End of an error
26 Aug 2011
MARK KEOHANE, writing in Business Day Sport Monthly, says an unwillingness to learn and an inability to control his ego has resulted in Peter de Villiers being remembered more as a comedian than a rugby coach.
In 2008 the former SA Rugby (Pty) Ltd CEO Rian Oberholzer and his successor Songezo Nayo asked me to attend a workshop with Peter de Villiers. Oberholzer and Nayo had left SA Rugby and had formed their own company. Both men felt strongly that Jake White’s successor as Bok coach had to be black and that the evolution of the game in South Africa demanded it. I felt Heyneke Meyer, as a merit selection, should succeed White, but I also could not counter the view that if not a black Bok coach in 2008, then when?
The duo, whom I respect massively, wanted me to spend a session with De Villiers and assess his presentation for the Bok coaching job. They also wanted me to share my views with him on the 2007 World Cup-winning squad and participate in a general discussion about Bok rugby, pre-2007 and post the success in Paris. They asked that I give him a view on the Bok coaches I had written about since 1992 and the two I had worked with (Harry Viljoen and Rudolf Straeuli) as Bok communications manager.
De Villiers, at the meeting, was very animated. Initially he had all the answers. His Boks would run the ball and never again would Bryan Habana play a Test in which he was ignored as an attacking weapon. De Villiers was referring here to the defensive mindset of White’s Boks in the 2007 World Cup final against England.
De Villiers described John Smit as Jake White’s boy and said the player would play no part in his Bok set-up. He said Percy Montgomery was done as a player, had reservations about Jean de Villiers as a Test centre and was not very flattering about the ability of Butch James and Juan Smith. He had a plan with Schalk Burger, but said that if he got the Bok coaching job his ‘go-to men’ would be the Bulls pairing of Victor Matfield and Fourie du Preez.
He told Oberholzer he was going to clean out the World Cup squad and build a team that would revolutionise the way the Boks played, and change the perception the world had of Bok rugby. His team would also represent black South Africa.
Oberholzer, whose company included the management of players and coaches, represented De Villiers in 2008 and Oberholzer was primarily responsible for co-ordinating De Villiers’ job application and campaign.
Oberholzer informally chaired the meeting and once De Villiers had told me what he thought of the 2007 World Cup winners he asked me to tell De Villiers what I thought of the squad. I said the team was built on six pillars, with Montgomery the key among the back three. Jean de Villiers (despite being injured in France) was the defensive brain in the backline and Du Preez the best scrumhalf in the world and the dictator of how the Boks played. There was no backline player in South Africa or the world with a better appreciation of Test rugby’s percentages and understanding of field position in finals rugby.
Having worked with and written about most of the squad since 2000 and having been privy to what their peers thought of them as players, I singled out Smith as the glue in the Bok loosies, Matfield as a lock genius and Smit as essential to the further development of the team. Oberholzer and I argued that the World Cup winners had a future until at least the completion of the 2009 British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa. It was our belief that an evaluation of those players should be made at the end of 2009 once De Villiers had worked with them.
De Villiers showed me his powerpoint presentation and in it he refused to acknowledge anything about the 2007 World Cup squad. That, I said, was a mistake as he had the nucleus of a great team whose achievements couldn’t be wished away. Oberholzer was adamant De Villiers needed to show the public his passion for rugby and his understanding of the game and that the public saw him as a rugby coach and not just a black coach. In that meeting I was impressed with De Villiers’ passion and his appreciation of the game. He made a lot of sense when he spoke in general terms about the game, but there was a lot of prejudice against White and against the establishment. At that meeting he viewed a lot of the World Cup winners as part of the establishment he had felt had denied him opportunities within South African rugby. He also felt the players were too close to White.
Oberholzer and I suggested that if he got the Bok job he should make Smit his captain and allow for the natural evolution of the 2007 World Cup-winning squad. Getting Smit in would allow him time to settle as a national coach and it would also ensure the momentum of the 2007 victory in Paris.
We both also encouraged him to bring back Montgomery and play him for another year. The feeling was Monty could add value in mentoring his successor from within the squad and that he would be the first Bok coach to give back to one of the legends of the game. De Villiers liked the idea that Montgomery could play a mentoring and playing role for a season and then continue with the squad as a kicking and backline skills coach. This would show continuity. I was writing Montgomery’s biography and I said I would speak to Montgomery about it when I met with him in France.
