Peter De Villiers wins Springboks job
Black coach Peter De Villiers wins Springboks job as rugby bosses admit his colour settled decision
Black coach Peter De Villiers wins Springboks job as rugby bosses admit his colour settled decision - Times Online
The racial faultlines running through South African rugby were forced open again yesterday when a black man was chosen to coach the national team for the first time.
Peter De Villiers was unexpectedly put in charge of the Springboks, the world champions, and the rugby executive responsible for the appointment admitted that the colour of his skin was a deciding factor.
The decision to appoint De Villiers in preference to the highly rated, and white, Heyneke Meyer reignited the explosive debate over the inclusion of more blacks in the country’s white-dominated national sport.
De Villiers, 50, said that he did not want people to dwell on his colour. “The fact that I am the first black coach must end now,” he said.
“Players out there must understand they will all stand an equal chance . . . If they are good enough, talented enough and work hard enough they will be part of the squad.”
His plea to fans to look beyond the colour of his skin was undermined by Oregan Hoskins, president of the South African Rugby Union (Saru), who said that race had been a determining factor.
“I want to be honest with South Africa and say that the appointment was not entirely made for rugby reasons,” Mr Hoskins said.
“We as an organisation have made the appointment and taken into account the issue of transformation very seriously when we made it.”
The appointment of De Villiers split the Saru board down the middle and was eventually endorsed by ten votes to nine. Many members supported Meyer, an Afrikaner, who last season coached the Pretoria Blue Bulls to victory in the southern hemisphere Super 14 tournament, featuring teams from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. De Villiers has coached South Africa’s Under-21 and Under-19 teams.
In the end the issue of transformation — bringing non-white players into a game that was restricted to whites in the apartheid era — tilted the decision in favour of De Villiers.
Saru has been under heavy pressure from the African National Congress Government over its failure to pick more players of colour. Whites accounted for 13 of the 15 players to start in October’s World Cup final against England in Paris.
The quest to give greater opportunities to black players is expected to lead to a further exodus of top white players to higher-paid professional careers in France and Britain.
Victor Matfield, man of the match when the South Africans won last year’s rugby World Cup, has already joined Toulon in France and has said that he would be prepared to continue playing for the national team only under Meyer.
De Villiers succeeds Jake White, who resigned only weeks after leading the Springboks to World Cup success after a succession of bitter arguments with Saru, principally over the inclusion of black players.
Already there is speculation that De Villiers will name Luke Watson as captain of the Springboks. Watson was at the centre of controversy last year when White was told to include the 23-year-old white player on the ground that he was an “honorary black”. Watson’s father, Dan “Cheeky” Watson, turned down the chance of a Springbok cap in the 1970s — when sport was racially segregated — to play instead for a black township team called Kwaru, outside Port Elizabeth. White insisted that Watson was not good enough for the national team but eventually agreed to select him for a friendly match against Samoa.
Last night radio stations and websites were swamped with comments about the De Villiers appointment. Among the comments were “Saru has shot rugby in the head” and “We will never be a force in world rugby again”.
De Villiers said that he was “ecstatic” with his appointment. “The word transformation is a bit of a swear word with me,” he said. “I’m more concerned about a change of attitude than a change of colour.”
I won't play favourites, vows new Boks coach
Brendan Gallagher | January 11, 2008
THE first black rugby coach appointed to take charge of the Springboks, Peter de Villiers, has insisted he will base all his selections purely on merit - despite the South African Rugby Football Union admitting the 50-year-old was not given the job on purely rugby grounds.
Choosing the successor to Jake White, who stepped down last month after four years in charge, was always going to be difficult and controversial in the volatile world of South African rugby politics but SARFU President Oregan Hoskins added fuel to the fire when explaining the appointment of de Villiers, who coached South Africa to victory in the Under-19 World Championship in 2005.
"I want to be honest with South Africa and say the appointment did not take into account only rugby reasons," Hoskins said. "We took into account the issue of transformation in rugby very, very seriously when we took the decision."
All of which will leave former Bulls coach Heyneke Meyer a little frustrated. Meyer was the clear favourite for the job, and a recent South African Players' Association survey indicated that 77 per cent of current players favoured his appointment.
Former South Africa assistant coach Allister Coetzee and former Super 12 Cats coach Chester Williams were the others short-listed and interviewed for the job in Cape Town last week.
De Villiers is well aware of the antipathy and suspicion his appointment might arouse, and appeared to distance himself from SARFU's insistence that factors other than rugby came into play.
"The fact that I'm the first black [Springboks] coach must end now," he said. "I want to be seen as the next Springbok coach.
"The players must understand that they will all stand an equal chance, because our country comes before any ego. All the players will stand an equal chance; if they are good enough, talented enough and work hard enough, they will be part of the South African squad." We'll see, with the best indication being what happens with Watson
Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile paved the way for a ban on racial quotas within South African sport when he told a government committee last November: "Quotas are out. Let us now put our resources into the development of talent. Quotas were used only for window-dressing for international consumption. Those who have the money go and buy the players, instead of developing the boys where they are. The Government are not going to decide who must be on the team." All sounds good - fingers crossed
It is also expected that SARFU will drop its ban on selecting overseas-based players, although such a policy change will have to be confirmed by a vote at the President's Council on March 27. De Villiers would then be free to select high-profile senior players such as John Smit, Victor Matfield, Butch James and Percy Montgomery, who all moved to Europe after winning the World Cup in October. Can't see that helping with the development of local players though, regardless of colour...
De Villiers said he would lean heavily on the foundation laid by White over the past four years, and he would not summarily replace the players used by White with the younger generation with whom he has worked closely.
"When Jake White took over as coach, he did not have a winning culture to build on. I am in a privileged position to be able to just go forward. If I go now and try to reinvent the wheel, I'll be stupid," he said.
De Villiers will meet the coaches of South Africa's five Super 14 sides in Cape Town on Monday to plot the way forward. "The players are our most important assets," he said. "If we, as coaches, can work together in the interest of the players, that will be the best thing to do."
The Daily Telegraph
