Peter de Villiers – Coach Profile
Peter de Villiers is a coach with the South African Rugby Union (SARU), currently coaching South Africa’s Springboks. He has also played rugby at the position of scrum-half and is the first ever black coach for the Springboks.
De Villiers was born in June 1957 at Paarl, South Africa. He went to school at Klapmuts Primary and later graduated from the Perseverance College, Hewitt College. As far as playing rugby goes, he played rugby in the apartheid era of South Africa. He played
the scrum-half position for the Boland and the Griquas teams of South Africa. During this time of upheaval, De Villiers was unable to play the Rugby World Cup (RWC) of 1987 and 1991.
His official career as a coach started in 1996, with his coaching a small club by the name of Tygerberg. He stayed with this club until 1997, after which he joined with the Western Province Disas the same year. He was made the assistant coach of the Western
Province team and took them to the Currie Cup. Similarly, he took another team through to the Currie Cup of 2002 and 2003. He helped the SARU’s Under-19 team play for the Under-19 Rugby World Championship in 1999, bringing them out as third in the competition.
He then went on to coach the under-21 (U21) team of the Springboks. Under his tutelage, the U21 team came out third in the 2004 Rugby World Championship cup; first in the 2005 Rugby World Championship cup and second in the 2006 Rugby World Championship cup.
These performances earned him the coaching job with the Emerging Springboks team in 2007. The Emerging Springboks won a match against the Argentina-A team by 24-10, in the International Rugby Union (IRB) Nations Cup of the year 2007.
In 2007, the coach of Springboks, Jake White, retired and De Villiers was one of four chosen as his replacement. De Villiers was appointed as the first black coach of the team in 2008. The present coach joined on with the team on the assurance that he would
be the one to pick out a squad. This request was granted and a 42 man squad was hired. It contained 16 players of colour, but it did not contain the player and scrum-half Ricky Januarie, resulting in De Villiers team coming under attack from public. However,
this squad of De Villiers helped defeat both Wales and Italy in the pre-Tri-Nations matches.
Furthermore, the Tri-nations 2009 was won by the Springboks under his guidance. Similarly, after the Tri-Nations, his team took down the All Blacks three times and the Wallabies twice. However, his comments of cheating against the All Blacks earned him criticism
from many quarters. This disgrace followed by losses to France and Ireland, sparked more debates of discontent against the coach. His defence of the Springboks flanker, Schalk Burger Junior, after he was clearly at fault and his further continuous defence
after the players’ suspension further shrouded him in controversy.
The coach’s comments and the surrounding controversy, earned him the censure of Makhenkesi Stofile, the South African Minister of Sport. The 2010 season still showed problems encircling the coach. The situation did not improve when the coach accused the
referees of a conspiracy against the Boks team and him during the Tri-Nations 2010 losses against New Zealand. Other coaches also condemned his behaviour.
The Tri-Nations 2011 has seen the Springboks at the third place on the Tri-Nations table. The match lost against Australia sparked a no-confidence vote against de Villiers. However, SARU gave him the assurance that his coaching job was not under question.
Nonetheless, the Tri-Nations defeat by the Australians has put the Springboks on shaky ground and left the team, fans and SARU wondering if they are up for the rest of the Tri-Nations series and the likes of the Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2011.
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