The wait is over... Peter De Villiers is an international coach once more

Former Springbok headcoach Peter De Villiers has been named as the new head coach of Zimbabwe.

This is the first international rugby appointment since his departure from the Springboks in 2011.

Despite his unpleasant Springboks exit – a defeat in the World Cup quarterfinal to Australia – he had a fairly good success rate during his four-year term.

Peter de Villiers is the new Sables coach and will be assisted by Brandon Dawson pic.twitter.com/l5pxKE5CJa

— Larry Trusida (@LarryTrusida) February 7, 2018

During his tenure, the Boks scored significant victories over the British and Irish Lions (2009) and won the Tri-Nations (2009) – securing a rare 3-0 whitewash over the All Blacks that same year.

The 60-year-old’s immediate assignment is to help Zimbabwe qualify for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

This is a huge challenge, especially for a side who side only managed to feature in two World Cup editions back in 1987 and 1991.

Furthermore, Zimbabwe also had a terrible run in the Africa Gold Cup last year, where they won only one match, against Senegal, and lost to Kenya, Namibia, Uganda and Tunisia.

However, De Villiers, along with Zimbabwe, will hope they can change their fortune with matches against the same opponents in this year’s edition of the same competition, which will double up as the World Cup qualifiers.