De Villiers asked me if I knew about a post-World Cup fight between Smit and Jean de Villiers, in which De Villiers had hit Smit. He said he had been told this and it had influenced his view on Smit. He felt if a player could punch his captain then there was no respect for him. He also asked me to tell him more about why the players so hugely respected Smith.
I had not heard the De Villiers-Smit story, but said I would find out. A few days later I called Oberholzer with what had happened. The players were on the way to Schalk Burger’s father’s farm as part of the World Cup celebrations (when in Cape Town) and they had all been drinking. Smit had jokingly spat red wine at De Villiers during the bus trip to the farm. The wine went on a white Bok pullover, De Villiers instantly reacted with anger and punched him. Both players immediately apologised to each other.
Peter de Villiers e-mailed me his presentation and I made some recommendations. He thanked me by return e-mail, in the name of the Lord and Christianity, and said the world needed people like me. I never saw his final presentation and don’t know if he accepted or rejected any of my input. That was the last communication I had with De Villiers, as it was Oberholzer who would speak to me before the 2008 international season.
De Villiers got the Bok job, Oberholzer took charge of his contract negotiations and between Jonty Goslett (a former SA Rugby employee who also joined Oberholzer and Nayo) and myself a meeting was arranged between De Villiers and Smit, who was in South Africa recovering from injury.
Smit impressed De Villiers, who committed to bringing him back to South Africa to lead the Boks. When he appointed Smit as his Bok captain I wrote the press release (on Oberholzer’s request). Oberholzer was concerned about Cheeky Watson’s reaction to Smit being made captain. Watson had been instrumental in getting De Villiers the Bok job, but one of the conditions was that Luke Watson would be made captain.
Cheeky Watson and De Villiers fell out when the coach invested everything in Smit’s leadership and never made true on his promise to combine his coaching with Luke Watson’s captaincy.
Outside Smit, Oberholzer had convinced De Villiers it was right to attempt to bring back Montgomery and it was necessary to keep Smith in South Africa.
Oberholzer asked me to contact Smith and assure him he would make the Boks and give the player comfort that De Villiers would select him. There was talk Smith was going to go overseas because of a belief De Villiers was not going to select him.
I also spoke at length to Montgomery and once he was amenable to the possibility of a one-year return, his 100th Test at Newlands and the Bok kicking job, De Villiers flew to France to meet with the player.
Eugene Eloff was the first choice to assist De Villiers, but he turned down the offer. De Villiers then wanted former Bok coach Carel du Plessis, but nothing materialised and it was then that he turned to Dick Muir. Oberholzer influenced the appointment of Gary Gold, mostly because of Gold’s attention to detail and analysis. De Villiers had made it clear he didn’t coach off a clipboard and Gold was the safety net to a De Villiers-Muir combination that was carefree and all about attack.
It took Smit, Matfield, Du Preez and Montgomery a year to change De Villiers’ mindset about how Test rugby should be played and in 2009 De Villiers allowed himself to be guided by the input of the senior players, most notably Smit, Matfield and Du Preez.
De Villiers, by 2010, had lost faith in Muir and Gold and tried to have them fired. He approached every leading provincial coach in South Africa to assist him on the end-of-year Grand Slam tour. Every coach turned down
De Villiers and he was forced to continue with Muir and Gold. The game’s administrators would also not agree to firing the coaches because it would mean having to pay them out and pay their replacements. No replacements could be found because none were prepared to do an ambulance job.
Another decision taken within SA Rugby was to provide De Villiers with as many consultants as necessary in 2011 to mask his coaching deficiencies. These appointments included Rassie Erasmus (technical) and Jacques Nienaber (defence) for the World Cup. It was too late to fire De Villiers.
The decision was forced on De Villiers to bring in Erasmus to provide the technical input so obviously missing in the Boks since 2008.
Erasmus would get a camp in Rustenburg with the core of the World Cup squad, who would miss the two overseas Tri-Nations Tests, and he would get a month after that to prepare them for a successful World Cup defence.
De Villiers, in confirming Erasmus, told the media: ‘With my player management skills and Rassie’s technical knowledge we can conquer the world.’
That comment said everything you needed to know about De Villiers’ four-year tenure. It has been a huge disappointment. He only got the job because of the colour of his skin, but he failed to recognise the opportunity and failed to change the view that he was only given the job because of political reasons, as was confirmed by South African Rugby Union president Oregan Hoskins in 2008.
