PdV praises Pienaar
25 Nov 2008
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers lauded Ruan Pienaar’s performances at flyhalf.
De Villiers took a calculated gamble to play Pienaar at pivot for the year-end tour Tests, and it was a gamble that paid dividends. Pienaar showed an aptitude for the role, displaying a complete skill set over the three Tests he played at flyhalf.
It is yet unclear whether Pienaar will be retained at flyhalf for the Lions series in mid 2009, or whether De Villiers will opt for the experience of Butch James, who is enjoying a good season with Premiership side Bath. For now he preferred to focus on Pienaar’s contribution.
“I was very, very happy with the way Ruan came through on this tour,” said De Villiers. “You guys [the media] know how well he can read a match and what a superb tactical player he is.
“He has a sense of how to keep the tempo of a game going forward, an eye for the break and an awareness of space and position. I think he’s quite probably the best all-round player in South Africa.
“We took him over as a flyhalf because we need good number 10s in this country and he has shown he can be the man we are looking for.”
De Villiers also gave the tour overall a pass mark, although he did concede that there were areas of their play that demanded attention.
“We reached our goals on this tour and some things went to plan and others need some more looking at,” said De Villiers. “We got a lot out of the guys and found out just how deep they can dig into themselves when they are asked to.”
81 Comments
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25 Nov 2008, 11:53 am
Me mother once told me:
Better to read without blinkers before reacting
25 Nov 2008, 11:54 am
#50 Dumb Supporter:
They read too many articles from JC on playing tight.
25 Nov 2008, 11:58 am
So Jonny Wilkinson thinks the Boks have improved since he last played against them.
How can this be??? Oh wait, the senior players are running the show so once again NO CREDIT goes to the coach
25 Nov 2008, 11:58 am
#52 PissAnt: Seems that they lost speed and agility that forced them into a tighter role.
I’m hoping that Eddie knows something we don’t, because Spies doesn’t look a shadow of the player that seemed destined to be the biggest thing since Lomu.
25 Nov 2008, 12:15 pm
okay well, here goes, Well done PdV in beating a BRILLIANT Wales team, the BEST EVER English team in history and the ultimate destoyer of the universe Scotland side (by a whole 5 points! – moer!) .. thanks Peter, without you we would battle to beat the likes of Japan & USA.
25 Nov 2008, 12:18 pm
wpw, did you see Johny mention PdV’s name in that moerse long interview? For me Jean (great Super 14 as captain) & Jantjies improved because of Rassie … and JP, because of Plumtree
25 Nov 2008, 12:31 pm
PdV was never my 1st choice coach.
However I think he did well in his job in the first year.
We haven’t won all our games in a end of year tour for how long.
Well done on that, strangely I always felt that that sould very rarely have been a problem for us.
Yet not many SA coaches has achieved that, so hats of PdV and the team.
The question remains, could it have been even possibly better under another coach?
We will never know, so for the time being, good luck PdV. You and the team will have my support.
Unfortunately I think PdV needs to employ a couple more specialist coaches to help him.
Clive Woodward did that for Eng, build a realy strong unit, nobody follwed on on that and it seems its all forgotten and they’ll have to start all over.
Jake White did implement some very good things and I just hope we don’t go the same route
25 Nov 2008, 12:37 pm
#49 wpw: Gee these guys talk some rubbish for the sake of articles – he is writing this stuff to psycologically support the English team!! “Don’t worry Eng you are rebuilding and you just happened to play against the best team ever – ever ever!!!” Would he have written this garbage a week ago after the Scotland game? or a week earlier after Wales? Maybe after the Aus game before that but certainly not the rest of the TN games!!
Come on I was so happy with the hiding we gave Eng but Eng beat us in all other stats – tackles, turnovers, possession, territory and their scrum murdered ours. This tells me that we were good and took our opportunities but Eng were utter utter utterly diabolical!! Lets not get swollen heads now!!
This is the start of the Lions (which may be the Celtic Lions) psycholigical war! And I tell you what we are the easiest team in the world to get sucked into it!!
