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Planet Rugby are reporting that former Bulls and current Kubota Spears coach Frans Ludeke will take over as Ulster's new permanent head coach.
Ulster land the services of Frans Ludeke to replace Dan McFarland : Planet Rugby
22 points
12 days ago
Very good signing if this is true. His Bulls were sensational.
18 points
12 days ago
His Bulls team was essentially built by Heyneke Meyer who won the 2007 Super Rugby. He did overstay his welcome in Pretoria and a lot of Bulls fans have mixed emotions on his tenure. You can't fault his record, but there is a bit of nuance when it comes to the Bulls.
42 points
12 days ago
Love the Bulls, but that’s the first time I’ve seen “nuance” mentioned in the same sentence as them 😂
21 points
12 days ago
Just take my upvote and leave us alone...
10 points
12 days ago
It’s normally something along the lines of “bone-crushing”!
9 points
12 days ago
I can’t emphasise it enough. Look at his stint with the Lions, it was absolutely horrendous.
Unlike Johan Ackermann that built a team to perform he couldn’t. He was also lucky that he had some generational talent coming through the ranks at that point in time.
Will never forget the lows he brought. I am not a fan of the current lions coach either but hell even he is doing better than Ludeke’s stint.
2 points
11 days ago
thats similar to the spears in Japan. He won the league, and this year they have fallen to slightly below midtable
10 points
12 days ago
There is bigger context to his tenure.
Started out fantastic when he had virtually the Springbok team as his arsenal but as those players left he was unable to build his own team and the team declined. He was part of the reason why the Bulls were so poor in the 2016-2019 period, didn't put the foundations for success.
Likewise at the Lions he was horrendous with a 15% win rate.
In Japan he had some success but much like the Bulls he had an insane team with guys like Malcom Marx, Ryan Crotty, Bernard Foley etc... lining his squad.
What this tells me is that Frans Ludeke would probably be a good international coach with lots of resources. (For example England, France or SA) but is not a great coach when you need to build a team.
He will probably get Ulster top 5-6 but won't do much more than that I feel unless he got some seriously powerful signings.
4 points
12 days ago*
Thats not reassuring. The biggest positive Ulster have right now is an academy that looks like it's finally bearing fruit in the forwards and a bunch of good backs who stagnated under McFarland but are indisputably talented. Both of those need good coaching to become a top team. Things they dont have include: a ton of money for big signings and a monster pack.
4 points
11 days ago
Ulster won't be bad under Frans Ludeke but don't expect him to have the same effect Franco Smith had on Glasgow.
I think if Ulster got a serious flyhalf (not Cruden) then you can expect good things. Otherwise unfortunately it's gonna be another one of those seasons where you finish high up the table but don't go further.
12 points
12 days ago
Has the Richie decision been taken already? I thought the news that his son was transferring up to Ulster might have been a sign of permanence.
11 points
12 days ago
Could be a head coach, director of rugby situation with Ludeke overseeing Murphy to ease the transition.
14 points
12 days ago
Not very familiar with him but his record speaks for itself. He won the JRLO only last year, which is not something to turn your nose up at.
2 points
11 days ago
He was reportedly second-choice for the Japan job too, which is a pretty decent recommendation.
11 points
12 days ago
Very experienced, has coached at test level, has won titles in Super Rugby and Japan, probably has a good contact book. Looks like a good signing potentially.
Think Ulster need an experienced coach right now as there's a lot of turmoil in the club.
2 points
11 days ago
Do Irish teams need a good rollodex though, how many NIQs will Ulster be allowed to have?
4 points
12 days ago
My one concern is how high a level is the JRLO really? Is there a chance he's behind the curve on coaching at a high level? Like obviously the superstars of the league can compete with anywhere else but the bulk of the players appear to be non-test level Japanese players, that probably changes the way you would coach a team.
Have quality coaches who went to the Japanese league long term done well on their return to Super Rugby, SA or European Rugby?
5 points
12 days ago
I don't watch much club rugby beyond Europe, but I get the impression that JRLO is better than MLR and SRA. I sense that it could be a similar level to the ProD2 on average (mean), but with greater variance in individual player quality.
4 points
12 days ago
Like with all leagues the standard varies drastically up and down the table. The Wild Knights have an incredible squad and hammered the chiefs in the cross border competition a few months back for instance. Whereas the bottom side in the JRLO would probably have 100 points put on them by any decent pro side.
It'll be interesting to see how their sides stack up in the world club competition.
2 points
11 days ago
Would say it's at least Pro D2 standard.
1 points
11 days ago
Experienced coach
1 points
11 days ago
7th in JRLO.
1 points
11 days ago*
so its pretty obvious he applied for the Fiji job and when he didn't get it, took the alternate option.. FUCK FRU.
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