The Blue Bulls Company announced the appointment of Wessel du Plessis as their new head of junior rugby late June 2020. Jake White said at that stage that he intended to improve the schools and club rugby structures and appointing a coach of Du Plessis' calibre was a step in the right direction.
Du Plessis just started at the Bulls last week and President of the Blue Bulls Rugby Union, Willem Strauss was quick to challenge du Plessis.
"It is great to welcome Wessel du Plessis, former Grey College and SA Schools coach, to Pretoria where he has now started his coaching career at the Bulls! My challenge to Wessel is as follows:
1) Obviously to continue our junior teams winning run.
2) To increase the number of junior players in our system who eventually makes it to the senior squads.
3) To unearth new talent in our club and school structures!
Wessel has incredible potential and will no doubt contribute our system!🏉"
With the current success at the Bulls, the challenges set to du Plessis' would seem to be easy to attain.
However, there are serious challenges in the Bulls junior and schoolboy rugby structures which du Plessis will find extremely hard to change. The current status quo where egos unfortunately still determine the success of players of certain clubs and schools will be almost impossible to change. True talent sometimes does not guarantee selection in Blue Bull country.
The success of a pathway for junior players to advance to the senior structures is unfortunately not in the hands of du Plessis at all. The current system in place at SA Rugby and contractual restrictions has resulted in Unions rather opting for established players with only the very talented junior players who will make the cut. Winning at all costs will kill junior rugby sooner than later.
However, a better man for the task at hand at the Bulls will not easily be found. The 35-year-old former Grey College 1st XV coach represented the Free State Cheetahs at Under-20 and Sevens level before injuries curtailed his playing career and he turned to coaching.
In 2010 Du Plessis returned to Grey College as a teacher. He was appointed the 1st XV coach in 2014 and they continued to dominate the South African school rugby scene under his tutelage.
His abilities were recognised by SA Rugby and he was appointed head coach of the SA Schools A team earlier in 2020 before the season was shelved due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I’m passionate about helping young rugby players realise their potential and being able to do that within a professional environment such as the Vodacom Bulls is just the cherry on top‚,” Plessis said at the time of his appointment.
“The junior structures at Loftus Versfeld are impressive while the players are of exceptional quality as evident by Loftus is the current home to the SA Rugby U21 and U19 Championship trophies."
"I’m looking forward to working with the next generation of Vodacom Bulls players and a heartfelt thank you must be given to the BCCo for this opportunity,” said Du Plessis.