1
Fans jump to Peter de Villiers' defence
By Josh Raisey
South African fans have defended former Springboks coach Peter de Villiers after he had to reveal on Twitter that he had a level three rugby coaching certificate.
The 62-year-old had applied to be the head coach of the Southern Kings, the maligned PRO14 outfit, but it was reported in the newspaper Rapport and on the 702 radio station that he was under-qualified.
De Villiers has since shown his coaching qualification on social media, saying: “I would never have coached the Boks without it”.
He added that these are “lies designed to malign me and prevent me from being hired by The Kings”.
Although this ordeal may have been demeaning for the coach, it looks as though he has the backing from the South African public on social media, who feel that this attempt to slander him has gone far enough.
One fan highlighted the ‘vendetta’ that the South African Rugby Union seems to have with de Villiers, while others have pointed out that the media in South Africa seem to target him.
This probably stems from his time with the Springboks between 2008 and 2011 where he was known to be a prickly character who said some controversial comments. Furthermore, since leaving his post with the national team, he has been critical of the SARU.
But a lot of fans have said that not only has de Villiers got the qualification, but his time with the Springboks speaks for itself.
During his four years in charge, he guided the team to a Test series victory against the British and Irish Lions in 2009, won the Tri-Nations that same year and had a 47 per cent winning record against the All Blacks. But he has still been criticised for his time in charge with the Boks.
Regardless of what happens with his future, de Villiers has the support from large swathes of fans. This is what they have said on Twitter:
This is the latest episode in a tough few weeks for de Villiers after current Springboks prop Tendai Mtawarira was highly critical of him in his recently published autobiography, calling into question his coaching credentials and methods.
While this is unlikely to be the end of this saga, the coach can know that although he feels the media and the SARU are against him, the majority of fans are not.
WATCH: The latest RugbyPass documentary, Foden – Stateside, looks at how ex-England international Ben Foden is settling into Major League Rugby in New York
Trending on RugbyPass
2
'Chaos': Lawes sheds light on the social that ended 2 England careers
3
How much Toulon are paying new signing Antoine Frisch
4
It's the same old South African story for the Sharks
5
Latest Comments
Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
Go to comments