25 Nov 2008, 12:40 pm
#6 wpw: Amen
#53 wpw: Of course not
25 Nov 2008, 13:05 pm
#57 Blouste:
Springbok Records since 1998
1998 Tri-Nations (Tri-Nations title)
Played 4, Won 4, Lost 0 = 100% record
Coach: Nick Mallet
1998 UK Tour (17 test victories in a row)
Played 4, Won 3, Lost 1 = 75% record
Coach: Nick Mallet
1998 Season
Played 12, Won 11, Lost 1 = 91% record
Coach: Nick Mallet
1999 Tri-Nations
Played 4, Won 1, Lost 3 = 25% record
Coach: Nick Mallet
No UK Tour (World Cup year)
1999 Season (3rd place in World Cup)
Played 13, Won 8, Lost 5 = 61% record
Coach: Nick Mallet
2000 Tri-Nations
Played 4, Won 1, Lost 3 = 25% record
Coach: Nick Mallet
2000 UK & Argentina tour
Played 4, Won 3, Lost 1 = 75% record
Coach: Harry Viljoen
2000 Season
Played 12, Won 6, Lost 6 = 50% record
Coach: Nick Mallet (37.5%) / Harry Viljoen (75%)
2001 Tri-Nations
Played 4, Won 1, Lost 2, Draw 1 = 25% record
Coach: Harry Viljoen
2001 UK and USA tour
Played 4, Won 2, Lost 2 = 50% record
Coach: Harry Viljoen
2001 Season
Played 11, Won 5, Lost 5, Draw 1 = 45% record
Coach: Harry Viljoen
2002 Tri-Nations
Played 4, Won 1, Lost 3 = 25% record
Coach: Rudolph Straeuli
2002 UK tour
Played 3, Won 0, Lost 3 = 0% record
Coach: Rudolph Straeuli
2002 Season
Played 11, Won 5, Lost 6 = 45% record
Coach: Rudolph Straeuli
2003 Tri-Nations
Played 4, Won 1, Lost 3 = 25% record
Coach: Rudolph Straeuli
No UK tour (World Cup year)
2003 Season (1/4 final World Cup exit)
Played 12, Won 7, Lost 5 = 58% record
Coach: Rudolph Straeuli
2004 Tri-Nations (Tri Nations title)
Played 4, Won 2, Lost 2 = 50% record
Coach: Jake White
2004 UK Tour & Argentina tour
Played 5, Won 3, Lost 2 = 60% record
Coach: Jake White
2004 Season
Played 13, Won 9, Lost 4 = 69% record
Coach: Jake White
2005 Tri-Nations
Played 4, Won 3, Lost 1 = 75% record
Coach: Jake White
2005 UK & Argentina tour
Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1 = 66% record
Coach: Jake White
2005 Season (Mandela Plate Winners)
Played 12, Won 8, Lost 3, Draw 1 = 66% record
Coach: Jake White
2006 Tri-Nations
Played 6, Won 2, Lost 4 = 33% record
Coach: Jake White
2006 UK Tour
Played 3, Won 1, Lost 2 = 33% record
Coach: Jake White
2006 Season
Played 12, Won 5, Lost 7 = 41% record
2007 Tri-Nations
Played 4, Won 1, Lost 3 = 25% record
Coach: Jake White
No UK Tour (World Cup)
2007 Season (World Cup Winners)
Played 17, Won 14, Lost 3 = 82% record
Coach: Jake White
2008 Tri-Nations
Played 6, Won 2, Lost 4 = 33% record
Coach: Peter de Villiers
2008 UK Tour
Played 3, Won 3, Lost 0 = 100% record
Coach Peter de Villiers
2008 Season
Played 13, Won 9, Lost 4 = 69% record
Coach: Peter de Villiers
(Note: Certain Mandela Plate matches initially did not count as Tri-Nations matches)
25 Nov 2008, 14:17 pm
#58 BMM:
Damn, so now you know what Jonny Wilkinson was thinking…
Oh dear!
25 Nov 2008, 14:21 pm
2002 UK tour
Played 3, Won 0, Lost 3 = 0% record
Coach: Rudolph Straeuli
What I wanna know is how Straeuli survived the EOYT of 2002. 0 from 3 tests. Oh my word!!!
