Currie Cup final: Meet the coaches in charge of Griquas and the Pumas

The Griquas and Pumas will battle it out in a landmark Currie Cup final at Griqua Park in Kimberley on Saturday afternoon, after the two South African minnows upset the odds to reach the showpiece event.

It has been an incredible season for both teams and they will hope to celebrate with a bit of history this weekend.

Here are the coaches who led them here.

ALSO READ: Currie Cup final, five players to watch

Jimmy Stonehouse

Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse is an old South African warhorse. At 58-years-old he has been coaching for over 30-years, but started his rugby journey as a player, playing hooker for South Eastern Transvaal (which became the Pumas).

His coaching journey then started at Hoërskool Ermelo (1990-97), while he also coached the South Eastern Transvaal Craven Week team (1990-92, 1994-97). He then made the move up to Pretoria when he was headhunted to coach Hoërskool Waterkloof (1998-2008), where he enjoyed some success and was named as Bulls Craven Week coach on two occasions (2002-03, 2007-08). He also found time to coach the Russian U19 and Sevens team for a stint in the early 2000s and coached Pretoria club side Harlequins (2005-07).

Stonehouse was then appointed for his first stint at the Pumas from 2008 to 2015, with one of the highlights taking them through an unbeaten 2013 season in the Currie Cup First Division, to be promoted to the Premier League, while he also picked up the SA Coach of the Year award as well.

Stonehouse was then lured to Japan, where he coached the Toshiba Brave Lupus (2015-17), only to be called back to the Pumas in 2018, with him leading the side to this year’s Currie Cup final, which would be his greatest accomplishment should they win.

In his spare time Stonehouse was also a keen bodybuilder and won the Mr South Africa competition in 2005 and came sixth in Mr Universe in 2006.

Pieter Bergh

Griquas coach Pieter Bergh comes from a strong rugby background, with his father Piet Bergh the former Boland rugby administrator and CEO.

In his school days Bergh managed to represent Boland at Craven Week level, while acting as a ball boy at the Wellington stadium for the provincial side. He then began his coaching journey, first as a video analyst for current Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie, who was in charge of the Boland Cavaliers at that stage. When SA coaching journeyman Eugene ‘Loffie’ Eloff took over at Boland, he recruited Bergh who quickly moved from performance analyst to backline and defence coach (2006-11) and eventually assistant coach (2011).

Bergh then made the move to the Griquas for the first time under coach Peter Engeldow who brought him in as defence coach (2012-15), with him working his way to assistant coach (2014-18). When Brent Janse van Rensburg took over as Griquas coach, he brought in his own coaching team, which led to Bergh taking over as head coach of the Central University of Technology Ixias (2019-21) in Bloemfontein, where he impressed in leading them to their best every campaign in the Varsity Cup.

Janse van Rensburg had since left the Griquas, with Scott Mathie taking over for a few years before he moved on to a post in the US, leaving the door open for Bergh to return to the Griquas as head coach in 2021. He is now on the verge of leading the side to their first Currie Cup title in 52 years, in just his second season in charge.