Rudolph Straeuli
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Rudolph August Wilkens Straeuli (born 20 August 1963 in Pretoria, South Africa) played rugby union in the positions of flanker and Number 8 for, and later coached, the Springboks rugby team. He also played for the Lions provincial team in the Currie Cup competition. Straeuli stands 1.95 meters tall and weighs 110 kilograms.
Straeuli made his debut for South Africa on 9 July 1994 against the All Blacks, in which he also scored a try. In all he played 10 tests, including representing South Africa in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, before his career ended on 18 November 1995 against England at Twickenham Stadium.
It is not his skills as a rugby player, but his coaching skills that he is infamous for. After Harry Viljoen could not deliver the goods, winning only 53% of his games, Straeuli was seen as a breath of fresh air. Many lauded him as the saviour of South African rugby, the man who would get the job done.
At first things seemed to be going well for Straeuli as he won his first four games, with two victories over Wales, a 20 point mauling of Argentina and a convincing 60–18 defeat of Samoa. But when it came to facing the world's top teams, disaster struck.
Under Straeuli the Springboks reached their lowest point in world rugby with record defeats against several countries, most notably:
- 30–10 to France at the Stade Vélodrome, Marseille
- 21–6 to Scotland at Murrayfield, Edinburgh
- 53–3 to England at Twickenham, London
- 52–16 to New Zealand at Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Through all the failures Straeuli kept telling the public that he was still building his team and that they should judge him on his performance in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. When South Africa didn't make the semifinals for the first time ever in a World Cup where they participated they did just that, and Straeuli was forced to resign shortly after the campaign when details of his infamous Kamp Staaldraad training camp came to light.
Overall Straeuli coached 23 tests and won only 52% of them, doing worse than his predecessor and making him the worst South African coach for the amount of games played in history. He also only won two out of the 17 games played against the top six teams in the world.
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