25 Nov 2008, 14:24 pm
#61 wpw:
You should not that there is always a conspiracy theory with which to undermine … no matter how far fetched
Only a matter of time before we here that PdV is actually an undercover communist looking to remove the capitalistism from sport
25 Nov 2008, 14:25 pm
There was a maturity in Pienaar’s play, which I appreciated.
He played like a man who has the full backing of the team and coaching staff.
25 Nov 2008, 14:25 pm
Fok, that post was all wrong. Lets try again
You should know, there is always a conspiracy theory with which to undermine … no matter how far fetched
Only a matter of time before we’re told PdV is actually an undercover communist looking to remove capitalism from sport
25 Nov 2008, 14:26 pm
#63 saffa_guy:
25 Nov 2008, 14:28 pm
#65 saffa_guy:
must be your Bantu eddication… LOL
25 Nov 2008, 14:48 pm
Rob Houwing
Cape Town – Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has earned generous British praise for his “first-class co-operation” with captain John Smit in the buildup to the famous 42-6 thrashing of England at Twickenham.
Writing in national daily newspaper The Guardian on Tuesday, chief sportswriter Richard Williams said: “It was the team who won the match, of course, but it was the head coach who accepted the captain’s request that the players, experiencing physical exhaustion as they faced the final fixture of a long season, should be excused serious training in the days leading up to the contest.
“Many coaches would have been too insecure to agree to such a radical proposal but a piece of first-class co-operation received its reward when the Springboks not only out-thought England but out-ran and out-tackled them, too.
“Their mental and physical appetite put their opponents to shame.”
Williams said De Villiers had shown his mettle in the face of theories suggesting he was only in the post for political reasons.
“Affirmative action, explicit or otherwise, can never be an entirely happy business, and there has been no shortage of grumbling about the principle and its alleged implications for South African rugby.
“In the run-up to Saturday’s meeting, for instance, it was being said that De Villiers, appointed head coach last January, is not up to the job and that the man who should be doing it, Heyneke Meyer, finds himself coaching Leicester Tigers simply because his skin is the wrong colour for the mood of the times.
“The 41-year-old Meyer is a coach of long experience at the top level and led the Blue Bulls to the Super 14 title last year. De Villiers is 10 years his senior but his experience has come mainly with the Springboks’ age-group sides.
“His appointment was widely criticised, not least by former international players who believed that he would weaken the side by favouring black players in order to please his political masters.
“Well, De Villiers did a pretty good job on Saturday.”
25 Nov 2008, 16:56 pm
Fellas, I really think that the unecessary criticism of PDV is borderline disgraceful. Seriously, I am not taking the holier than thou approach here, but for goodness sakes let’s give this man CREDIT. Let’s give him atleast a little applause. You may not like the colour of his skin, the way he talks, think Meyer should have had the job, etc etc etc, but look at his record. It is not too shabby at all. When the Boks loose, it is PDV fault, when they win it was because of the senior players. That is absolute nonsense is my opinion. In fact from what I understand he makes his decisions in the collective, empowering his assistant coaches and players to make decisions. He may not be as articulate as Mallet, as analytical as Jake, have the record of Meyer etc, but he has delievered. We can all point to the Tri-nations as a disaster (when last did we have a good one? 2005!), but we destroyed Wales at home (they are the best team in NH by far), won in Dunedin for FIRST TIME EVER, (1st win in NZ for 10 years), ANNIHILATED OZ, and we know the rest. And just read the article above about Smit pleading for rest to put into perspective Scotland performance. Guys, let’s be fair men, put aside our opinions and views for a second, and back this team and THIS coach. Well done PDV / snor / whatever they call you. You have done a great job, having walked into one of the most difficult jobs in the World and were written off from day 1 before you even started. Well done!!!
25 Nov 2008, 18:14 pm
#60 PissAnt:
#69 Yes Please:
Piss Ant, so what we can derive from these stats is that since 1998, since we got our act together after we messed up our previous WC holding, is that 2008 has been the most successful year the Boks have had besides JW’s 2004 wonder year!!!!
