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
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 [6] 7 8 9 10 » Show All
7 Dec 2009, 14:51 pm
@Sheriff: It’s important to Keo that Pdv fails, because he and Simons and the rest of these clowns have invested their credibility and souls with JW.
JW wants the DOR job with SA Rugby and piling on the pressure, hence why the articles are becomming more particularly nasty and condescending.
7 Dec 2009, 14:51 pm
@rangerman:
You are on the wrong side.
One day, we will all be wholesale capitalists.
Mark my words.
7 Dec 2009, 14:51 pm
PDV het my nuwe tande betaal en 20L papsak gekoop vir xmas.
7 Dec 2009, 14:52 pm
PDV…watershed year….so many really kak sad saffas want you to fail….some like the guys back on this blog that ran like that Clifton Mist before the real Saffas…..
PDV …dont let us down…take control….
Jake gets that job back i may have to support Kenya….
7 Dec 2009, 14:53 pm
@WP Till I Die:
Then Transformation is lying?
7 Dec 2009, 14:53 pm
@Simon: @244 who won the lottery between Jake en Keo…and how many “friends” came out of the woodwork to come and pretend to be journalists?
7 Dec 2009, 14:53 pm
@Simon: Oh! So Pdv won the Lottery? When. That’s news!
As for shaking his hand. I asked because that is the standard, but I didn’t think you applied something as basic as good manners to Pdv, him being a black coach and all.
7 Dec 2009, 14:53 pm
@Klaas: So see through its scary……the KKK are back in town.
7 Dec 2009, 14:54 pm
hmmm….so paul tells it treu again eh?
will those olympics 7′s players be good enough to wear the bok?
or will they be like the brother of the 1st team player, who plays in the 3rds?
7 Dec 2009, 14:55 pm
@theOracle: What Simon is trying to say is that in his view, when a black person gets a good job, all their neighbours and family loaf on them. Isn’t that what you were trying to say Simon.
7 Dec 2009, 14:55 pm
“244. Simon :
December 7th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
@rossoneri: When someone – black or white – wins the lottery, they are often hounded by ‘friends’ who come out of the woodwork, are they not?”
This is so funny, it’s not funny!
7 Dec 2009, 14:56 pm
@rossoneri:
I know why he wants PdV to fail.
I merely put it there to try and help him to reflect on this.
English speaking Cape based whites are not yet used to success by other parts of SA community.
7 Dec 2009, 14:57 pm
@rossoneri:
Exactly.
It’s a cullart thing.
7 Dec 2009, 14:57 pm
@Dawn: wholesale?
i prefer retail.
and no, i dont eat giraffe…often. but it does end up in processed wors and the like.
protein is protein dawnie.
7 Dec 2009, 14:58 pm
Fark me….i would love a 10 minute chat to PDV….sort a few things out easy peasy…..
7 Dec 2009, 14:59 pm
@Sheriff: Hey….dont generalise!
7 Dec 2009, 14:59 pm
i think the papsak and nuwe tande comment was hilarious.
i like to laugh.
it heals.
7 Dec 2009, 14:59 pm
@rossoneri: so that means my question does not apply to Keo the former spin doctor& Jake the former schoolteacher?
7 Dec 2009, 14:59 pm
The black man is boss and if he tells the white boy: Run, tackle, kick… YOU DO IT! Or you wont get a boerewors at the annual kkk braai
7 Dec 2009, 15:00 pm
@grant10:
Want his number?
7 Dec 2009, 15:00 pm
Simon…as Nama said….interview PDV again….ask some real rugby questions….2010 such a hugely important year….can think of a dozen questions i would love to ask…..
7 Dec 2009, 15:00 pm
@Simon: #244
Does the same happen when someone – black or white – lands a job with a better salary?
That’s all that happened here. That question was offensive to the community in which PdV lives. No matter how you’d like to spin it.
7 Dec 2009, 15:00 pm
@grant10:
I should have said white journalists.
My apologies Grant.
7 Dec 2009, 15:01 pm
@Simon: lol.you probably had a bottle of ajax jik on standby to wash-off the brown after that handshake!
7 Dec 2009, 15:01 pm
@Sheriff: what about the english speaking highveld cullarts?
7 Dec 2009, 15:01 pm
@PissAnt: Seriously would love to have a chat to PDV….and i promise i would not waste his time with any kak either.
