Mbalula wants PdV back
14 May 2012
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula is bringing former Springbok coach Peter de Villiers back into rugby to assist with development.
Mbalula told Sowetan that the government wants De Villiers to develop the best model for grassroots rugby in the country.
‘We are engaging him,’ he said. ‘The man has a wealth of knowledge that we need to tap into. Peter has done well for the country, including winning big events with the junior national teams.’
Mbalula believes that De Villiers, who was coach of the 2005 world champion Baby Bok side, could assist with the development of talent in less traditional rugby centres such as townships and villages.
‘There is talent in abundance in the townships and villages in Gugulethu, Khayelitsha and the Eastern Cape. We want to see schools in Seshego, Bloemfontein, Mamelodi and other townships also playing rugby and producing great players for the Springboks.’
However, De Villiers said on Monday that he had no knowledge of Mbalula’s proposal, but said he would be interested in taking up a development post.
‘Let me tell you, if one can give back to your country it is good news,’ De Villiers told SAPA.

83 Comments
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14 May 2012, 13:55 pm
all rugby supporters should be forced to drive through the eastern cape on saturdays, especilly the townships, and see how many rugby games are being played, vs soccer games, and the conditions that these people play in.
THEN come tell me about historical f#cking affinity. most kids in model C schools, (not to even mention the elite private schools) would simply stop playing if they had to contend with those conditions. and that is not a swipe at the model C schools, its simply a indication of the passion for rugby round here.
if that can be nurtured, and developed properly we are sitting on a potential goldmine of talent. problem is the development money is squandered year after year through inefficient administrators, and the local unions either are too weak, or too complicit to do anything about it.
that leads to a situation where all the talent from this area are running out for other franchises, and there are people the say the Kings dont deserve a chance to improve on the Lions horrible record.
14 May 2012, 13:59 pm
@ufo(ufo)-11: Good post bud, agree totally.
14 May 2012, 14:00 pm
a strong person to properly run development is the best idea i have heard for a long time, but that person would have to be independent and not have to answer to the PC. PdV is a strong indeoendent character, but they should appoint a 2ic for him, someone with a very strong corporate management background.
a retired CEO, or a retired judge for instance. a lot fo money is being pumped into development, but the leaks need to be plugged.
14 May 2012, 14:02 pm
@roobarb2(roobarb2)-51:
Another problem is the dwindling amount of male teachers that teaches rugby in schools. Some previously strong rugby schools in my area (primary) hardly completes any more.
Very worrying!
14 May 2012, 14:05 pm
@Mr Black(Mr Black)-54:
Competes
14 May 2012, 14:07 pm
here in east london the traditional rugby schools like Selborne and Dale also have a challenge where the boys want to start playing soccer, and sports like hockey are seriously competing for talent. there is a lot of resistance to that but i feel you must let the kids play what they want to. I want my kids to be happy and they play waterpolo, and thats where their passion is. so they like practicing and they do well.
you cant force situations on people. just like i would rather try and find a outside coach than force a teacher to coach rugby, as his team will be spending a LOT of time bickering behind the poles.
14 May 2012, 14:23 pm
@Sir Watson(rugbinho)-37:
No, it wasn’t fine when those people were given their current jobs. There was an outcry on this site when Straully got the job at the Sharks as well as when Ludeke got the job at the Bulls.
Since then, Ludeke proved himself and Strually stayed quiet, so we just forget about their failures.
The way Peter’s skin color can play a role here is because it did play a role in his appointment. This lead to him getting a job he wasn’t ready to take. Not because he was black, but because he was inexperienced. A term under an experienced coach like Meyer would have done wonders for his development as an international coach.
Instead, he was given a job he wasn’t qualified for and he was relatively unsuccessful given the talent he had at his disposal.
We Saffa’s are an emotional lot and we don’t like losing. So Pete is being made a culprit while the real one who is supposed to be looking for a job is the sods who appointed him, but I have a feeling those guys are still doing their jobs.
Div’s a decent guy and I think he is at a place where he can add value to SA Rugby. Someone as passionate about the game as him must give that passion to our schoolboy players.
14 May 2012, 14:36 pm
Positive move for the development of South African rugby and I wish him well.
14 May 2012, 14:39 pm
Everybody wins, really.
Hope his mandate includes club rugby and not only schools.
14 May 2012, 15:24 pm
@roobarb2(roobarb2)-51:
great post bluebarb…!!
you need to repeat it whenever this debate comes up…
@Puma(Puma)-52:
shot bud…
14 May 2012, 15:29 pm
@Bloues(Grootdrink)-57:
Did he not do a term under Nick Mallet as assistent coach? Why was that not enough?
14 May 2012, 15:50 pm
I like this idea. Divvy has great rugby enthusiasm. I think he’s the perfect guy to drive a meaningful effort like this. I’d absolutely support it.
14 May 2012, 15:51 pm
@roobarb2(roobarb2)-51: This man speaks the truth.
14 May 2012, 16:04 pm
@Ufo, late reply mate but yes hes going to U-dubz. You see Slappes was visiting at his parents in paarl for the wknd and guess who rang the frontdoor bell… (he came to see Slappes’ dad)
14 May 2012, 16:10 pm
@nama1(nama1)-61:
Hey Nama
No idea where that one came from?
