Kavaliers put faith in Loffie
11 Nov 2009
Boland have appointed former Lions coach Loffie Eloff as their new director of rugby.
It will be Eloff’s first coaching appointment since being axed as Lions coach after the Super 14, where they ended 12th.
Boland CEO Piet Bergh said he hoped Eloff would have an impact at all age-groups across the union.
‘Loffie will be heavily involved with coaching at Boland, and will also have influence over all the provincial sides at the union,’ Bergh told keo.co.za.
Eloff replaces Chester Williams, who couldn’t save the union from relegation from the Currie Cup premier division. Under Williams they only won one game, in their promotion/relegation scrap with the Pumas in Wellington. A week later they were hammered 40-3 in Witbank.
‘Chester won’t be involved with Boland anymore,’ said Bergh, ‘but I won’t say it was a failure. He always only had a two-month contract until the end of October.
‘He was one of the coaches we interviewed for the director role, but the board decided on Loffie.’
Williams’s involvement didn’t produce the desired results, while it also has the union embroiled in a legal battle with coach Deon Davids. Davids only learnt of Williams’s appointment minutes before he arrived at training, and he is now suing the union for R1million.
‘I’m not sure whether Deon will coach with us next year, Loffie will make the decisions about management staff,’ said Bergh.
After being relegated, the Kavaliers lost many players, but Bergh was positive Eloff could nurture the talent at his disposal, which includes two Argentines Eusebio Guinazu and Santiago Fernandez.
‘If you lose out in the Currie Cup, of course you’ll lose players. But you have to question whether some of those players were good enough if we didn’t survive. Of course we’re not happy to lose all of them, but the new coach has influence to pick those players he wants.
‘This is a new beginning for Boland.’
By Grant Ball
36 Comments
11 Nov 2009, 11:45 am
Good Luck Loffie……………I like this dragon. Tells it like it is.
11 Nov 2009, 12:05 pm
For your sake Loffie, I hope the club president never hires the services of a certain world cup winning coach and his side kicks.
Good luck mate, No buddy, buddy relationships with the players and all that kak that landed you in trouble the first time.
Loffie has got an eye for young talent though and if there are any promising youngsters in the boland region, he’ll spot them and give them opportunities.
11 Nov 2009, 12:19 pm
what a sad day for boland rugby when they have to resort to importing gauteng trash.
11 Nov 2009, 12:20 pm
Jinne! desparate times for Boland!
Altho, maybe Loffie does a Ludeke (or more like a Straeuli) and does some good work in that position?
Remember fitness Loffie, the okes must be fit
Sterkte Boland, en sterkte Loffie
11 Nov 2009, 12:26 pm
#4 bokfan1: Bwahahahahaha oh stop it. Loffie is a victim of the bad publicicty induced by Jake the snake and his conniving ways
11 Nov 2009, 12:33 pm
So the guy who appointed Deon Davids and then ‘sacked’ him and appointed Chester, is that the same guy who appointed Loffie? Shouldn’t he be fired?
11 Nov 2009, 12:43 pm
#2 Jozi: Good luck Loffie.
Chester dropped allot of the experienced guys at boland to play the maties second stringers, just because they have WP contracts. Why not pic the varsity cup players. Im sure Loffie will not make the same mistakes and pic the best players available.
A few of the players from the Boland CC squad before chester took over will play for maties varsity cup. When they played for boland, they didnt loose by 70 points. Chester screwed up anouther team.
Best of luck Loffie…
11 Nov 2009, 12:50 pm
I cant see this going well! A poor coach with even worse players than were at the Lions! Recipe for disaster.
Chester didnt last long at all! Clearly did nothing for them. Cant say we didnt expect it, he’s always been a rubbish coach.
11 Nov 2009, 12:57 pm
I wonder whether Loffie sold them the same “Give me three years and i will build a championship team” bulls..t. Lions bought it, so not sure why Boland wouldnt….
I dont rate him at all. Hope he proves me wrong at Boland.
11 Nov 2009, 13:07 pm
Technically Loffie isnt bad but I dont think he knows how to manage professional players properly!
11 Nov 2009, 13:51 pm
loffie sold the poor unsuspecting bolanders a five year plan that he will get them from the first division into the currie cup!eish!
11 Nov 2009, 14:19 pm
#10 Lions_Soutie: Sorry mate, but that makes him a bad coach in my books.
11 Nov 2009, 14:36 pm
The hand of WP, or rather Stormers administration is heavy in here.
Suspect Rassie, who forged a similar relationship between the Griffons and Cheetahs years back had something to do with this.
I believe Boland will be incorporated into a greater Western Cape union or rather, Stormers structure.
Expect a lot of WP youngsters to turn out for Boland and a lot of player swopping doing the rounds from now on.
Loffie has a proven record with young players, seems WP will use Boland as their talent development union to strengthen WP rugby as a whole and of course the Stormers, which is what this is all about…
Clever move I think, and more of the micro management I believe we need in SA Rugby.
11 Nov 2009, 14:37 pm
For the record, this is the first good thing Rassie has done for Stormers (read WP & and of course Boland) rugby.
