DUBAI // Neil Powell, the new South Africa coach, says he occasionally lapses into believing he is one of the players again — and quickly ends up regretting it.
The Springboks sevens coach was a long-serving player for his predecessor, Paul Treu, and was captain of the side until relatively recently.
Although he has swapped his boots for coaching apps on the iPad he still tries to keep pace with his former playing colleagues every so often.
“Sometimes I dive into training sessions, do one or two runs and I blow like crazy,” said Powell, 35, who retired from playing last year.
“I jump into it and then I’m struggling for a week or two after it.”
Powell was appointed to his new position in October and this is his second World Series tournament at the helm, after the opening leg of the season in Australia.
He has big boots to fill. The previous coach, Treu, guided the Boks to Emirates International Trophy wins in 2006 and 2008 and oversaw their world series success in 2008/09.
Powell acknowledges he has a good template to work from already, but says changes still need to be made for the side to be successful. “Everybody knows what a good coach Paul was,” he said of Treu, who is now in charge of Kenya’s sevens side.
“He was very technically sound and I have very tough act to follow, but it makes it easier for me with the experienced management that we have.
“The guys are set in their ways but we had a meeting way back and said there was going to be changes.
“We are not going to be reinventing the wheel but we are going to make some changes for the benefit of the team. They are not major changes but we have made tweaks here and there.”
pradley@thenational.ae
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