PdV: ‘I am the boss’
7 Dec 2009
SA Rugby magazine’s hard-hitting interview with the Springbok coach.
Your critics say that your technical knowledge of the game is poor, and that all the technical stuff surrounding the Boks’ game plan comes from your assistant coaches and the senior players. What’s your response to that?
I went to Wales to do my level-two coaching course, and paid my own way. The way it works is that you do the course and then go coach for another two years before you return to do the level-three course. I had just come back to South Africa when the Welsh Rugby Union called me and said they were so impressed by my technical knowledge of the game that they wanted me to do the next course straight away. I chose to do those courses in Wales, because I’ve always admired the great players they had in the ’70s, like Gareth Edwards and JPR Williams. I knew I would be working with equally talented players back in South Africa.
So you do make technical contributions in the Bok set-up?
Of course. When I said the All Blacks were scrumming illegally in last year’s Tri-Nations, I had video footage to back it up. No one else in the Bok squad had spotted it. The same thing happened when I questioned the Wallabies’ scrumming methods this year. I was the only person who saw what they were doing. I also make technical observations about other areas of the game, like lineouts and attack.
Do the senior Boks run the show as some have suggested?
Let me make one thing clear – I am the boss, I am the CEO of South African rugby.
In John Smit’s autobiography he explains how the coaches and the senior players meet the day after a Test to plot the way forward for the week ahead. Why did you decide to have such a democratic process?
A good CEO doesn’t make every decision on his own, he consults with other senior people in the company and gets their input. Why would I not want to listen to my assistant coaches and senior players like John and Victor [Matfield]? They all have something to offer. But the final decision on how we play rests with me.
There’s a rumour going around that Dick Muir made those controversial substitutions against the Lions in the first Test in Durban. True or false?
Let me explain. My voice isn’t suited to the radio we use [to communicate with the staff on the sideline] as I talk too quickly and my voice goes high and then low. Why would I want to talk when I can make use of Dick’s strong voice?
But does the message to make the substitutions come from you?
Yes.
So why did you make all those changes when the Boks were 19 points ahead and in complete control?
You know, if I could have done it over again, I would have made them earlier, because I could see the guys were getting tired and went into a defensive mode. By the time I brought the fresh legs on we couldn’t get out of that defensive mode.
Smit believes the Boks would have won by 25 points if those changes had not been made.
No, I don’t agree with him.
Do you regret the way you handled the Schalk Burger ‘eye-gouging’ episode after the second Lions Test in Pretoria?
No, I don’t.
Why didn’t you just tell the British and Irish journalists at the post-match press conference that you couldn’t comment until you had watched the video? In the end, Smit had to step in and say that.
Why should I have had to do that? The South African journalists in the room should have asked me what it was like to have beaten the Lions in a series. But you sat back and let them ask me those questions [about Burger]. You wanted to see me fail.
But you could have stopped their line of questioning yourself. Why rely on the local media?
No, you should have stopped them. You were all intimidated by them. I saw the look in your faces.
So you have no regrets at all about that press conference and the following one on the Monday?
I regret confusing the words ‘condone’ and ‘condemn’. If I had spoken to [the foreign media] in Afrikaans, I would have won that battle easily.
Then why didn’t you?
No, why man? I just got one word wrong.
Were you given a dressing down at that meeting with SA Rugby after the Lions series?
No, it was just a meeting to discuss the progress of the team. We had a similar meeting at the end of last year.
But you seemed to choose your words far more carefully at press conferences after that meeting. You were a changed man during the Tri-Nations.
I didn’t change. You [the media] changed because we were winning. I will never change. That’s why I say ‘I am who I am and I don’t give a damn’.
Why do you think the South African rugby media want you to fail?
Because your man didn’t get the job.
Who? Heyneke Meyer?
You said it, not me.
Do you think some of the media are racist?
You said it, not me.
Do they irritate you during press conferences?
I know that most of them have played rugby before, but I can tell by their questions that they haven’t played at a very high level. If it hadn’t been for apartheid, I would have played for the Boks.
Let’s go back to the beginning of your stint as Bok coach on the day you got the job. How did you feel when [Saru president] Regan Hoskins said your appointment was ‘not for purely rugby reasons’?
I don’t let the bad things in life affect me.
But how did you feel when you heard those words?
I felt nothing. Regan is entitled to his opinion and it didn’t bother me at all. I know I’m a good coach and that I deserve to be where I am today.