De Villiers was not able to manage his ego and refused to allow Oberholzer to do the same. The two parted ways, as have most who were instrumental in getting De Villiers a job he never had the emotional or rugby intelligence to negotiate.
De Villiers, out of his depth and not capable of acknowledging his shortcomings, gave control to Smit and the senior players, whose World Cup performance will determine how De Villiers is remembered as a Bok coach.
Personally, I’ll remember him as a coach who didn’t have the capacity to grow, to learn or to want to learn. I’ll remember him as a coaching embarrassment in the past four years
and not as a winning or losing Rugby World Cup coach.
At this point I need to apologise to the rugby community for any small part I may have played in him getting the job.
I’ll also remember him for being true to his word about Smit, Smith, Du Preez, Matfield, De Villiers and Montgomery once Oberholzer had persuaded him these were the men he needed in his corner.
And I will remember him for being more comedian than rugby coach. I will also remember him telling me, via e-mail, the world needs more people like me. Unfortunately, I can’t say Bok rugby ever again needs more coaches like him.
– This article first appeared in the September issue of Business Day Sport Monthly, which is on sale now at selected retailers. Get the magazine FREE with Business Day newspaper on the second last Friday of the month.
942 Comments
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27 Aug 2011, 03:32 am
@topaz at war with aryan brotherhood scum like cane,rangerman….and gunther(topaz)-871: @Dawn(Dawn)-851:
LOL!!! You guys are ******* hectic. I’m still trying to figure out whether this is all real! I mean: “go **** your daughters like the Austrian guy did for 40 years”? Twisted.
I thought this was a rugby site. Mark, if you’re reading this shovel of bickering and racist **** then you must surely think about regulating the site and auditing comments like Planetrugby do because this is actually unpleasant.
27 Aug 2011, 04:00 am
@Sasquatch(Sasquatch)-901: Unpleasant is not the word. Shocking, Sick.
27 Aug 2011, 04:19 am
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-854:
The irony of this comment wrt ” true Africans” is so stunningly overwhelming when one considers that the person making the comment , by admission, was not even born anywhere on the African continent and makes it to another non-African mon key. Only a white misfit can be so rich in thought..
Further, many would agree that ” Better I get gone before I choke on the sickness ” that emanates from the foulest, filthiest mouth that still just spouts loads and loads of the meaningless words and seeming phrases which all amounts to just nothing.
And that delusion eludes long enough to get you to think you take the high road?
27 Aug 2011, 05:20 am
There are no winners in this sorry , sad saga of a rugby revelation by Keo even though he probably deems himself the winner.
All involved in this plot of gross dishonesty have done genuine non-racial rugby a tremendous disfavour and have set it back at least 20 years.
It is patently clear that NO plan or agenda that PDeV. might honestly have wanted to follow wrt running rugby would have been allowed to see the light of day as the delinquent SARU had its own agenda.
The role they forced PDeV. to accept with respect to Rassie just weeks ago is an indication of how extensive their plans and exigencies were.
There has never, ever been any element of trust from that day the announcement by Hoskins, which was meant to compromise the coach, was made.
Neo -racist SARU are clearly the main culprit in all of this rugby set-back.
There are truly only LOSERS in this tragic national situation.
27 Aug 2011, 06:15 am
Comedy
27 Aug 2011, 06:24 am
@chch(chch)-905:
kia ora wahine
27 Aug 2011, 07:35 am
Keo is the winner he got 906 posts on this article already when he probably averages 100 plus.
Seems like negative journalism does sell.
27 Aug 2011, 08:08 am
If SA Rugby concentrated purely on rugby and not politics, we would be far more competitive against the All Blacks. But the politics is killing our game, sadly.
KEO – I think your ego is larger than PdV’s and the need you have to stroke it yourself is nothing short of masturbation. And I love your comment at the end that you played a ‘small’ role in PdV’s selection. Clearly not, so be man enough to blame yourself as much as everyone else you have trashed along the way. What a cop-out!!!
27 Aug 2011, 09:14 am
Keo, ‘Jean de Villiers (despite being injured in France) was the defensive brain in the backline’
yet also co-incidentally, the weakest tackler? doesn’t quite add up.
27 Aug 2011, 09:31 am
glad i dodged this gunfight at the ok corral.