7 Dec 2009, 15:01 pm
@Sheriff:It’s sad when they are afraid of the success of another South African only because he is black. It’s frightening to think that Simon would be more comfortable if Pdv was a drunk, not a success. How farked up is that.
7 Dec 2009, 15:02 pm
@Sheriff: cool
7 Dec 2009, 15:02 pm
@RaynoG: hey raydog.
wassup.
boss.
7 Dec 2009, 15:04 pm
@grant10: if you had a 40 min call, you would run out of time after repeating “turbo reverse” for the 626th time.
7 Dec 2009, 15:04 pm
@nama1: And to Pdv.
7 Dec 2009, 15:04 pm
276 hits & counting …. well done Simon. Xmas bonus for you.
7 Dec 2009, 15:05 pm
Just hope PDV doesent allow this Management by Senior Bok Committee to continue if, indeed , it does exist in the 1 st place.
Seriously that is looking for major strife.
Anyway….PDV…show these okes what you made of…be bold my man!!!
Beach calls…..
7 Dec 2009, 15:05 pm
@rangerman:
Harry the Beachwalker’s views must be taken a handful of salt.
You can check out his pic on that other social network; sits there like a hunter who have had no success all day long.
7 Dec 2009, 15:05 pm
@grant10:
Unfortunately other journalists ruined it for all of us, he does not talk much to people anymore…
7 Dec 2009, 15:06 pm
@Valkyrie:
there is some funny **** going on here today i must say.
i think the thread has run its course and the poison has been drawn from this wound.
isnt it nice to have a place like keo where we can all meet and vloek each other.
south africa needs more places like this i tell you.
7 Dec 2009, 15:06 pm
@rossoneri:
Simon’s problem is that he wants to feel better about himself and therefore delights in others failures.
Not the way to go.
7 Dec 2009, 15:07 pm
@Sheriff: harry hasnt been around for so long it feels like another lifetime since i saw him.
7 Dec 2009, 15:07 pm
I am the Stig.
7 Dec 2009, 15:09 pm
Before I leave, I would like to say to Simon and co.
PdV is here to stay.
And since rugby is not politics(tongue in cheek) he will probably be a COACH FOR LIFE! Having served many “terms in office” as long as he delivers the goods! and in the process he will generate quite good income for Keo so that you can get paid! He is your cash cow…respect my man, respect!
7 Dec 2009, 15:09 pm
“I am the Boss” sounds like ‘short man syndrome to me’:lol: umshmiwami…!!!
7 Dec 2009, 15:10 pm
Range
I speak these languages:
1st Afrikaner
2nd Cape Kullid
3rd SA English
You will therefore appreciate my limitations on a blog of this nature.
7 Dec 2009, 15:10 pm
@rangerman:
Sheriff is obsessed with Harry.
Harry couldn’t give two flying f(&*(ks about him!
7 Dec 2009, 15:10 pm
@rangerman: Absolutely.
7 Dec 2009, 15:11 pm
@rangerman:
He needs to pop in here otherwise I’ll have no choice but to call him a loser
7 Dec 2009, 15:11 pm
When you have a look at JPP, Habs, Pdev’s ID book what do you see ???
When you look at Vic’s , Schalks, Smitties Id Book what do you see ???
Answer is a South African !!!!!!!!!, not a white, not a black, not a coloured but a freekin South African !!!
Geez …..parties from both sides , get over it man !!!! we are all South Africans , let’s take on the Aussies, the AB’s, the Poms………..time to find solidarity with ourselves as Saffas.
Simon your interview has done a lot to undo any bridging that has taken place !!!
Stick to the rugby boet, the line of questioning is designed to fuel racists appetite…..not cool !!
7 Dec 2009, 15:11 pm
@Dawn: Transformation lied about what? I never said wptid takes orders from sheriff!
Where is simon now? I provided you pau treu’s view and then you scurry away like the weasel that you are!
7 Dec 2009, 15:14 pm
simon would have felt better if pdv was a drug dealer and not a bok coach earning those millions.how the hell can a coloured make millions being a bok coach!elke nag skrik simon wakker,natgesweet en skreeu’fw de klerk,fok jou,jy was n groot doos’
7 Dec 2009, 15:15 pm
@Sheriff:
Ja. You are limited alright.
7 Dec 2009, 15:16 pm
Dawn praat jy wat tande het!
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 [6] 7 8 9 10 » Show All
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.