The Boks finished last in the 2008 Tri-Nations after starting the tournament as favourites. Why did you choose to abandon a structured approach for a more expansive one?
What laws were we playing under? We had to adapt our game because of the ELVs. I never said that I didn’t like structure, I said we would play total rugby. When I got the job as coach I said I wanted to take the Boks to the next level.
So you don’t regret adopting the game plan used last year?
No.
Then why the return to a more structured game plan in this year’s Tri-Nations if total rugby was the way to go?
The message came from me that we should kick more this year. Then because we had kicked so much [in the three home Tri-Nations Tests], we were able to surprise the Wallabies in Perth with a running game that resulted in four tries.
What was your lowest point of that somewhat difficult 2008 season?
The sex-tape story, which wasn’t true. I had to watch my 82-year-old mother cry.
Before you were appointed as Bok coach, there was talk that you’d pick 10 black players in the starting line-up if you got the job, yet you finished the Tri-Nations with only two black wings and a black Zimbabwean prop who wasn’t eligible when Jake White was coach. Have you failed in terms of transformation?
If a racist white guy voted for the National Party, but then changed his views after 1994, that is transformation. The Springbok team has been transformed because the colour of a player’s skin doesn’t matter anymore. I’m not going to pick black players to make up the numbers, because I will do them more harm than good.
But there were still only three players in the Bok starting XV. Isn’t that a concern?
Look, I think Adi Jacobs is the No 1 centre in the country, but he got injured and by the time he was fit Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie were doing well together so I couldn’t drop either of them. Ricky Januarie is an excellent scrumhalf, but I can’t drop Fourie du Preez. And Conrad Jantjes broke his leg earlier this season. We could have had six players of colour in the starting XV in different circumstances.
But you only had three which is why you were slammed by that transformation committee.
What have they done for the good of this country? What contribution have they made?
You’ve said that the Super 14 coaches are to blame for the lack of black players coming through. Do you stand by that?
Yes, they don’t think black players can make it at that level.
Would the situation be different if three of our five Super 14 coaches were black?
You said it, not me.
Do black players and coaches have to work twice as hard to get the same recognition and plaudits as their white counterparts?
Of course! I’ve had to work 10 times harder than any other white coach to get to where I am today. Why wasn’t I ever offered a coaching job at Super Rugby level?
Is there something wrong with the system when someone like Frans Ludeke, who failed dismally with the Cats/Lions, gets the Bulls job?
You said it, not me.
You have a high profile as Bok coach and earn a big salary. Has that changed you as a person?
I haven’t changed. I still live in the same house in the same area [in Paarl]. It will be hard for me to leave because I want the people in my area to be proud of the fact that they are living near the Bok coach. I still drive the same car that I had before I got the Bok job. It just needs to get me from A to B.
Do people you know expect more from you? Do they ever come and ask you for money to help them buy a car or pay off a loan?
No, do I look like a charity?
By Simon Borchardt
– This article first appeared in the November issue of SA Rugby magazine
494 Comments
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7 Dec 2009, 10:54 am
@Dantalian: the last question was distasteful to say the least..
7 Dec 2009, 10:55 am
@wallabie.:
We in the Republic have no expectations nor we set any acceptable standards for the like of PdV, Skop and the rest of the shebin brigade, this is a democracy at its purist state!
7 Dec 2009, 10:57 am
@Dawn: @theOracle: Agree.
7 Dec 2009, 10:58 am
@wallabie.:
For once I agree with you.
Dump the whole thing.
7 Dec 2009, 10:59 am
Just drop any of these manipulative senior bok’s if thats whats required to get fresh thinking into the setup, who practically have encrusted any hope of progress with their stuck fast attachment to staid old dead end rugby and move on. If they can’t step it up past this kick and chase dead beat dross then leave them behind and move on. And stop consulting them. Stamp some authority. If you want Pienaar at fly half or Jacobs at center stick with your decision, the committee consultations is probably whats confusing the whole setup. John Smit maybe got too much say and too much control over game plan and selections, if thats the case then the tails wagging the dog. Simply play best player in your mind per position no matter how deep or thick the pedigree or reputation runs, if its finished its finished.
7 Dec 2009, 10:59 am
I’m sending a mail now.
7 Dec 2009, 11:01 am
@Dawn:
Ask them while face the Keos where, when and by whom this interview was conducted!
I know a fabrication when I see one,
It does however serve to sort out the guys on this blog by their education and class, educated people will not buy such a publication without minimum ceredentials to go with it.
