‘Brendan Venter would get involved in training and whack players harder than anyone’: Untold stories of Saracens coach from devout Christian and GP to a referee’s nightmare, his golf-course plan that beat England and why ‘intense doesn’t do him justice’

The door was always open to Nick Mallett’s coaching office at the 1999 Rugby World Cup. His Springbok players were encouraged to pop in to give feedback on the team’s game plan and there were two who were particularly forthcoming: Rassie Erasmus and Brendan Venter.

‘Generally speaking, the South African psyche in the post-Apartheid era was that you took orders,’ Mallett tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘Whatever the headmaster, coach or preacher said, you did it. I wanted players to question the way we played and Rassie and Brendan were the best at it by a long way.’

At the time, Erasmus was a young flanker who spent time with the military and sold office equipment. He is now the double World Cup-winning coach of the Springboks.

Venter was a seasoned centre who trained as a GP, treating patients around Cape Town. Rugby was secondary but he is now back in the hot seat for his second coaching stint with Saracens.

And he is already making waves – having been fined for refusing to do post-match media duties, explaining that away by saying he had actually resigned as director of rugby a month earlier to become ‘head of rugby culture and wine consultant’. Then, last week he railed against media obligations as ‘autocratic’, in a strident speech that took in Gaza and Ukraine.

‘They were different personalities,’ adds Mallett. ‘Brendan was married and very religious. Rassie was a single guy who partied quite a lot. They weren’t bosom buddies but they respected each other. They were brilliant rugby minds.

‘Brendan was a strong personality who was very confident in his own opinions, so it didn’t bother him at all to challenge the coach. He was very self-confident and said what he thought with no filter.

‘Rassie didn’t come from such an academic background but he did a hell of a lot of rugby research. He was more self-deprecating. He would come to me and say, “Listen, I’ve seen this, I don’t know if you would like to use it?” Whereas Brendan would come and say, “Listen Nick, I’ve seen this, we HAVE to do this”.

According to Mallett, Venter’s input was central to South Africa’s quarter-final victory over England in that World Cup, when Springbok No10 Jannie de Beer kicked five drop-goals in a 44-21 win at the Stade de France. The drop-goal plan was concocted on the golf course.

‘I was on a golf cart with Brendan on the Wednesday before the game,’ says Mallett. ‘On the other cart were Jannie and Joost van der Westhuizen. I said to Brendan, “Jeez, I’m getting very frustrated with Jannie because he’s sitting too deep and giving metres back to the opposition”.

‘Brendan said, “Listen, Jannie will always play like that. He sits in the pocket and has a very good kicking game. Do you know he kicks drop-goals?” Jannie had never mentioned drop-goals to me. That’s where the plan started. Brendan was like a player-coach.’

In 2001, Venter moved to London, where he worked as a locum in local hospitals and played for London Irish. There, he formed a centre partnership with Mark McCall, unaware that a few years later they would become central figures behind Saracens’ golden era of domestic and European dominance. Venter was initially hired as a defence coach at the London club by Eddie Jones in 2008.

‘I knew Brendan from South Africa and I brought him in as a defence consultant,’ Jones tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘History shows that most really good defence coaches have come from South Africa. It’s almost part of their DNA. They prefer not to have the ball.

‘He introduced this touch game called Sonny Bill Williams. It was basically shoulder charging, because Williams was pretty good at shoulder charging. He’d participate and he’d whack the players harder than anyone. It set the tone for Saracens to become a great defensive team.

‘I was brought in at Saracens by the old Brumbies chief executive, Mark Sinderberry. Three months into it, the South Africans took over and I didn’t get on with the new chief executive, Edward Griffiths. For me, the director of rugby has to have the authority. We couldn’t see eye to eye at all.

‘When I decided to leave, the most obvious person to take over was Brendan. If I look at the success of Saracens, the two people who drove them into a really high performing team were Brendan and his captain, Steve Borthwick. Brendan brought that hardness. He brought a winning style of play: kick a lot, defend hard, good set piece. He’s a really charismatic, intelligent, forceful guy.’

Venter and Griffiths remain close confidantes, while the South African influence at Saracens remains, with countryman Ed Coetzee now CEO. Venter’s no-nonsense approach to media duties has historically landed him in trouble.

He has publicly criticised referees – earning him a £21,000 fine (£13,000 of which was suspended) for comments following a defeat by Leinster in November 2010 – and he was one of the first to publicly defend Erasmus when he released a video criticising officials during the 2021 British & Irish Lions series.

His most notorious incident came after a Heineken Cup defeat by Racing Metro in December 2010, giving extremely short answers to every question in Sky Sports’ post-match interview – and later admitting it was inspired by Mike Bassett: England Manager.

‘The first time I came across Brendan was on South Africa’s 1994 tour to Wales, Scotland, and Ireland,’ says Griffiths. ‘I was the team’s media liaison guy on that tour. There wasn’t much call for Brendan from the media at that time because Francois Pienaar was captain, but we spent quite a lot of time together. He had strong views on the game but he was relentlessly positive and that’s his USP.

‘He’s a very dedicated Christian and his faith is at the heart of everything. There are a lot of Christians who talk the talk but Brendan walks the walk in the way he leads his life.

‘Around 2014, my son was in Cape Town with a friend and they had a car accident in the early hours of the morning. They were in their early 20s. They couldn’t drive away from the situation and people were gathering around them in a less-than-ideal location.

‘In the middle of the night, I called Brendan, explained the situation, and within 25 minutes, he got up, got dressed, drove out, and picked them up. There’s not many people who would do that without thinking twice.

‘He has a very clear sense of what he believes is right and wrong and he’s unafraid to live according to those judgments, regardless of the outcome. He was always honest in his opinions – sometimes too honest. Because of that, dealing with the media was something he’d rather not do.

‘Some people might say he was difficult, but I never found him difficult, except in the sense that he would have an opinion and he would stick to it. He doesn’t stop at uncertainty.’

In my experience, Venter has always been happy to pick up the phone to contribute to research about Saracens or South Africa.

The ‘wine consultant’ incident landed badly, but the club’s executives have since worked to build positive relationships with journalists. Venter has sent an open invite to the media to join him next week for a wine-tasting evening at StoneX Stadium.

The club moved quickly to sack academy player Totoa Auvaa this week, with Venter and Coetzee telling the squad of the decision less than 48 hours after the Samoan youngster punched a man in a St Albans street, having been given a formal warning for a nightclub incident involving England cricketers Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson this summer.

‘Take the incident that happened over the weekend,’ says Saracens and England hooker Jamie George. ‘He just gets it out in the open, has an adult conversation with people. That’s the end of it. “Now we move on”.

‘Having not worked with him for 12 years, he took me by surprise in terms of what he emphasises. He’s brought some things to the club that maybe we let slip over the last couple of years – how we are with referees, discipline, how we are with each other. 

‘You put it down on a piece of paper and you want a confrontational, physical rugby team. But he wants us to be able to marry it up with being calm and clear and respectful.

‘With Brendan, the word intense doesn’t do him justice. When I first came in, I was 18 and I was always blown away by how close he will stand to you when he’s talking to you. He’s a massive space invader.

‘He demands intensity and passion in terms of rugby, but always what comes first is caring about people and their families. During pre-season, he spoke almost as much about tactics as how we can make the players’ lounge at the stadium better for families, wives and girlfriends. People often don’t give him credit for that side because you probably get the finger-wagging side.

‘The wine consultant thing was a bit of fun. I hope people get to see the character and the funny side to him because he’s got that too. Honestly, I think he’s brilliant. I think he’s a breath of fresh air.’