Nick Mallett
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| Nick Mallett | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Nicholas Vivian Howard Mallett | ||
| Date of birth | October 30 1956 | ||
| Place of birth |  Haileybury, England |
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| School | St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown | ||
| College | University of Cape Town University of Oxford |
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| Rugby union career | |||
| Current status | |||
| Position(s) | Coach | ||
| Current team |  Italy |
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| Playing career | |||
| Position | Number eight | ||
| Clubs | |||
| 1990-1992 1985-1990 1985 1980-1985 1979-1980 1977 |
 Boulogne-Billancourt Saint-Claude Rugby Rovigo Western Province Oxford University Western Province |
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| National team(s) | Caps | (points) | |
| 1984 | South Africa |
2 | (0) |
| Coaching career | |||
| 2007-present 2000-2004 1997-2000 1996-1997 1995-1996 1994-1995 1985-1990 1984-1985 |
Italy Stade Français South Africa South Africa (asst.) Boland Cavaliers False Bay Rugby Club Saint-Claude Rugby Rovigo |
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Nicholas Vivian Howard Mallett (born 30 October 1956) is a South African rugby union coach and former player who is currently the head coach of the Italian national team.[1] He played for and later coached the Springboks, South Africa's national rugby union team.
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[edit] Early Life
Mallett was born at Haileybury, England. He moved to Rhodesia with his family in 1956 when he was only six weeks old. He first arrived in Cape Town, South Africa in 1963, when his father Anthony Mallett was appointed Headmaster of Diocesan College, after which he attended St. Andrew's College in Grahamstown. He later graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1977. While a student at the university, he was selected to play for the Western Province rugby union team.
In 1979 Mallett moved back to England to attend Oxford University (University College), where he not only gained further qualifications but also won Blues in rugby union and cricket, famously hitting three sixes in one over off Ian Botham. Eventually he returned to South Africa, where he represented Western Province in four consecutive Currie Cup wins between 1982 and 1985, and played two games for the Springboks in 1984 against the South American Jaguars.
[edit] Coaching Career
Mallett once again left South Africa in 1985, this time for France, where he played and coached rugby for seven years until 1992 before eventually returning to South Africa in 1994 and taking a job as Head of the False Bay Rugby Club until 1995.
Between 1995 and 1996, Mallett took up the role of head coach of the Boland Cavaliers before being appointed assistant coach to the Springboks in 1996 and finally getting the job of Springbok Coach in 1997.
Between August 1997 and December 1998, under Mallett's guidance, the Springboks went on a record winning streak of 17 consecutive test wins. As part of the unbeaten run the Springboks won the Tri Nations Series undefeated and beat several teams by record margins, including a 52-10 against France in Paris, a 68-10 win over Scotland in Edinburgh, a 33-0 defeat of Ireland and a 96-13 against Wales. The run ended when the Springbok team was defeated by England at Twickenham at the end of a long tour on the 5 December 1998.
The relationship between Mallet and Gary Teichmann, arguably South Africa's most successful captain ever, began to sour and Teichman was controversially excluded from the 1999 Rugby World Cup squad. Mallet looked for a new captain, first turning to Corné Krige then Rassie Erasmus, Joost van der Westhuizen and André Vos for a solution. In the end the internal instability in the squad seemed to harm their performance as the squad suffered four consecutive defeats and were finally knocked out of the championship in the semi-final by eventual winners Australia. Despite his teams poor shape in 1999 they still managed to break more records, beating Italy 101–0 and England in the quarterfinal 44–21, with Jannie de Beer kicking a world-record five drop goals in that game.
In 2000, Mallett accused the South Africa Rugby Football Union (SARFU) of "greed" for selling Tri-Nations championship tickets at inflated prices. He had alientated the SARFU executive, and on 27 September he resigned as national coach at the start of a disciplinary hearing began into allegations that his comments had brought the game into disrepute. Some fans, upset by how he had treated Teichman and his teams sudden poor performance, were also keen to see him go.
Mallett moved back to France as coach for the Paris club Stade Français, which he led to two consecutive French domestic title wins in 2003 and 2004 before returning to South Africa where he accepted the job of Director of Rugby at Western Province. Initially there was speculation that he might coach the Springbok team again, but those rumours were quashed by the appointment of Jake White as the new South African coach.
In spite of his team's poor performance and the internal strife that characterised his final years as coach, Mallett remains one of South Africa's most successful coaches ever, having won 27 of the 38 tests played under his guidance and rewriting the record books several times.
According to rumour, he was considered as a possible replacement for outgoing England coach Andy Robinson[1], a position that eventually went to Brian Ashton.
He replaced Pierre Berbizier as the Italian national rugby coach on 3 October 2007.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- SupaRugby: Nick Mallett New Director of Rugby
- Scrum.com: Nick Mallett Fact File
- Stade Francais
- Mallett calls for shake-up in South African rugby
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