Disgraceful De Villiers
29 Jun 2009
In a surreal press conference, Peter de Villiers continued to deny Schalk Burger was guilty of eye gouging and delivered some of his most sensational rubbish ever.
De Villiers on Monday held court with a room full of journalists, the majority of those from the foreign press, and proceeded to spit the most ridiculous nonsense, and display an incredibly pompous and dismissive attitude, particularly towards the foreign contingent. For those present it was obvious that he has a very low opinion of them.
The questioning predictably centred around Burger’s eight-week ban for eye gouging Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald, an issue that the Springbok media team tried to dodge by saying that they would only comment after they had received an official report on the incident. You didn’t need an official report to know that Burger is unbelievably lucky not to receive a longer ban.
On Saturday De Villiers left the press incredulous by saying that Burger didn’t deserve a yellow card for the incident, let alone a citing. On Monday the coach had an opportunity to retract that ludicrous statement and concede that he was wrong. Yet he remained resolute in his flawed view.
‘I stand by Schalk, I’m still convinced he didn’t do it,’ he told keo.co.za. ‘When you watch the footage closely and if you know the nature of Schalk, you’ll know that he will never go to those measures to impose himself. Schalk certainly didn’t do anything on purpose. He watched the TV footage and was taken aback himself.
‘I am against anything that is against the spirit of the game. If we want to eye gouge lions, we’ll go down to the bushveld and eye gouge them there, then see if they can haul us in.’
When one of the travelling pressmen continued the line of questioning, De Villiers snapped, ‘Some of us seem to have a hearing problem. We’re waiting for the official report and we’ll see what that says. If they find him guilty of something we’ll abide by that decision.
‘I’m not ducking the issue, I’m working within a system. I’m not like you [the media] who don’t work within a system.’
De Villiers said he doesn’t condone foul play [the likes of which Burger was clearly guilty of], yet continued to inadvertently justify the incident.
‘Rugby is a contact sport and so is dancing,’ he said. ‘If you guys [the media] were clued up you’d know that there were so many incidents that we could have complained about, like the incident where a Lions player maliciously jumped into one of ours with their shoulder.
‘But we didn’t do it because this is a contact sport. If you are going to complain about every incident we might as well go to a ballet shop and all get tutus.’
Despite the series victory, there is a widely held view that the Springboks beat the Lions despite of their coach and not because of him. De Villiers’ rebuttal, ‘Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I don’t react to opinion, I react to fact,’ he said.
‘If I’m the weakest link then we are bloody strong. I’m a God-given talent. I am the best I can be. I know what I am and I don’t give a damn.’
He continued by saying he didn’t read the papers, and therefore didn’t know how he was perceived in the media.
‘I don’t care. I don’t take an interest in your job, but I’m glad you take an interest in mine.’
Any preceding Springbok coach would have been seriously taken to task by the administration, but De Villiers gives one the impression, through his attitude and unbridled hogwash that he delivered on Monday, that he believes he is a law unto himself.
The reality is that he was an embarrassment to South African rugby, as he was when he offered his racially loaded views relating to Ricky Januarie, for which he will have to answer to the president’s council.
The same president’s council who appointed him based on his skin colour and not his rugby credentials (they confirmed this themselves when announcing his appointment), are now pointing the finger at him when they should be held partly accountable for the perception he is creating of himself, and by association, the Springboks, and South Africans in general.
De Villiers considers himself to be an ambassador for South Africa. He has said so on numerous occasions. But he is doing anything but creating a favourable impression of this country.
He needs to be reined in immediately. Word from inside the Springbok camp is that he just refuses to listen to any advice offered by his media managers, and as a result he is destroying any credibility he might have left.
Today he was a disgrace and he’s single-handedly detracted from the wonderful achievement of winning a Lions series. Hopefully it’s the last time we’ll have to endure a senseless rant like this from De Villiers. Don’t hold your breath though.
By Ryan Vrede, Johannesburg
859 Comments
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29 Jun 2009, 23:51 pm
#688 Sir_Charles_Napier: I read one interview criticising the ‘underhand Bok tactics’ from Mike Phillips, forgive me if I don’t take Phillips’s word as gospel. As I seen it, the Lions gave as good as they got.
I think some of us need to take a deep breath, recognise we lost to a better team, accept the result and consider ourselves privileged to have witnessed what some are calling the greatest test match of all time.
Looking forward to the 3rd test, if it’s half as good as the first two we’re in for another classic.
29 Jun 2009, 23:52 pm
Sack Snor ….bring in Alan Solomons and Heynecke Meyer….he is a liability with no gameplan….is he the Joker from Batman ?
