It might feel like a case of déjà vu for Grey High School in Port Elizabeth right now. They have learnt that they will be losing a second head coach to professional rugby in a little over a year.
Head coach and director of rugby Brent Janse van Rensburg has tendered his resignation after only one year at the school. This has caught many by surprise. The highly rated head coach who was in charge when Grey High beat last year’s top ranked rugby school Grey College of Bloemfontein, has been headhunted by professional rugby union the Golden Lions and will be employed in a technical capacity in their junior rugby programme.
After the conclusion of the 2013 school rugby season, the man Brent Janse van Rensburg replaced as director of rugby at Grey, Rory Duncan dropped a similar bombshell by announcing that he was off to join the Free State Rugby Union as head of their junior rugby structure. Duncan had been head coach at the school for two seasons. At the time of his decision, Grey had a very strong group coming through to form the core of their next 1st XV and many locals felt they had a very realistic chance of being crowned South Africa’s top rugby school for the 2014 season. In retrospective the coaching disruption caused by Duncan’s departure might have effected this 2014 final ranking.
Westerling old boy Brent Janse van Rensburg has extensive rugby coaching experience. He was Queen’s College head coach for 2008 and a portion of the 2009 season, during which time he coached the Border Craven Week team as well. He coached the Border Vodacom Cup and Currie Cup teams during that time. From Queen’s he joined Alan Zondagh’s Rugby Performance Centre in the Cape as a Technical Director. He returned to the Eastern Cape a few years later and played a big role in reshaping NMMU’s Varsity Cup fortunes before accepting the post at Grey at the start of 2014. His move to the Lions translates to an increase in manpower at the Johannesburg based union, providing further indications of their revival.
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