Cape Town - The Western Province Rugby Union (WPRU) has reportedly appointed an independent investigator to probe the management issue relating to Stormers assistant coach Paul Treu.
According to a report on IOL Sport, Treu has submitted a 26-page document detailing his grievances to the union’s board.
The reports adds that the document contains instances of unfair treatment that Treu believes he was subjected to.
It was reported in July this year that Treu had stormed out of a Stormers season review meeting. Treu reportedly said he “had enough of being treated poorly” and was “not going to take it anymore”.
It is believed that Treu and another of the Stormers' assistant coaches, New Zealander Paul Feeney, do not see eye to eye and that he also feels head coach Robbie Fleck does not value his input.
After news of the Treu incident became apparent, WP Rugby president Thelo Wakefield, CEO Paul Zacks and director of rugby Gert Smal held a meeting with all the members of the Stormers coaching staff (Fleck, Feeney, Treu and Russell Winter) to discuss the matter.
Afterwards, Wakefield said he believed a solution would be found in due course, and that the issue was blown out of proportion in the media.
However, an independent investigator has now been tasked and according to IOL Sport, it is not yet clear when the investigation will be completed.
Earlier this year, the Stormers shuffled the roles of their assistant coaches, while Fleck remained head coach.
Treu, formerly the team's defence coach, became the 'assistant coach for structural play'.
What it meant was that Treu coached the team until the third phase on attack, while on defence he took charge from first phase until the next set-piece.
Feeney, last season’s backline and skills coach, was put in charge of 'attack and defence from unstructured play'.
Winter, last season’s forwards coach, became assistant coach for 'forwards and contact situations'. This area included the 'breakdown'.
The changes were made to create more synergy between the coaching staff, the Stormers said.
The Stormers won only six out of 16 matches in this year's Super Rugby competition and failed to reach the playoffs.
The Cape side narrowly avoided the wooden-spoon in the South African Conference, pipping the Bulls on points differential.