For Farks sakes guys, I agree 100% with Yes Please! Get behind the guy. It seems that he has a good relationship with the players and respects them, and they respect him enough. If not we might have lost one or two games on the EOYT. It is the MOST successful EOYT since 1998. So what makes us better than JS and Big Vic?
PDV credentials in his first year as coach:
Giving Aus their biggest hiding EVER (when most expected a narrow win)
Winning for the first time ever in Dunedin (when all said it could not be done)
Giving Eng their BIGGEST whipping in 136 years (when some doubted we could even just win)
Winning in NZ for the first time in 10 years
The most successful EOYT in 10 years (and prob more)
And this coming of the back of not being the first choice coach on merit.
This coming of the most loved coach in history of Bok rugby.
I have often criticized Snor for many things, but I think this is one critic that he has shut up for a while.
Back the guy man Fookit.
Why bring the guy down when he already has one of the most stressful jobs in the world? Lets not be ********. When he ***** up again, I will be waiting with the shotgun and Butchers knife, make no mistake, but I will also give credit where it is due.
Snor, you can rest easy for now. Thanks for the good times and lets forget the bad.
25 Nov 2008, 18:30 pm
#69 Yes Please: #70 Greenpoint-Gunner:
i totally agree with these 2 guys.having been there at murrayfield and twickenham and also had personal chats with a few springboks i know personally they informed me of how PDV has a great relationship with them.i also witnessed a light hearted moment in the hotel room where Gary Gold was trying to give PDV a headlock in the foyer .this showed me how comfortable they are with each other to the extend of even spending free tym together. B.Habana paid tribute to Pdv on sat saying he had kept faith in him despite the pressure to drop him n tht he was grateful fo his backing.John Smit also gave him credit fo allowing them to rest.
nomatter what people say 9 out of 13 is good .way better than what the previous world champions(england) did after their triumph in 2003.so PDV n the Bokke have my full backing .welldone continue proving the detractors wrong
25 Nov 2008, 18:37 pm
Springboks’ painful journey finds gold at rainbow’s end
South Africa should remain known as the Springboks, a name that symbolises the country’s struggle for change
Comments (15)
As the dark green coach swept into Twickenham at one o’clock on Saturday afternoon, rugby fans heading for the turnstiles could make out the faces of players and officials at its windows. Almost half of them were black. What a change this seemed from the November occasion in 1992, the year after the last legal bulwarks of apartheid were dismantled, when the Springboks returned to London.
That was the day the great fly-half Naas Botha played his last international, powerless at 34 to alter the course of a 33-16 victory for the home side. National anthems had not been sung, a rendering of the old Boer anthem, Die Stem, being deemed unhelpful. But the presence of FW de Klerk in the royal box was applauded with special fervour and the Barboured battalions cheered the entry of the all-white visiting XV as loudly as the arrival of their own team. English rugby was taking one last chance to embrace the old South Africa.
In last Saturday’s preliminaries Die Stem was twinned with Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, the ANC anthem, as it has been on such occasions since the 1995 Rugby World Cup, when Nelson Mandela wore the Springbok shirt and Chester Williams was the sole black presence in a team that claimed an historic victory. The conjoining of the anthems, a juxtaposition rather than a merger, symbolises the difficulties and rewards of the struggle for transformation over the past 15 years.
Six of Saturday’s starting line-up were black, as were the team manager and the head coach. One of the black players, the scrum-half Ricky Januarie, was voted man of the match and the use of replacements allowed the Springboks to finish with an all-black front row. Those individuals shared a magnificent victory with other outstanding performers whose pigmentation would have enabled them to fit into the teams of the apartheid era.
Affirmative action, explicit or otherwise, can never be an entirely happy business, and there has been no shortage of grumbling about the principle and its alleged implications for South African rugby. In the run-up to Saturday’s meeting, for instance, it was being said that Peter de Villiers, appointed head coach last January, is not up to the job and that the man who should be doing it, Heyneke Meyer, finds himself coaching Leicester Tigers simply because his skin is the wrong colour for the mood of the times.