29 Jun 2009, 23:53 pm
#682 Sir_Charles_Napier:
“The best way to quiet a country is a good thrashing, followed by great kindness afterwards. Even the wildest chaps are thus tamed” Sir Charles James Napier (Wikipedia)
It must really irritate you when us natives don’t bow to your feeble attempts at subjugation. We do not even show enough gratitude and humility to your esteemed Lions for gracing us with your presence.
You must be really looking forward to going back to civilisation next week! Just keep up the face-saving retreat, you would not want to look like YOU got thrashed hey …
29 Jun 2009, 23:56 pm
Big Hit
Hats off to you,well said !
30 Jun 2009, 00:02 am
#700 Big Hit: Big Hit, I respect rugby loving supporters like yourself. And I too hope for a great test on Saturday.
But just now, after reading pieces by people like Nick Cain and Stephen Jones, I realise that the only way the Boks will ever get some respect from the British media is, if they do win, then they need to absolutely thrash the Lions on Saturday.
But anyway, best of luck to you and your fellow Lions supporters. May the best team win!
30 Jun 2009, 00:03 am
#697 klingon_x:klingon, the fact that me ‘ you don’t agree on a rugby blog doesn’t mean i can’t support your efforts to make south africa better, it certainly doesn’t mean i will use whatever advantage i have to see you fail just because i don’t like your face…
These keo guys are no different to the barry tannebaums or allen stanfords of this world who run ponzi schemes
#693 saffa_guy: i agree, he is certainly paying them & sum! I just got back from jo’burg, watched the confed cup final last night with south africans of all hues & how proud everyone was of the event & people who would normally berate bafana actually wearing & discussing the football was encouraging to me…
Then this pea-brain ryan, who can’t even spell & makes more grammatical errors than i do, thinks it’s fine to slander our springbok coach? Jeepuz he has another thing coming…
I’m never ever buying another SA Rugby magazine, ever!
30 Jun 2009, 00:09 am
Let’s face it….the Brits are the best in the world at turning defeat into couragous heroism and blaming rotten luck.
Mallory?
Scott?
70,86,90?
Lions 2009
No doubt the ashes this summer?
murray in a few days?
Worldcup 2010?
oh and if it looked as if it could not get any worse…. their herioc U21 footballers(led by the most heroic loser of them all-Stuart Pierce)….just got dicked 4-0 in the final by the Germans,Again!
30 Jun 2009, 00:17 am
I believe that PdV has a point. It is is not his job to be worried about the venom that the press puts out (you too Ryan). It is his job to win. And as long as he keeps doing that, I will be happy. And his attitude is also keeping the press on their toes – pressmen have long been known to be slack and useless people that dont pay attention.
As a coach, he is saying that despite the TV evidence showing that Schalk’s hands were by Fitzgerald’s eyes, he was not eye gouging – they were just there as part of Schalks grip to clean him out. And he is basing that on his faith in Schalk’s character.
He cannot do otherwise can he? He is hardly going to condemn his own player in the press is he? Especially if he is trying to get his players to show faith in him, and to bond them as a unit. he will be coaching thsi playr of ryears to come, and is NOT going to show lack of faith in the player in public.
Perhaps the press were just too dumb to understand this? Perhaps the press are not man mangers and hae no idea what is required of an international coach?
#672 Hurricane: PdV was not saying it was not in his eye- he was saying that it was there coincidentally, with no intention to do damage from Schalk. Whether or not it is or looks like total **** is not the point. He HAS to back his player and back the character of his player. If Shalk did intend to do damage then he should be ahshamed of himself, and needs to have a deep look inside himself whether he deserves to be in that squad. He should even consider withdrawing himself until his mind and body is right. It clearly is not in terms of his play right now either.
To be fair to Schalk, he had never been dirty before. He has yellow cards before, but from professional fousl, not dirty play.
30 Jun 2009, 00:24 am
I just saw the PdV interview. And i am ashamed of some of the things I attributed to the man based on this article. PdV spoke with passion and was selectively quoted. Keo’s boys, you were doing a hatchet job here and I want nothign to do with it. For once I opened my eyes and saw the evidence. The interview was fine. Apoligies Div. My bad.
30 Jun 2009, 00:25 am
#679 Loserer:
lol
Yeah the 32 inch is in the room for my x box
30 Jun 2009, 00:30 am
#701 Big Hit:
Crikey Big Hit, you really have gone native and are suffering from Yarpie myopia. Could you not see with your own eyes what was going on? and that it corroborated what the other lion players were saying? Next it will be the Dutchm@n random fits of violance and constant paranoia.