7 Dec 2009, 11:04 am
These questions show an inherent disrespect for PDV. In fact if it was me I would have sent Simon “in his moer”. Simon you phucking racist!
7 Dec 2009, 11:09 am
@wallabie.: Yeah, they provoked him, but he stepped right in it. I was shocked to see how deep seated PdV’s racism lies.
7 Dec 2009, 11:10 am
imagine if saru had appointed a “coconut” for a coach, dang he would’ve set us back a good 30 years! Thank goodness for the “God given talent that is pdv, (who) doesn’t give a damn”
7 Dec 2009, 11:11 am
@Xhosaskid: I’m sorry for what happened to Gawie Hough and his family…and I’m sure PDV would feel the same way if he knew what happened (I bring up PdV because I don’t think what happened to Gawie justifies your attack on PdV…or your understanding of PdV’s use of the word RACISM).
7 Dec 2009, 11:13 am
to all imperialists, colonialist and sorry ***, jealous white faces, who cant stand the fact that a black man is running sa rugby, up yours, eat it, digest it and may it never leave your body and mind. we as blacks are here to stay and we will usher in the new era and teach your morons how the game should be played. pieter is a mastermind, and the one thing i like about him is that he says it like it is and does not take sh@t from pale faces. open your racist brains, keo and all who feels the shoe fits you, i suppose suddenlly everbody wears one shoe size smaller now. i just love this interview, it just showcases the shallow and petty mindedness on these colonialists and how they cant stand the bog shot big boss comrade pieter. eat this your sorry asses!!!! LEKKE NE, WHEN POWER SHIFTS AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!!
7 Dec 2009, 11:14 am
@King Shark:
There is no excuse for this interview it should not have happened at least with these questions.
Regardless of PDV answers it was poor from the interviewer…the interviewer is wrong here and not PDV answers.
7 Dec 2009, 11:18 am
@graeme1:
Gloating will get you nowhere + it tends to show ones inherent racism…pot, kettle?
7 Dec 2009, 11:19 am
@Graeme1 .. you po3s …. 95% of the Bok side is white …
95% of the Bull players are white ….
How do you get :
we as blacks are here to stay and we will usher in the new era and teach your morons how the game should be played.
Its guys like you that makes one see why there was apartheid.
Racist d00s
7 Dec 2009, 11:19 am
If Matfield and Smit are controlling the team then fire them. Them controlling the team is a sign of arrogance and them thinking they are bigger than SA rugby.
If this is their attitude they would have been gone in Mallets team in fact most other teams.
7 Dec 2009, 11:21 am
punk *** little whiter than white prick’s pulling this little White illustrious rugby wagon thinking they got some insight into this individual or this game they hold so religiously sacred to their lily white hearts.
Maybe the better thing to happen is Pdv just go ahead and pick a purely transformation side, 100% politically inspired. Then let the rest sink or swim by the wayside. They can all go play for top Euro’s in the top 14 or pounds sterling in Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Beast
Maku
Nel
Bekker
Raubenheimer
Brussow
Moyiso
Johnson
Adams
Rose
Habana
De Jongh
Mapoe
JPP
Kirchner
Maybe thats a bit closer to true representation, maybe thats what all these ideologically driven rugby fundi’s and scribes like Gavin Rich and Simon Borchard would prefer to see. Maybe thats just what Pdv should do. Stick it to these dose where it hurts most and let them suck it up good.
7 Dec 2009, 11:21 am
The heading tells it’s own story.
“SA Rugby magazine’s hard-hitting interview with the Springbok coach.” and by lined by Simon.
That must be one of the most arrogant and vindictively patronising interviews I’ve ever had the misfortune to read. Hard hitting, it wasn’t. Amateurish and insultingly condescending is closer to the mark.
7 Dec 2009, 11:21 am
@graeme1: Eish boet! Calm down will ya?
7 Dec 2009, 11:22 am
@graeme1:
Seems like it’s just not the white colonialists that are racist then ?
You any better ?
7 Dec 2009, 11:24 am
@Hondo:
What you are witnessing is not a democracy…at least with the interview.
A democracy is first treating and respecting each other as equals and then allowing a person to speak their mind.
When that person speaks their mind they must first understand that they are speaking to an equal.
That is a democracy!!
Democracy is not loosing your views without caution and tact.