The 41-year-old Meyer is a coach of long experience at the top level and led the Blue Bulls to the Super 14 title last year. De Villiers is 10 years his senior but his experience has come mainly with the Springboks’ age-group sides. His appointment was widely criticised, not least by former international players who believed that he would weaken the side by favouring black players in order to please his political masters.
Well, De Villiers did a pretty good job on Saturday, when South Africa sent England to a record defeat. It was the team who won the match, of course, but it was the head coach who accepted the captain’s request that the players, experiencing physical exhaustion as they faced the final fixture of a long season, should be excused serious training in the days leading up to the contest. Many coaches would have been too insecure to agree to such a radical proposal but a piece of first-class co-operation received its reward when the Springboks not only out-thought England but out-ran and out-tackled them, too. Their mental and physical appetite put their opponents to shame.
Last week it was announced that all teams representing South Africa, in every sport, will shortly be required to wear the emblem of the king protea flower, the national symbol, on their left breast. It’s a pretty flower, with no political or social connotations, but let’s hope that the rugby team continue to be known as the Springboks. Slowly and sometimes painfully a name once synonymous with Afrikaner domination is acquiring a different resonance, made all the more powerful by the acknowledgment of its former associations. And when that green coach left Twickenham on Saturday night, it was filled with men who had taken another giant step on the long road to reconciliation.
An article by richard lawrence of the gurdian UK.heck other nations give credit to our own coach except us.wish Keo and his writers could at least show some respect
25 Nov 2008, 18:55 pm
#26 Tacitus: who gives a **** what this mercenary has to say? **** eddie jones!
25 Nov 2008, 20:04 pm
Is the Werfbobbejane on the loose again?
25 Nov 2008, 20:38 pm
#70 Greenpoint-Gunner:
Those stats form part of an article.
The stats are the last part of it, here is the first part.
It has been a strange old year in Bok rugby, which makes it interesting to review and rate it.
The year started off with a hell of a lot of controversy. Heyneke Meyer who by all accounts looked the likely successor to Jake White (remember they begged him to apply and even extended the cut off date?) lost out by the narrowest of margins to Peter de Villiers, who has been tainted as a ‘transformation’ appointment thanks to the statement by SARU president Regan Hoskins following his appointment.
Peter would not live this down as the year went on, and to my mind, not at all during his entire reign even if he does win the World Cup in 2011.
The main subject surrounding the ‘rugby’ part of De Villiers in 2008 was his game-plan.
It started off well enough against an under strength Wales in Bloemfontein. Peter kept the core of the World Cup winning squad going as far as to lure John Smit, Butch James, Percy Montgomery and Victor Matfield back from Europe. His biggest coup though was retaining Smit as captain, something he made public even before his squad was announced.
Peter came under fire constantly for his supposed ‘running rugby’ at all costs game plan and the first real ammunition the public and media got was in his second test in charge against Wales at Loftus. The Boks struggled and the media machine started rolling questioning De Villiers’ motivation to change what to their mind’s was, a winning formula given the World Cup victory in 2007 under Jake White.
It would be the start of a very tough season for De Villiers.
After an unconvincing win against Wales in Pretoria, the Boks played Italy in a cold and wet Cape Town and thanks to another unconvincing win, the knives started to come out for the Bok coach who through media reports seemed intent of adopting his new ‘open’ style come hell or high water.
Peter had the worst possible start to the Tri-Nations when he lost against a new-look All Black side in Wellington. Again his style of play was criticised and by now the media hounds had more than just a sniff of blood, they were drooling.
Every man and his dog wrote the Boks off in their second test against New Zealand in Dunedin’s House of Pain. Not only did the Boks not beat the All Blacks in almost 10 years at home, but the Boks had not beaten the All Blacks in Dunedin in the history of these two teams playing one another. So following the defeat in Wellington, there was little hope of the Boks recording an historic win – but they did.
All of a sudden two very distinctive camps emerged in the media and with the supporters base – those for De Villiers and those against him, with very few guys sitting on the fence.
Those for De Villiers hailed this victory as the start of the De Villiers era, and those against him, believed he booted his idea of open running rugby, and played a more conservative, Jake White style kind of rugby.
This argument would go on throughout the year.
