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to comments