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John Mitchell is having the last laugh after the former All Blacks coach mentored the Golden Lions of South Africa to a 42-16 victory in the Currie Cup rugby final over the Sharks at their Ellis Park fortress in Johannesburg at the weekend.
Mitchell, who is into his second season as coach, admits many of his friends and colleagues had said to him: ‘what the hell are you doing?’ when he took on the job as Lions coach about 16 months ago.
The Lions’ pride had indeed taken a fall over the past few seasons; to say they were a shadow of their former selves at the time Mitchell took the reins, would have been a serious understatement.
They were being hammered by their Currie Cup rivals and as new arrivals to the Super 14 last season, things were starting to look very bleak on the horizon.
The Lions finished stone last in the Super 14, having lost all of their 13 games. There seemed to be no way out, until Mitchell answered the SOS from Lions president, Kevin de Klerk.
Mitchell himself experienced the flip side that is South Africa at times, when his home was burgled a few months into his stay.
It could not have been a pleasant experience at all, even for the tough-as-teak Mitchell, as he was robbed at gunpoint.
Many South Africans applauded him for his stance, when Mitchell refused to buckle and give the criminals the benefit of the doubt by deciding to stay on to finish off some unfinished business, despite the harrowing experience.
That unfortunate incident probably made him focus even more on the task at hand, and it strengthened his resolve. When Mark Lawrence’s whistle had gone on Saturday in the cauldron that is Ellis Park, Mitchell had helped a team bereft of stars, to the ultimate prize in South African rugby competition – the Currie Cup.
And it was the manner of their win, that suggested that Mitchell, his support staff and his troops had achieved something special.
The Sharks, who were defending the trophy, were laden with a few Boks, among them Willem Alberts, Jannie du Plessis, brother Bismarck, and JP Pietersen, but the pride of the Lions withstood the onslaught.
When the Sharks’ Willem Alberts blatantly knocked the ball on his way to the tryline, with the Johannesburg side leading 19-9, Lions’ heads did not drop, neither did they wilt.
It only served to put extra bite in their game and they subsequently smashed the opposition to pieces as the final scoreline suggests.
Man-of-the-match, Elton Jantjies, the little pivot played a match of immense maturity for such a young lad, notching up 24 points with his boot for the Lions – aided and abetted by some bone-crunching tackles.
It is clear to see that backline coach, Carlos Spencer, a former All Black No 10 himself, has added grunt to Jantjies’ game and his fans say there is little doubt that he will don the No 10 jersey for the Boks some day soon.
That the Lions scored three tries, to the Sharks’ lone score behind the posts, says little in fact about the Highveld team’s dominance of the match.
The Lions had last won the Currie Cup title in 1999, with guys like Hannes Strydom, Chester Williams, and Hennie Le Roux in their team. Mitchell’s credo that the team is greater than the individuals has definitely rubbed off on to his charges.
They were the most consistent performers in the competition and there is little doubt they deserve every accolade heaped upon them.
The former All Blacks coach and Waikato flanker, had himself played a match way back in 1993 at Ellis Park for the Waikato Chiefs.
Saturday’s achievement, all of 18 years later had to be something surreal for Mitchell – winning South Africa Rugby’s ‘Holy Grail’ in front of a capacity home crowd, who would probably vote that the New Zealander is awarded the Freedom of the City, for leading this band of virtual unknowns to such a big moment.
De Klerk himself must feel vindicated by his decision two seasons ago, to lure Mitchell away from Perth’s Western Force to be an understudy to then-coach Dick Muir.
But once Muir had left for the Bok coaching camp, de Klerk knew that Mitchell would be the ideal man to fill in that slot left vacant. His hunch was right.
But little would Mitchell have known at that stage how quickly his stock would rise in this tough, uncompromising rugby cauldron that is South Africa.
And to think he achieved the Currie Cup win, coming up against a fellow-Hawera native in John Plumtree, who was coaching the Sharks on Cup final day.
You just can’t seem to keep these New Zealanders, win or lose, out of the big moments in this great game, no matter where it is played these days.