1997 – Amature Club in Tyeberg
1998-2000 – assistant coach for Western Province in the Currie Cup
1999-2002 – South Africa national under-19 side
2002-2003 – Falcons through the 2002 and 2003 Currie Cup
2004-2006 SA national under-21
PdV never served under Mallett as far as the record tells me, please enlighten us
14 May 2012, 17:03 pm
ANC should focus on stamping out corruption and stay the f$&) away from rugby
14 May 2012, 17:03 pm
ANC should focus on stamping out corruption and stay the fark away from rugby
14 May 2012, 17:10 pm
@Hondo(Hondo)-65:
I also checked that up. Who coached WP between 98 and 2000?
My point was that Meyer was an assistant coach for the Boks and JW was one as well. There’s no doubt that much of their coaching skills were honed in that period.
Div’s resume before he got the Bok job wasn’t that impressive, and he spent the whole of 2008 learning the ropes, with his players peaking in 2009 and then he had to do a hospital job in the following two seasons.
We all knew that some changes had to be made after 2009, Div knew it as well. But any changes he would have made would be trial and error with no time before the World Cup and a very impatient rugby public.
14 May 2012, 19:20 pm
Can imagine his wife will be relieved to have him out the house for a while.
14 May 2012, 19:29 pm
@Slappes(Slappes)-64:
and missed yours too bud…
cool story…
and chuffed for PDivvy… hope he’s stoked… great thats he’s got a chance to prove his detractors wrong…
all the best to him…
15 May 2012, 02:22 am
P Divvy cannot do anything. a quota failed coached in charge on grass roots rugby is frikin asking for serious kak and you ******** know it! and also on development,. your ******* ANC doesnt do development they just force blavks through the system thats where your problem begins and ends. they create a culture of self-pity and handouts. and most of these black players are not cut out for test rugby or high level rugby if they were such a gold mine these unions would have got them because it would have taken pressure off of themselves with these stupid cleft politicians on their backs. how many successes we had? far less than the failures.
15 May 2012, 02:28 am
@ufo(ufo)-70: @Bloues(Grootdrink)-68: no excuses peter made MANY changes in 2008 through to 2009 rotating between 7 fullbacks and many loose forward combos and trying out many centres and all his tinkering failed. he failed because he cant identify talent and doesnt understand the real value of a player and is too arrogant to learn blaming virtually everything else but himself. he never did a hospital job either… that was nienaber and rassie in 2010 while peter showed us what he couldnt do with a fairly strong group of new blood in the opening rounds of the TNs! peter is an idiot who knows jack **** about rugby, is too proud and arrogant to learn, has a massive chip on his shoulder and loves to play the race card to deflect criticism. he has no sense of responsibility, poor leadership is completely unprofessional and is ridiculously unintelligent. sure, put him at grassroots where he can feck the whole system up at its heart. the man is a disease and he only ran back to saru because nobody else in their right minds would hire him anywhere else on the planet.
15 May 2012, 04:52 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-16: Good on Pieterse. But you know as I do that in every old Model C school there’d be five or six Pieterse equivalents right there in the staffroom, coaching and reffing as best they can even if it was just for the skinnies and fatties in the Under 14E team scraping the 8am Saturday morning dew off the muddy cabbage patch. They’d put in the hours and weekends for free and for zero glory. Out of that comes the proper “culture” out of which excellence springs and is sustained year after year, decade after decade. Mbalula needs to get his Sadtu comrades to adopt that attitude. If they all shoot off home at 2pm every day, there won’t be any transformation as there just aren’t enough selfless Pieterses around to gather up all the slack.
15 May 2012, 07:21 am
Good job Mr Minister!
Divvy certainly has skills and most importantly, enthusiasm, to impart to the youngsters. the guy breathes rugby.
i wish him well!
15 May 2012, 11:28 am
If he can do anything at all to uplift grassroots rugby in disadvantaged areas then god speed to him. There’ll never be enough talent for the voracious South African ‘rugby machine’.
15 May 2012, 13:25 pm
It would be great if there was a bigger pool to draw players from. Screw soccer
15 May 2012, 13:28 pm
Screw soccer these boys should learn to play rugby, it is the only team sport where SA has won anything significant….imagine how strong SA would be if rugby was the no. 1 sport….
15 May 2012, 13:31 pm
It’s a no-brainer.
Of course he should be involved in rugby development, at the minimum.
15 May 2012, 13:33 pm
@Blitzbok(Blitzbok)-72: How did it fail? Despite those changes, 2008 and 2009 was his best years with the Boks.
It was in 2010 with injuries to many key players, and 2011 where his wheels came off.
One of our most successful national coaches ever, certainly regarding his record against the Kiwis.
15 May 2012, 13:38 pm
with a translator who speaks snor, and a good admin person to back him up, he would be great. at the very least we would get some value for the money we spent on him for 4 years.
i like him despite myself. i saw him at a practice here n East London, and almost felt sorry for him, he seemed isolated. he was off to the side by himself most of the time.
15 May 2012, 13:40 pm
@roobarb2(roobarb2)-80:
If the German football coach may speak German at press conferences, and the Lithuanian softball coach speaks Lithuanian to the media, why couldn’t PDV speak Afrikaans to the media?
16 May 2012, 18:30 pm
@willievz(willievz)-81: goeie vraag. hoekom vra jy hom nie self nie?
16 May 2012, 18:38 pm
He’s shy.
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