Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Blue Bulls have demoted Edgar Marutlulle after just four Currie Cup matches, with director of rugby Jake White assuming all the coaching reins at the organisation.
White, who coached the Pretoria side to two Currie Cup victories two years ago, leads a rejigged coaching team that includes assistants Gert Smal, Hugo van As and Sean Everitt.
Marutlulle, a former Bulls and Lions hooker, drops back to the Blue Bulls junior structures at Under-19 and Under-20, where he was operating before he was elevated to Currie Cup head coach – the first black head coach in the union’s history – at the start of the year.
Now, just four months down the line, Marutlulle is being moved back down the ranks.
The Bulls are on a 10-match losing streak in all competitions, in which White has overseen seven of those, after taking over midway through the Currie Cup for their loss to Western Province last month despite playing a strong team.
The other defeats have come in the United Rugby Championship (URC) as well as the Champions Cup, which they exited in the round of 16 in Toulouse last Sunday.
“The changes come after Edgar Marutlulle and director of rugby, Jake White met and agreed that the best course of action was to allow Marutlulle to step back and resume his work in junior rugby,” the Blue Bulls said in a statement on Wednesday.
“White will assume head coaching responsibilities of the Currie Cup team whilst assistant coaches Gert Smal, Hugo van As and Sean Everitt will remain in their current roles until the end of their short-term contracts. Now that the franchise is out of the Champions Cup competition, White’s time has been freed up to assume the Currie Cup [rein] too.”
The Blue Bulls suffered a damaging 63-15 defeat to the defending champions, the Pumas, in their opening Currie Cup game.
But it’s believed that Marutlulle had limited time to work with the team ahead of the opening game at Loftus and did not have a pre-season training camp ahead of the competition prior.
A week later, White took charge of the training sessions ahead of their grudge game against Western Province, a game they lost 41-33 to John Dobson’s side. At the time, White said it would not be fair for Marutlulle to bear the brunt of the pressure of the adverse WP result.
“I wanted to use it as an opportunity for next week (URC clash vs Ulster), so that’s why it would be unfair for Edgar to take on the negativity of this result,” White said.
More than two weeks later, following defeats to the Free State Cheetahs and Griffons in the Currie Cup, as well as Ulster and Stade Toulousain in Europe, White has taken complete control of the coaching.
“I met with Edgar and he felt that there needed to be action taken, with the union coming first – a perspective that we both share and something I commend him on,” White said in the Blue Bulls statement.
“It is important that our coaches continue to feel as though there is a pathway. Sometimes we will get successes and sometimes we must take a step back and be proactive, and as a union, we are doing exactly that.
“I will take over, working with the new coaches. We will find a way, in and around the senior coaches, to make sure that we get our campaign back on track.”
Marutlulle, who had expressed pride after being named Currie Cup head coach at just 35, thanked the organisation for the opportunity to further his skills, saying he welcomed the decision.
“I am thankful for the opportunity to have been given the privilege of leading this Currie Cup side. As a former player and now coach, I am and will always be a custodian of this great franchise. And I believe that this is what is necessary for us to move forward.”
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