11 Nov 2009, 15:29 pm
this is going to be his test to see whether he can improve boland or not
11 Nov 2009, 15:47 pm
Appoint a failed rugby coach as Director of Rugby…
tsk, tsk, tsk…
11 Nov 2009, 16:09 pm
So am i correct in saying there is only 1team from the the whole of the cape in the Premier Cc division?
Up north – its Bulls, Pumas, Leopards,Lions,Cheaters en Kwas………..
Then its the Sharkies…..
hmmmmmmm, and that settles that!
11 Nov 2009, 16:11 pm
#17 Staal: Staal duck for cover and quickly
11 Nov 2009, 16:34 pm
#17 Staal:
Absolutely.
Disgrace isn’t it.
11 Nov 2009, 16:46 pm
#18 Sharksgirl: i’m sitting under a table.
#19 PissAnt: Verseker!
11 Nov 2009, 17:58 pm
Best of luck Loffie!! Don’t take any notice of the negative bloggers. I wonder how many of them played top class rugby?
11 Nov 2009, 18:08 pm
With a name like Loffie Elloff you just gotta love this man.Good luck oom Lof
11 Nov 2009, 18:08 pm
#20 Staal:
Make no mistake though, I think Loffie, Rassie and the rest of the guys are busy doing something special here…
It is about time our big 5 invest in the smaller unions for mutual (read SA RUgby’s) benefit.
Loffie is going to do some special things at Boland I believe, and this in my view, might just stop the continued young player exodus out of WP and Western Cape rugby.
11 Nov 2009, 18:19 pm
chester gets ejected again..
11 Nov 2009, 18:22 pm
#24 gunther:
That surprises you?
11 Nov 2009, 18:42 pm
#14 PissAnt: Pissant. Are you reading things in an articl that no one else knows about or see? I don’t see Rassie’s hand in anything here or in the article. Are you saying Bergh is in Rassie’s pocket?
11 Nov 2009, 18:53 pm
#25 PissAnt:
nope…
11 Nov 2009, 19:12 pm
#26 Amerifikaner:
News of this broke yesterday already.
11 Nov 2009, 19:20 pm
#28 PissAnt: News of what broke yesterday?
11 Nov 2009, 19:24 pm
#29 Amerifikaner:
Loffie and the Boland issue.
I got news of this yesterday already.
11 Nov 2009, 19:30 pm
#30 PissAnt: Pissant I was really referring to the Loffie/Rassie connection. You are implying earlier that Boland will “become a feeder union” for the Stormers and maybe WP. I don’t see the connection. Loosely the Boland has always been a feeder union to WP. Think Marius Joubert and others.
I mean Williams tried that during his tenure and it failed. Sure, he had very little time to work miracles, and on the long term it might work.
11 Nov 2009, 19:38 pm
#31 Amerifikaner:
Sure I see what you are saying.
I have been fortunate enough however to get some more information regarding some issues regarding the signings and the plans behind it.
These things have not been confirmed publicly though but even so, what I heard and what has transpired does seem to be putting 2 and 2 together.
I dont think anyone is in anyone’s pocket, Boland are very much still their own identity, but how it is alligned or how they will now strategically allign themselves a lot of these signings makes quite a bit of sense.
11 Nov 2009, 19:42 pm
#32 PissAnt: Got you. Thanks. Not having access to local news much is sometimes a drag.
Actually it makes perfect sense that the Boland and WP should work much closer together than previously for the Stormers sake and for improving both unions on CC level. too many WP youngsters leave for other unions and could have been used for the Boland.
11 Nov 2009, 19:47 pm
I think let me just go on what has been reported lately on various sources.
1. Rassie is set to move away from a more direct role of coaching to that of DOR and just the management and administration of the Stormers setup which of course, includes WP and Boland rugby unions.
2. Boland recently got relegated which meant they lost out on a major sponsorship which hinged on them staying in the premier league
3. Rassie was the guy that got the Cheetahs and Griffons unions to share resources while still in charge at the Cheetahs (Griffons was 1st division and Cheetahs of course premier division which meant sharing of resources was easy – i.e. swopping players and development of local talent).
4. WP rugby is reported to initiate some major drive to try and stop the exodus of age group players to other unions and overseas of which their biggest problem was that they (as WP only) can only contract so many players.
5. It has been reported that one of the major weaknesses of WP rugby has been the presence of a good age-group level coach, or a coach that can work with players up to U/23 level especially since WP lost Pieter Rossouw to the Bulls which they admitted was a mistake (hence courting Loffie).
6. With Boland now relegated, the use of Boland as a union (funded in large by WP rugby) to give talented youngster from both unions a) contracts and b) game time is said to be the major driving force behind all this where Boland not only serves the Stormers franchise directly, but also since being relegated, they can swop players in 2010 willy nilly without any fear of breaching SARU protocols.
Does this makes sense?
11 Nov 2009, 19:49 pm
#33 Amerifikaner:
I think you will enjoy my post at 34 then!
Hey, if you want some more inside info…
Just let me know
12 Nov 2009, 00:36 am
#35 PissAnt: Thanks for the info.
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