7 Dec 2009, 11:27 am
Has this edition of SA Rugby magazine already been printed.
7 Dec 2009, 11:27 am
@graeme1: Bet you think good old Julius will make a great President too?
7 Dec 2009, 11:28 am
@Xhosaskid: “Its guys like you that makes one see why there was apartheid.”
you must love the ANC government don’t you?
7 Dec 2009, 11:28 am
i was also wondering about this “hard-hitting” business, who got more hits, and who got in the harderst hits?
pdv = manny pacquiao, simon “nick armstrong’s *** lover” borchardt = ricky hatton
7 Dec 2009, 11:30 am
@Transformation: Transie, do me a favour…keep Rassoneri (forgot spelling) away from this thread..
7 Dec 2009, 11:31 am
I am not a big fan of PDV but am willing to give him credit . We must avoid simplistic thinking where things are good or bad . Like everything in life things are not black or white but varying degrees of grey . As a coach has PDV been a success ?
Yes .
Has he made good decisions ? Yes most of the time .
What good decisions did he make ?
Bring Smit Back
Having **** in the coaching mix
Having Percy as kicking coach
Selecting Morne even though he wasn’t his favorite
Going back to a conservative plan even if he thought otherwise shows he is pragmatic
Has he made some **** ups ? Yes
In the bigger scheme of things he is a good man manager . I just think his greatest area of weakness is his PR .
Every coach has weaknesses . Even the great Nick Mallet was a bad man manager .
7 Dec 2009, 11:35 am
I bet Simon has never asked Jake White if needy white folk back on the wrong side of tracks expected more of Jake and asked him for money because he’d become a rich man…!!
Simon’s question doesn’t just reveal his inner feelings about PdV but his inner feelings about the good folk of Paarl who are PdV’s neighbours and friends…
sheesh Simon… why don’t you just put a noose around your credibility… and jump!
Awesome thing about PdV is that he still lives in his same house, and drives the same car, as he always did… That is someone who is truly comfortable in his own skin and truly doesn’t need to imppress anyone… Kudos to PdV!!
The only other coach to do that was Harry because he was so rich beforehand he already had the best of everything…
Nothing was ever mentioned of the little boy from Jeppe who now hob-***** with the glitterati of the Winelands…
7 Dec 2009, 11:37 am
No Wallabie its good they pose these farce interviews and get it right off their chests, because this is what the majority of white rugby supporters in this country are actually thinking, so let them ask the leading questions and when they get the dead pan answer of ‘you said it not me’ its obviously where they been leading the inquisition anyway, looking to set a trap of superiority vs inferiority racially motivated over tone.
Pdv must just let em have it, any which way they choose they not going to get given their holy white empire back on a platter again. And keep all these holier than thou know it all’s like White and the rest of em, Meyer included if the shoe fits, far away from anything to do with Sa rugby again. Either these scribes and supporters realize the reality on the ground or they get taken to the cleaners kicking and screaming like the dead beat cromagnon species they are.
7 Dec 2009, 11:41 am
If PDEV acts decisevely and bravely iro selection and game plan 2010 could be the year PDEV can say he did it “his way”.
Time to be bold PDEV !!
7 Dec 2009, 11:45 am
I wonder if Simon would ave had the gall to ask these quesions to Jake, Harry or Mallett?
I reckon Mallet would have given Simon a snot klap so hard that he would be eating his bacon and eggs through his *** and crapping out of his ears.
7 Dec 2009, 11:46 am
@justrugby:
He has already done it his way!!
7 Dec 2009, 11:50 am
@wallabie.:
Some would have you believe that he has done it the senior players way, irrespective of what has been said in the interview !!
7 Dec 2009, 11:52 am
Seesh guys, how about giving PdV a break! This has been an amazing year for the boks – even if you include the EOYT. We beat the Lions and totally dominated the TriNations. Snor has made some mistakes but he deserves more support from all rugby supporters, journos included.
For all the mistakes he’s made he’s also proven flexible – picking Steyn and Brussouw, sticking with Fourie when Adi got over his injury, getting BJ & CJ into the mix and moving Smit back to hooker even though Bismark & Strauss were available.
7 Dec 2009, 11:54 am
@skopskiet:
ah. the irony of it all….”Simply play best player in your mind per position no matter how deep”
…and sorry to inform you, but Bekker, in your transformation only side….is actually a white afrikaaner.
It still boggles the mind how the far left are still lost withregards to this blog and the freedom of speech afforded to them.
it’s like the middle, right and far right can’t venture an opinion?
