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To those still reeling at Lions coach Swys de Bruin’s sudden departure from the Super Rugby franchise this week, don’t be surprised if captain Warren Whiteley joins their coaching staff.
With the Lions making the terse and “confidential” announcement on Friday, De Bruin – who has been doing some Rugby World Cup punditry work on TV since leaving his consultancy post in the Springbok team – joined the ranks of Super Rugby coaches who have parted ways with their franchises in the silly season, a year before the end of his contract.
But amid all that coaching carnage at the Lions – Joey Mongalo and Bart Schoeman’s contracts have not been renewed – it has emerged that Whiteley could be the one new addition to the coaching staff.
A Lions insider said the former Springbok captain, whose knee injury ruled him out of the majority of Super Rugby and cost him a place in the World Cup team, has been a regular attendee at coaches’ meetings. Another source said he had heard that Whiteley was in talks with the Lions about hanging up his boots in favour of a coach’s tracksuits.
The speculation is given credence by the fact that there is no exact prognosis on when his knee will be ready for him to play again, Whiteley assisting the Golden Lions’ coaching staff during this year’s Currie Cup, and his close relationship with the man most likely to replace De Bruin, Ivan “Cash” van Rooyen.
Lions chief executive Rudolf Straeuli said Whiteley was “still in his rehabilitation phase” and there were “no decisions yet”. The man himself, speaking at a rugby event last week, said his only focus was on getting over his niggling knee injury.
“Obviously I coached in Currie Cup and I loved that and it’s something that I definitely want to do after I stop playing,” he said. “But I’m still doing my rehab and physio and taking it slow. I saw a specialist and it’s going to take a while, but obviously the plan would still be to play again.
Read: Boks are missing Swys at World Cup, says Whiteley
“Coaching is something that I’ll always develop in until I stop one day, but the big focus is getting my knee right.”
Asked if the talk doing the rounds about him stopping playing and taking up coaching sooner was not true, he said: “It’s difficult as I haven’t got an answer yet on how long my knee can take, but my focus is my rehab and getting my knee right.
“It’s challenging mentally, so I’m taking it day by day and that’s why it’s difficult to answer your question but my focus is on getting it right.”
Whiteley explained why his injury was so difficult to shake: “I don’t have cartilage so any time I walk or jog it’s pretty much pressure straight on my bone. So I’ve got bone bruising and I had that operation, and it has improved significantly from the operation.
“But it’s obviously going to take a bit of time – the specialist couldn’t give me a time when I will be right again.”
Another rugby insider explained that Whiteley turning to coaching could be attractive to the Lions by using the example of former Lions and Springbok tighthead prop Julian Redelinghuys, who turned to scrum coaching after etiring suddenly due to a neck injury.
According to reports the union pays the player for the first six months of his injury, then medical insurance kicks in for the next year, meaning the Lions would effectively have Whiteley coaching for “free” for most of his first year as coach.
That said, Van Rooyen could still prevail upon his friend – whose specialty as a coach has yet to be identified – to take pain injections and carry on as captain while he finds his feet as a Super Rugby head coach (Van Rooyen has only coached for two Currie Cup seasons from being a conditioning coach).
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