Durban High School are set to bid farewell to their rated old boy head coach Scott Mathie at the end of February 2019. A seemingly perfect match comes to an end as Mathie takes up a post of Griquas assistant coach, where he will work under the leadership of another talented former schoolboy rugby coach, the journeyman himself Brent Janse van Rensburg (Grey High head coach many many jobs ago or 2015 to be precise). The Griquas were a formidable Currie Cup team at the start of this decade. After tapering off since then they seem to be on a revival path this year, having announced a spate of new signings during February 2019, which included several former SA Schools players.
The coaching appointment is another feather in the cap for KZN school rugby. The KZN system may not be blessed with much depth as far as players are concerned but there certainly is not shortage of top notch coaches about.
DHS may require an internal caretaker for next month’s official start to the rugby season and no matter what the eventual outcome is, whoever fills the vacancy on a permanent basis is bound to create a buzz.
Griquas media release:
The Tafel Lager Griquas has pleasure in announcing the appointment of Scott Mathie as the newly appointed assistant coach.
Scott will take charge of the general skills development of the team and also the backline coaching.
The Tafel Lager Griquas head coach, Brent Janse van Rensburg, will take over the forwards from Van der Linde, a role he is familiar with having coached at the Pumas and the NMMU Madibaz previously.
Scott was a scholar of Durban High School and represented the Sharks Craven week team, gaining selection into the SA u18 Academy team. He then went on to represent Tuks 1 where they won the Clubs Champs in 2003, and also represented the SA u19 team where they got third place at the World Cup. He was fortunate enough to progress further and gathered a wealth of knowledge having previously played professional rugby for the Sharks and Bulls at Super rugby and Currie Cup level respectively, whereafter he represented Sale Sharks and Leeds Carnegie in the English Premiership. During this time he also obtained a BA in English and History, before ending his career at the EP Kings where they won the first Div Currie Cup in 2012.
Scott previously assisted Janse van Rensburg during his time at Grey High School and the NMMU Varsity Cup team with skills work as well as the EP junior teams. Currently Scott is the director of rugby and first XV head coach of Durban High School. During his time at DHS, Scott has also coached the Sharks u16 & U18 teams as well as the Durban Collegians first XV as attack / backline coach.
“We look forward to welcoming Scott upon his arrival in March. A lot has been considered in the process of getting to this appointment. We feel Scott meets the requirements to fulfill this role and will bring the necessary character, work ethic and ability required to serve the team well. Having seen him coach previously, he certainly is articulate and possesses a good temperament to go far within this game. He has a good reference point of what it takes at this level and has made a big contribution towards the resurgence of Durban High School rugby recently,” said Janse van Rensburg.
Scott Mathie had the following to say on his appointment, “I’m very humbled about the opportunity afforded to me by Griquas Rugby and am excited to be part of a proud and historic rugby union. I look forward to working with Brent and the coaching staff and helping the team achieve its goals for the future. It’s a new chapter for me and one I can’t wait to start!”
@Skywalker: DHS should be okay. They have many returning players. The backline should be good with ball in hand. Maybe some unanswered questions about where the grunt up front will come from, backline D and what sort of coaching continuity there will be to ensure that SM’s flowing attacking style with good shoulder support play is maintained.
Well done and good luck to Scott. I think asst coach at the Griquas will just be another step up on the way to bigger and better things.
He won’t be easy to replace at DHS.
Great coach and a great man ! Well done Scotty !!
Well done to Scott. He certainly did good things at DHS. Will be interesting to see who comes in and what impact it has on their season. Many of their star players have now matriculated I see, so their depth will now be tested a bit I think.