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Percy Montgomery’s big fear ahead of the Springboks vs the All Blacks
By Jon Newcombe
First Aled Walters, then Leon MacDonald and now Felix Jones. It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks in the rugby coaching world.
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Over the weekend, England’s defence coach Jones handed in his resignation just 10 months after joining the Red Rose set-up from South Africa.
Jones’ decision follows on from Walters’ announcement that he was leaving England for Ireland as Head of S&C.
Rumours suggest the primary reason Jones wants out, just when his blitz defensive system was starting to bear fruit, is down to an unstable coaching environment.
And according to former Springbok full-back Percy Montgomery, the star guest on this week’s episode of Boks Office, Jones couldn’t have timed his exit better – as long as the RFU don’t invoke the 12-month notice period in his contract.
“If there is a time to do it, the time is now. The next World Cup is coming and you want to get your coaching team together, that plays as you want,” he said.
New Zealand, meanwhile, were very clear that a lack of alignment in coaching philosophy was to blame for MacDonald leaving Scott Robertson’s All Blacks coaching team.
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Now that MacDonald has gone, two other assistants, Scott Hansen and Tamati Ellison, will take on additional responsibilities as the All Blacks prepare for their biggest challenge of the year, against the world champion Springboks in Johannesburg on Saturday.
How long that arrangement will continue is unclear but for however long the All Blacks attack coach role remains vacant, Springbok supporters, Montgomery included, will be on edge.
Brown has designs on working with the All Blacks in the future, recently saying: “One day, maybe I might coach the All Blacks – I don’t know. I just want to be part of this coaching set-up and the Springboks over the next four years.”
Montgomery, for one, is hoping that he sees out the remainder of his contract: “I just hope Tony Brown doesn’t go to New Zealand and we keep him here. I played with Tony Brown when he was at the Sharks, when he was fly-half there. He’s a great guy and I can see his contribution to South African rugby, with the attacking.”
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While Springboks rugby is riding the crest of an attacking wave under Brown, it was a different story when he and Montgomery toured Australia together with the Natal Sharks.
Speaking with Boks Office presenter Hanyani ‘Shimmy’ Shimange and fellow pundits Jean de Villers and Schalk Burger, he tells the story of the time when Brown was all at sea.
“We stayed at the Manly Pacific in Sydney, and the Sunday after the game vs New South Wales, we went for lunch and maybe we had one or two beers,” he said.
“Walking back to the hotel – in those days he had those curly blonde locks and I thought he was a surfer – I said, ‘hey Tony, ‘the waves are pretty cool, shall we go for a surf?’ So we grab our boards, paddle out, and I can’t find him. I catch a wave back in and there he is, bleeding.
“I had to take him to the doctor for stitches. I never knew he couldn’t surf.”
Episode 20 of Boks Office will be available to watch on RugbyPass TV later today (Tuesday).