27 Aug 2011, 09:35 am
@Tecumseh(Tecumseh)-910: lol, I must say, it’s an entertaining retrospective read
27 Aug 2011, 09:40 am
What a self indulgent prat to release this article when a group of real SA rugby servants is just about to fly out to try and defend the world cup
27 Aug 2011, 09:48 am
@Tecumseh(Tecumseh)-910:
Typical coward like your IRA heroes.Fire the first shot and then deny it.
27 Aug 2011, 09:52 am
@JockBok(JockBok)-913: good morning jock.what’s eating you up so early in the morning?
27 Aug 2011, 10:05 am
@Tecumseh(Tecumseh)-914:
Nothing, doing good thanks. Big braai organised by the pool this afternoon and the sun is shining. What’s not to like?
I am just wondering how you go from nice guy to po3s and back again though. Have you run out of grog this morning or just not started drinking yet?
27 Aug 2011, 10:28 am
He’s just a po3s.
No nice guy involved.
Typical two faced yellow bellied half assed halfbred bottom feeding scum.
He fools nobody.
27 Aug 2011, 10:45 am
On the whole a very entertaining thread. As always, with some stupidity thrown in from the usual suspects who cross the line, but that’s life I suppose.
Some of the finniest stuff from Tacitus that I’ve read from him ever, he should post more of it.
Enjoy the rugger later,
27 Aug 2011, 11:02 am
Keo on his away to start another error in in Sa rugby didnt he play a hand in Jake being appointed huge error. Wasn’t Keo part of rodolph error ? And now he admits pushing for jdv error past Meyer a merit coach lol. The real error here is KEO shouting other people must resign when he is the ultimate engine for errors and seeding racism and bok player division on a small incident no bigger than quad Cooper punching Beale. Keo u really perhaps Now know tha Pdv time is near end and now trying to exit him to engineer yourself inside a new coach pants so can get inside cabal status only to reveal another error 4 years later. Keo just a snake waiting to pounce on another coach and spit them fours later like what u done with rudolph Jake Pdv
27 Aug 2011, 11:36 am
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-854: OMG! Just realised I’ve come across this garbled junk speak before, under a different name. So many words to say nothing.
27 Aug 2011, 11:48 am
@loyalty counts(loyalty counts)-912: Agreed – sort of sticks in the crall and Ilustrates clearly what is wrong with society today – Rupert Murdoch School of Journalism stuff…….
27 Aug 2011, 13:38 pm
At last some truth about the clown.
27 Aug 2011, 14:56 pm
If Keo does not watch out, his readers might just start a rival site.
This backroom dealing & scheming is what is killing our rugby. That somebody like Keo plays these dubious rolls, I mean how can we trust this guys impartial journalism?
OK, so PDV might be a mistake. But why publish now? Three weeks before the WC?
27 Aug 2011, 15:08 pm
@Maljan(Maljan)-908:
Agreed, I said it a couple of days ago; it’s always been about Mark. Jake White in an interview after ’07 WC said that he was in the UK when he stopped Keo from stepping into the road because there was a car coming. He said to him that if it had been a year earlier he might have let him go such was the crticism Keo was serving up in the media. How quickly things change.
27 Aug 2011, 15:37 pm
I have an idea, how about we build a blog called ‘The Comments are Ours’ or ‘No more Keo’.
Then every-time when Keo posts, we create a post for comments on that post.
That way Keo stops benefitting from all our site visits. All we need is a few of the regular stalwarts on here to support the action, and bob’s your uncle.
Tacitus? Transie? Grant10? Tecumseh? Helen? SarahStormer? Raven etc….
27 Aug 2011, 20:33 pm
@allamapstieks(allamapstieks)-922: The basic tenets of gutter journalism – spice things up as much as possible for the sake of sales – now known as ”hits”
27 Aug 2011, 20:39 pm
@raven(raven)-925:
Money does not talk, it swears…. Bob Dylan.
But it is still important for the public to know -and now we do know, although we might not agree with the timing..
27 Aug 2011, 21:36 pm
Keo jy’s ook n snaakse fokker…
28 Aug 2011, 04:57 am
SAFFAS at war with one another again.
A site for the intellectually bankrupt to display just how inept they are.
Having spent many years doing business with South Africans, I can honestly say that Keo does not attract the average Springbok supporter, but the dregs.
