League title the target for Navan's new coach

Last Saturday Navan kick-started their competitive rugby season when they took on Barnhall in the Leinster Cup. Navan lost by 29-37, but it was an opportunity for team coach Leon Jordaan to have another look at the players he will be working with over the coming nine months or so. As far as Jordaan is concerned he is starting out as the head coach at Balreask Old with a blank canvas. Everything is up for consideration. Everybody in the senior squad will be granted the same opportunity to nail down a regular place on the first team. Train hard, play hard and the doors of opportunity will open is his motto. He has set the targets for the campaign ahead and right up there is bagging the AIL Div 3 title. Why not, he says in his distinctive SA drawl, why not aim for the stars and see what happens? Having played rugby almost as early as he could say "Springboks" Jordaan knows that the one quality a player or coach must possess is an optimistic outlook - that inner-belief that no matter what life throws at you there is a way around it. A former policeman, restaurant owner and fast food franchise operator, Jordaan says he loves coaching and wants to see where it will take him. At 37 he is still young enough, in theory, to be putting on a jersey and lining out in his position as a back-row forward. In practice it's a different story. A couple of troublesome injuries sustained in South Africa restricted his playing career. Among the teams he did line out with included Pretoria Police, Cape Town Harlequins and Hamilton, the oldest club in South Africa. He attempted one or two comebacks only for the body to revolt. Reluctantly he had to accept that he had no other alternative but to take out a six-inch nail and hang up the boots. The hard decision to retire helped him to focus on the next best thing - coaching. Over the past decade or so he has picked up a folder full of coaching qualifications. He has learned from some of the biggest guns in the game including fellow countryman and former Springboks' coach Jake White. Originally from Durban, Jordaan has coached at various levels and took charge of the senior sides with Hamilton and the Villager rugby clubs. Through a series of chance meetings he ended up getting invited to Ireland in 2003. He worked with the players at Castlebar RFC before he was appointed head coach with Corinthians in Galway guiding them to an AIL Div 3 title. He moved on to take up a post with Malahide RFC. Then he was encouraged to apply for the full-time coaching position at Navan RFC when Brad Harris decided to return home to Australia at the end of last season. It is believed that approximately 45 applicants were received for the advertised position with a few former internationals among those who applied. Jordaan's CV suggested he has what it takes to bring the club to the next level. Jordaan says the fact he is single has allowed him the freedom to move around and pick up more and more coaching experience. He doesn't make any apologies for saying that he is ambitious and wants to go far in his chosen profession where results are everything. He had looked at Navan RFC and felt there was potential there to be developed. "I had followed Navan's progress, I had seen them progress, they are a proud club, a community-based club, with a good work ethic from what I could gather so I went for the interview," he told the Meath Chronicle this week. Accustomed to plenty of sunshine in his native land it might be expected that Jordaan experienced considerable difficulty in settling down in rain-sodden Ireland. He didn't find it a major issue and has come to feel at home in the Emerald Isle. "The weather is one thing but it's the Irish people I've come to like. They give themselves a hard time, knock themselves down, they have a bit of craic and banter yet they are a proud people, strong heritage, good morals and that's just some of the things that makes the Irish a great nation." Jordaan feels that a coach has to always remember that he is dealing with a diverse range of personalties and the trick is to combine them all into a cohesive, coherent unit. "To blend a bunch of different characters into a team is the big challenge, to get them to play for each other is very important," he said. "Get the basics right, get the ball, not give it away, have a strong defensive unit. Some players would be close to the finished article, others would need a lot of coaching. It's really about facilitating, to give them the platform to launch themselves as a team, make sure that training is fun, educational. Conditioning is a big thing also." Jordaan likes his teams to be able to adapt to whatever the prevailing conditions are, to be flexible. Over the coming weeks as the pre-season competitions get underway such as the Leinster Senior Cup, the South African will find out a lot more about his players and the squad he'll have when the real business - the AIL - gets underway in October. Until then it's a blank canvas with everybody invited to make their mark.