Peter de Villiers lays into SA Rugby

Editor

New Zimbabwe coach Peter de Villiers has launched a scathing attack on SA Rugby, claiming that they tried to prevent him from getting future employment.

The former Springbok boss made several accusations against his former employers saying that they blacklisted him, offered union money not to appoint him as their coach and even phoned the Zimbabwe Rugby Union, trying to dissuade them from making him their new national coach.

"I am so glad to be the new Zimbabwe coach, it gave me comfort because I am not welcome in my own country, so I am leaving," De Villiers told the Citizen.

"The first thing I will do when I get to Zimbabwe is sing the national anthem, because they want me there. The Springboks don’t want me.

"I got a call from the Zimbabwe Rugby Union to say there is a problem, SA Rugby say I am blacklisted and they cannot appoint me. 

"When Boland wanted to make me coach, someone from SA Rugby offered them R2 million (US$170321.48) not to appoint me, and a union like that cannot afford to say no to that sort of money."

"SA Rugby does not want to hear from me, they will say I am bitter, but they are deluding themselves. If you say to someone 'What do you know?', then you don’t want to learn from anyone else. As Springbok coach, I knew what I had and how to utilise the players. 

"My biggest disappointment was that Allister Coetzee and Heyneke Meyer never made the time to talk to me so I could share my experiences of how badly I was treated with them. Rassie Erasmus came to the World Cup for four weeks in 2011 and Heyneke chose to speak to him about the four years I was in charge."

De Villiers' main goal is to help Zimbabwe qualify for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. If he succeeds, it will be the first time since the 1991 World Cup in England that Zimbabwe participates in the global showpiece.

The Zimbabwe Sables are currently in fifth place from a six-team group who are trying to qualify for the World Cup. The top team in the group will automatically qualify for the global showpiece with the second-placed team going into the into the repechage.

De Villiers had a 62 percent winning record as Springbok coach and guided them to the 2009 Tri Nations title as well as a series win over the British and Irish Lions the same year and was in charge of the Boks in five victories against the All Blacks.

He feels, however, that his role with Zimbabwe is more important than the Springbok one.

“I know it’s going to be extremely difficult, the job is bigger than the Springbok job because 95 percent of the people in South Africa expected me to fail," he added.

"In Zimbabwe, the pressure to be successful is so much more and I don’t want to damage their hopes. But I laugh in the face of danger.

“It’s a bit easier that I don’t know the players so I won’t be biased. But I will set my standards – the norms at international level – to compete at that level. The likes of David Pocock, Tendai Mtawarira, Brian Mujati, Tonderai Chavhanga and Takudzwa Ngwenya all come from Zimbabwe so there should be no more questions about whether they have the players."