28 Aug 2011, 06:14 am
@Inevitable(Inevitable)-928:
“Intellectually Bankrupt”. “Inept”. Firstly, what are you doing on the site? Just visiting? Did you go to the trouble of registering so that you yourself could make poisoned remarks like all the “dregs” who frequent the site? Hmmm…
28 Aug 2011, 06:17 am
Geez, no wonder SA rugby is in the state it’s in. It has to be one of the most unprofessional sporting organizations in the world.
28 Aug 2011, 08:34 am
JEZ ! You had a number of good posts on this topic and I have enjoy reading them. You clearly think and love the game of rugby. My `thank you post` will be about post 931. and you would probably not see it. Posters like you make this web sight worth while!
28 Aug 2011, 16:03 pm
Mr Keo, I like you, I like your website and I like most of your followers, but please man, stop talking K*K. You had your time to talk sense into Rudi and Harry, but me thinketh you preferred the pay cheque.
A team that boasts over 1000 caps in its starting 22 does not need a coach. It needs a person who can facillitate and mediate the complexities, differences and intricacies that present themseves in these extremely talented and experienced 22 individuals. Only oom Pieter can do a job such as that. VIVA Pieter VIVA………………………….
28 Aug 2011, 16:50 pm
these 2 fukkers ExcrementTwofaced Twat and his arsecreep two faced half bred scum brother in arms Tecomseh – Topaz – Valkyrie trash are NOT African by ANY stretch of any imaginations standard, they are a conglomerate of mixed up half bred fucked up genes swimming around in their fucked up racist marginalized heads and veins, these two fucknuts couldn’t be further removed from being ‘African’ if they tried. The One coollycreep piece of self exiled garbage trash is sitting up Yankee Doodle Dandy’s emperors arse and the other piece of half bred scum trash keeps referring to true Africans as k’ffrs.
Couldn’t get further removed from Africa whatsoever sitting up white man’s arsehole in Philadelphia while supporting imperious imperialism and at same time shouting Mao commie slogans of unity of the black man while hating true Africans with a vengeance, yet if you scratch away at the surface of their coollycreep genetic make up there isn’t an African chromosome or DNA particle anywhere within their mixed up fucked up conglomeration of genetic confused bodies.
28 Aug 2011, 23:34 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-933: That “THING” Tocamseh/Topaz/Valkyrie got very upset when I busted him. Stoooopid fool. He is the worst of the worst type of thing on this site.
28 Aug 2011, 23:53 pm
@Inevitable(Inevitable)-928: In agreement.Not much rugby discussion.Blacks being called k%%%%.Whites being called everything under the sun.Coloureds and Indians attacked as per post 933.Normally post on more tolerant rugby sites.
29 Aug 2011, 01:38 am
@zambok(zambok)-918: What was teh problem with White being appointed?did he not wiin teh RWC for us? Did he not take a Bok team from being RUBBISH to being first in teh world, with a leadership team that is STILL supporting the backbone of the Boks, without any help from a coach?
How on earth people can still rip off White given the clear quality that he built that squad out of, is unbelievable…
29 Aug 2011, 09:37 am
Ladies and gents … how disappointing. I expected at least 1000 comments. I like the idea of a rival site as suggested by a few of you. Go forth and multiply. The more good sites the better.
29 Aug 2011, 09:39 am
@Helen(Helen)-6: 4 years (that’s when it would be appropriate)
29 Aug 2011, 09:51 am
@Helen(Helen)-231: Hate to remind you boys (again) I run a rather interesting business that has 29 magazine titles, a consultancy business, a couple of website and a few other bits and bobs.
I don’t sit behind a laptop for 24/7.
29 Aug 2011, 10:29 am
Keo, you snake you. Which is worse. Your cruel timing or your active involvement with every embarrassing Error of SA rugby. Lucifer never takes the moral high ground afterwards. What are you?
31 Aug 2011, 14:06 pm
Great article Keo, always nice to know what is happening behind the scenes. Now I understand better PdV’s dependence on John Smit. PdV needs him not only to connect with the team but also with his assistants. I must say, it would be amazing if we win the World Cup under these circumstances!
2 Sep 2011, 15:11 pm
I say chaps, I registered just to say that as an Englishman who has been blogging on one of your Yarpie blogs for almost two years now (and who was pointed to this article earlier today), this is the first time I have had any insight into how you Yarpies could have appointed an obviously stupid and incompetent little man to be your national rugger coach. Jolly well done to Keo for such a frank and insightful article. Good show!
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