John Mitchell - Mitch: The Real Story

Published by Zebra Press
an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd
Company Reg. No. 1966/003153/07
The Estuaries No. 4, Oxbow Crescent, Century Avenue, Century City, Cape Town, 7441

www.zebrapress.co.za

First published 2014

Publication Zebra Press 2014
Text John Mitchell

Cover image Getty Images/Paul Kane/Stringer

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners.

PUBLISHER: Marlene Fryer
MANAGING EDITOR: Ronel Richter-Herbert
EDITOR: Mark Ronan
PROOFREADER: Ronel Richter-Herbert
COVER DESIGN: Sean Robertson
TEXT DESIGN: Jacques Kaiser
TYPESETTER: Monique van den Berg
PHOTO RESEARCHER: Colette Stott

ISBN 978 1 77022 615 9 (print)
ISBN 978 1 77022 616 6 (ePub)
ISBN 978 1 77022 617 3 (PDF)

This book is dedicated to its readers and rugby fans all over the world

Ive always had great admiration for John. I thought he was fantastic as All Black coach and when I heard he was joining the Lions in the middle of 2010, I got very excited. I liked the way he spoke about the game, and his teams have always played a brand of rugby I felt suited my own game. I was chuffed that he was going to be my coach at the Lions.

John played a major role in the changes that took place at the Lions in 2010 and 2011, and laid the foundations for the team of today; that is, playing an attractive, attack-orientated game. He was also hell-bent on having the best defensive team on the field, but his big thing was hanging on to the ball.

John is brilliant when it comes to technical knowledge and analysis of the game. He has an excellent rugby brain and is always looking for ways and means to improve and be better than the other guys. What impresses me about John is his ability to keep up with the games progression and the modern game of rugby.

He hates losing, as we all do, and his ability to motivate players and get them to play at a level commonly considered beyond them is unbelievable. Thats the other thing about John: the team always comes first.

I was tested on many levels, both physically and emotionally, when John was coaching the Lions. In the end I suppose it all turned out well, even when his methods sometimes seemed over the top and unnecessary. He was hard on his players. John is a stickler for mental toughness; he likes men who can walk with him, experience the good and the bad, but be a better person for it at the end. He taught me a lot about myself, things that I use in my life now, away from rugby.

Johns success with the Lions in the 2011 Currie Cup allowed me to win the domestic trophy, something Id always wanted to do. Before that season, Id won the Super Rugby title (with the Bulls) and the World Cup and, thanks to John, he took the Lions to the final and we won it. Ill always be grateful for that.

John is no longer involved at the highest level of the sport, but he should be. Hes a passionate and very dynamic coach, and his knowledge needs to be shared.

WIKUS VAN HEERDEN

I have a responsibility to give back to the game of rugby, as it has given so much to me, and share the experiences, challenges, learnings and successes I have had in the sport as a player, leader and coach so that someone else can perhaps learn from them and make good life choices.

I truly believe that when you read this book, some of the stories will relate to your own life and your role as a leader, prompting you to think, What would I have done in those circumstances or in that moment? Bearing in mind, of course, that although we all start off at some point, we are inevitably remembered for what happens at the end. As I say in the book, achieving success in professional rugby as in life is not just about what you do or say; it is more about how you make people feel and whether they think they belong. And dont I know that, as I have learnt the hard way!

Good luck and enjoy the read.

JOHN MITCHELL
DURBAN, AUGUST 2014

I was in Edinburgh covering the 2013 Springbok end-of-year tour of the United Kingdom when John Mitchells agent, Rod Labuschagne, called me to ask if I would collaborate on this book. I didnt hesitate, for, as I said to Rod, some stories just need to be told regardless of the contractual considerations that I knew would still need to be discussed.

It always confounded me as it did many South Africans that Mitch was dropped as All Black coach with an 86 per cent win record. In South Africa, the Springbok coach is considered to have done really well if he manages to hit the 70 per cent mark. That was just one element of the John Mitchell story I wanted to hear for myself. There were many more, because even though there has been much written about the highs and lows, the triumphs and controversies of Mitchs career, his own version of events has been conspicuously absent until now.

Mitch is one of a select group of men who I feel just exudes rugby through every pore (Robbie Deans, Ian McIntosh and Nick Mallett being the others), and his appearances on SuperSport as a studio analyst confirmed to me that he had experiences, and is possessed of a rugby brain, that should be shared.

There have been many perceptions of Mitch, but as he himself says in the book, perception is often just that, and what the media make out to be a controversy is, at the end of the day, just a difference of opinion. That is underlined by the fact that some of the people who fell out with Mitch earlier in his career have returned in later life to offer him employment opportunities.

While Mitch is the first to admit to mistakes he has made in his 20 years as one of the pioneer coaches in professional rugby, hopefully the telling of his story will correct some of the misperceptions of people who dont know him well or know the full facts behind the situations that gave rise to controversy. No doubt there will be those who will still want to differ, but at least they should now be able to do so knowing his side of the story. And those who clashed with him will know what motivated some of his decisions. As he would say, there is no right or wrong.

I thank Mitch for giving me the opportunity to help him tell his story. The interview part of the process started in Durban in humid January 2014, when the beer in Mitchs fridge was occasionally most welcome, with the writing and editing taking place in the chill of a dark Cape winter. In that time there were invaluable contributions to the production of this book in the form of Simon Borchardt, who read through the manuscript and fixed some factual errors, my editor Mark Ronan, managing editor Ronel Richter-Herbert and, of course, higher up the Zebra Press food chain, Marlene Fryer, who agreed to publish this book after one email. My thanks to them too.

GAVIN RICH
CAPE TOWN, AUGUST 2014

At the highest level of professional sport, it is not often that a coach feels empathetic towards his direct adversary. But I had precisely that experience after the 2003 Rugby World Cup quarter-final at the Telstra Dome (now the Etihad Stadium), in Melbourne.

Rudolf Straeuli, then the Springbok coach, and I had clashed the previous year during what was our first full season as international coaches. There had been an unexpected change in the New Zealand camp at the end of 2001, when Wayne Smith had walked out of the All Black coaching job ahead of an end-of-season tour to the northern hemisphere. I had been thrust into the role with just two years to go before the 2003 World Cup. Rudolf landed in the Springbok hot seat just a few months later, after the shock resignation of Harry Viljoen.