7 Dec 2009, 11:57 am
@theOracle: ha ha ha ha unfortunately she works on the other side of the baakens river so i can’t even distract her away from her laptop. i think she might be in court this morning so some respite for you…lmao
7 Dec 2009, 11:57 am
In one respect I disagree with PdV.
“I am the Boss!!”
Think Bruce Springsteen may have something to say about that!!
but Pdv… YDA!!
You Da Man!!
7 Dec 2009, 11:59 am
@ golden boy: malema will make a great prsident, because he will eradicate this kind of interviewing and thinking patterns all together, i would vouch for him to be the coach of the rugby team also, if i must take the standards by which the old goverment did things, putting poeple in postitions that dont know anything. now you think we blacks do the same, not so. we appoint competent people, the best. that why peiter got the position. becuase to your prejudice preconceived dull minds a black man is incompeten end f story. but boy we will brainwash you until you worship us, you aint seen nothing yet. we will hit your brain against the wall and take out all the **** that you believe. in fact malema is my hero, just as heyneke meyer is probably yours. now shut up and leave politics out of rugby. let the black man do his thing just as you have been for the past 40 years, you had your turn to bad you will never get one again!!! politics and rugby are not synonomous, but you whites fail to see this, since you suffer from a mental illness calles a superiority complex even in the face of earthshattering evidence that your time are long gone. wake up buddy, and let rugby be rugby !!!!!
7 Dec 2009, 11:59 am
heyneke meyer…still the best coaching vision in the country.
and a 1st class man to boot, never felt the need to bad mouth anyone even after being continuelly shafted by saru.
7 Dec 2009, 12:03 pm
sheesh ufo…
YDM…!!
You Da Man!!
7 Dec 2009, 12:06 pm
@graeme1:
dude, seek help.
africa, and in particular southern africa,has historically been the slowest to develope civilizations in the history of the entire planet.
care to venture an astute opinion and reasoning on this fact?
for my money, it’s because to many plonkers like Malema are given status. Is a std 8 pass the best the ANC youth leadership can muster up these days? Just you be grateful for the colonization of africa, the wheel wouldn’t have been invented here yet with Malema’s running the show for the past 400 years.
7 Dec 2009, 12:07 pm
@graeme1: Five exclamation marks is a well known sign of insanity
7 Dec 2009, 12:08 pm
@graeme1:
LOL….mfwete I’m blacker than you will ever know. However, unlike you, I don’t feel the need to bring my color in to a rugby topic, which makes u a fool…a prime one at that…It’s idiots like you that give racist fools ammunition.
Do yourself a favor and get back to the Youth League blog so that you can hero worship your leader.
F@ckin ****
7 Dec 2009, 12:09 pm
@graeme1:
Dude you are winner, lol.
You can polish my tyres anytime.
Just try not to necklace me.
7 Dec 2009, 12:10 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl:
Eish!
7 Dec 2009, 12:15 pm
@graeme1: comrade. There’s no need to generalise and there’s no need for all the diatribe. Remember we all are in pursuit of a non-racial country/society so curb your enthusiasm for rhetoric before any semblance of sense in what you’re trying to convey gets lost. It’s easy to be angry and fired up but try and articulate your points well so that even your opponent has no choice but to be floored by the logic in your argument.
Not every scenario needs a populist response.
7 Dec 2009, 12:15 pm
Well,well.
About 4 months ago, here on Keo, I read that the SARU had told Peter to put a sock in his cakehole.
Looks like he spat it out.
7 Dec 2009, 12:19 pm
50. wallabie. :
For once I agree with Wallabie.
Give the guy a break, whether he is man managing or coaching or a mix of both (more likely)even FDP says the bok setup has one of the best working environments ever. (As some said by other bloggers he might need to shift them out of their comfort zone as well sometimes)
Like any good leader you listen to the people with knowledge around you and then make the final decision. (exactly as he answered).
I still rate JW a better coach, he built something from nothing, PDV still needs to prove he can do that. But PDV is doing a good job and I wish people would give him more due. Poor chap, no wonder he is arrogant, if he doesn’t back himself who the hell will it seems
7 Dec 2009, 12:23 pm
this graeme1 character can only be a troll.
don’t think that anybody still harbours such dark thoughts.
could be wrong i suppose – maybe i am naive.
7 Dec 2009, 12:26 pm
@Mike H:
me…!
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