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De Villiers: No free Bok ticket
10/01/2008 10:47 - (SA)
Cape Town - South Africa's first black rugby coach Peter de Villiers said on Thursday that players would continue to be picked on rugby criteria.
De Villiers, successor to Rugby World Cup-winning coach Jake White, was addressing fears that his appointment could mean the break-up of the predominantly white Springboks team.
"There is no free ticket for any black player in this country to become a Springbok," he told radio listeners. "I never worked with black players and I never worked with white players.
"I only worked with rugby players throughout my career. At one stage there was a great bunch of black players I coached, at another stage there was a great bunch of white players."
He added: "I never, never see colour and a lot of players can tell you that."
De Villiers was named as successor to White on Wednesday, becoming South Africa's first black coach in 116 years of Test rugby.
The new coach pledged to build on the momentum generated by South Africa's victory in the 2007 World Cup.
"I am now in a privileged position where I can take the intellectual property that we and the leaders of the winning World Cup team left behind," said de Villiers, whose first Test in charge will be against Wales on June 7.
"What the black people really want is people to trust them as people, give them a fair chance, pay them the same rates."
- Reuters
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