After an historic win in Dunedin hopes were again high for De Villiers and the team to remain the number 1 team in the world, a ranking they achieved in the World Cup of 2007, and even add a Tri-Nations trophy to the William Webb Ellis trophy they already had.
But as quickly as that high came, so came a low with a loss against Australia the following week.
What was to follow is something De Villiers would rather want to forget.
The Boks lost against New Zealand at home without scoring a single point, and then went on to lose at home, the first time in almost 10 years, to Australia in Durban.
The public, fuelled by perceptions created in the media, reached a breaking point and De Villiers and his captain was boo’d off ABSA Park in Durban following the loss to Australia.
With that came the end of any hope of winning the Tri-Nations and the Boks also had to get used to the fact that they were no longer the number 1 team in the world – a double whammy for the World Cup Champs.
Calls for De Villiers’ head followed in the week heading into the Ellis Park test against Australia from all corners. The general belief was that he was not the best candidate for the job and that the right person (Meyer) was overlooked and together with his insistence on a running game plan De Villiers’ days were certainly numbered.
The Boks however beat Australia by a massive margin at Ellis Park, and the De Villiers followers believed they were once again vindicated – but the rest were still not convinced writing the game off as a dead-rubber.
The Boks then enjoyed a break before they end of year tour, and during this time off-field controversy also almost cost De Villiers his job. The alleged ***-tape scandal rocked SA Rugby and together with some ‘racist’ remarks by De Villiers the knives were out yet again. De Villiers again survived.
The end of year tour did not start off the way people hoped for, with narrow victories against Wales and Scotland the so-called game-plan of De Villiers was again questioned, along with certain selections.
But like against Australia, De Villiers managed to close of the year and tour with an emphatic victory against England putting a record score up against them at home – the worst defeat in their history.
There has been many up’s and down’s, certain selections did not make any sense at times and some losses were unforgiveable in many people’s eyes, but ultimately De Villiers ended off his first year in charge with a 69% win ratio and the number 2 ranked team in the world.
Many remain unconvinced about De Villiers, even though his record as coach in his first year ranks right up there with the best we had in the last 10 years.
Some of his ‘experiments’ also paid huge dividends. Most notably Adi Jacobs at center and Ruan Pienaar at 10 in the recent UK tour. Conrad Jantjes also filled the fullback position quite comfortably with Eddie Jones, former World Cup technical advisor rating him as the best Bok for 2008.
Also, although unimportant to the rugby purist, De Villiers ended his first year by having no less than 7 non-white players on the park in the emphatic win against England, from which the whole front row at one stage was made up of black players – a far cry from the 13 white players with two black wing syndrome we saw so often.
De Villiers broke a couple of records, and was also at the wrong end of some records broken against the Boks.
He has achieved small victories in his experiments and player selections, but also missed the boat a couple of times as-well with regards to selecting certain individuals.
The team ended off on a high and there is hope for the British and Irish Lions tour next year, and with a 69% win record and a clean sweep of his first UK tour, De Villiers in his first year, given the reservations about his abilities when he was appointed, has silenced his critics to some extent and for now, is here to stay, until the Lions series at least.
There will still be those who will doubt his abilities, every Bok coach went through the same thing – how he learn from these challenges will define him.
For my money, he is on the right track.
26 Nov 2008, 04:24 am
#75 PissAnt:
Good one.
PS, I am in Korea and except for what went on on the Park, I did not catch much of whats going on in SA rugby this year.
So I have one question, if anyone will be so kind. What happened with that ***-tape thing? Was he found not-guilty, or merely let loose on a technicality like Puky?
26 Nov 2008, 08:47 am
#76 Greenpoint-Gunner:
No evidence apparently, so no investigation.
26 Nov 2008, 16:25 pm
Stop posting novels, I don’t think much of pdv, but as long as the boks win I don’t care wo is running the show.
26 Nov 2008, 16:28 pm
My theory is that Puky’s dad blackmailed PDV for not playing his son. Then some did a very good job at covering it up.
26 Nov 2008, 18:25 pm
What amazing play..
26 Nov 2008, 20:11 pm
North and South divide.. the margin large..
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