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2-year contract for De Villiers
09/01/2008 15:21 - (SA)
Cape Town - Peter de Villiers was on Wednesday named as South Africa's first national black rugby coach.
De Villiers, 50, who has no Super 14 coaching experience, ousted favourite Heyneke Meyer after a gruelling process of psychometric tests, business plans and exhaustive interviews before a selection committee appointed by the presidents' council.
The four short-listed candidates were De Villiers, Bulls coach Meyer, present Springbok backline coach Alister Coetzee and former Springbok Sevens and Pumas coach Chester Williams.
The selection process culminated in the appointment by the presidents' council on Wednesday when they ratified the proposed candidate put forward by the selection panel.
De Villiers, the South African Under-21 coach, who also coached the Baby Boks Under-19s in 1998 and 1999, succeeds World Cup winning coach Jake White at the helm of South African rugby.
SA Rugby president Oregon Hoskins this week emphasised that the ideal candidate for the position should have the ability to marry success with transformation.
At Wednesday's media announcement of the coach, Hoskins acknowledged that the goal to broaden rugby's racial base was a factor in De Villiers' appointment.
"I want to be honest with South Africa and say the appointment did not take into account only rugby reasons... we took into account the issue of transformation in rugby very, very seriously when we took the decision," Hoskins said.
Meyer has by far the best record
The implementation of SA Rugby's transformation goals would therefore have been an important issue in the appointment of the coach - something that could have swayed the vote, despite the fact that Meyer has by far the best record pertaining to the development of black players in the country of all the Super 14 coaches, and is generally regarded as the superior candidate purely on coaching ability.
This was reiterated by the landslide - and, it must be said, informal - support from the country's professional players who are members of the SA Rugby Players' Association, which also counted for nought when the presidents' council accepted the recommendation of the selection committee and ratified De Villiers' appointment.
De Villiers, who played for Griquas under the old Saru banner, has an initial two-year contract. He played down the fact that he was the first black national rugby coach, and that colour would be irrelevant when it came to selection.
"Players 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," he said.
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Rugby