So Janie from Snorville it is.
30 Jun 2009, 00:31 am
#681 Moerig: One of the sanest posts I have seen on here for days…mine included!
30 Jun 2009, 00:36 am
#701 wpforever:
F’off twit *** ********
PdV is the greatest coach this country has seen yet by a country mile, and whats more the senior players will vouch for it without a doubt, and most of you will be bowing at his feet by end of this years tri nations
Just watch, bear and witness, the entire bang shoot of nay saying derogatory twat assed keo bandwagoners are all going to be bowing and scraping their lily white yellow bellied Whitey white White and Blue eyed Heyneke Meyer heads to PdV the greatest coach that the Springboks have ever seen yet, in the very near future.
You can take that one to the bank.
30 Jun 2009, 00:38 am
I have not been much of a PdV fan but his interview was a lot better than this article. His players will like him for standing up for them and the Boks pride. People are wondering why Ryan and Keo have so climbed on PdV..it’s because he gave the journos hell, he called them for the cheap shots they give. They hate that. Never ever do anything but praise journos. Come on Snor, get with the program!
PdV has made some daft decisions, and good ones. The fightback of the Boks in the 2nd half of the 2nd Test is awesome…watch the video. PdV shares some praise for this success, after all the Boks are not robots so glory should be split between players and coaches. I for one think we should cut PdV some slack and I am trying to see him in a better way.
30 Jun 2009, 00:39 am
#707 St.Petersburgbok:
Lol! Mr kettle calling Mr Pot! if i hear one more reference to heroic Boer irregulars fighting a brave but futile war against the Poms i will vomit.
Let’s face, you declared war on the Poms when you had a 6 – 1 advantage (12,000 Pom soldiers and 60,000 Boer commandos) and got fvcked.
If i remember right, less than a score years later the Irish won their freedom against the Poms.
Who are the pussi@s?
30 Jun 2009, 00:40 am
A Bok team with Heynecke Meyer head coach.
Forwards coach Nick Mallet
Backs coach Alan Solomons
Technical Analyst Jake White !
30 Jun 2009, 00:43 am
#715 wpforever: Good god with Alan Solomons there you would never win a match and Nick Mallet would fire the Captain just before the tri-Nations!
30 Jun 2009, 00:44 am
Skopskiet grow up,you and i have never had any dealings so why the foul language,you will be reported,its good to know people in Highbury Safika media !
30 Jun 2009, 00:46 am
#713 peterg123:
Keo and his cronies are in bed with the previous outgoing regime, it is within their absolute derogatory agenda to discredit and disparage this coach and his character to their utmost contempt because he represents to them a success and a winning personality that is slowly showing up the previous delinquent for the crass toss pot fool he actually was, and is slowly also proving he is by far a damn site better coach than the last idiosyncratic dictatorial nincompoop was in the clear light of day.
They actually would prefer he lost so that they could succeed in their underhand divisive agendas, but so far the character of the man and the character of HIS players and HIS team has pulled through despite every negating and divisive sentiment and agenda going, on this site and in this countries highly ideologically and divisive driven media throughout.
The mans a winner, and he’s going to show them all, they going to all be eating out of the palms of his hands before too very long, watch.
30 Jun 2009, 00:46 am
Peter G Alan Solomons has a great track record !
30 Jun 2009, 00:48 am
#717 wpforever: Skop’s abuse is actually almost like poetry, rap or a stream of conciousness, the flow of a great river, bursting and swirling and churning to get out. But the river is composed of sewage! When he is sober he writes very well.
30 Jun 2009, 00:49 am
#719 wpforever: Not with the Boks when I saw it. Yes maybe with WP..and he sure fired up the Kings!
30 Jun 2009, 00:49 am
#717 wpforever:
go jump in the lake loser, take a long hike, Jake, (and Heyneke, and Solomons) and his lily white divisive ideological cronies are history, thank the living god.
30 Jun 2009, 00:51 am
Snotskiet…Snor should play the banjo at Hartleyvale for the Cape Coons…”hier kom die Alibama”….and while you at it Skoppie,sit neer jou tik pipe,put on your minstral jacket….jy med die gap in jou bek…..now see who can take that one to the bank
ps
F’off twit *** ********
30 Jun 2009, 00:52 am
…and Mallet and Drotske and Erasmus and Christie and Du Plessis and Craven and Strauli and…………………….???? What was the name of that first 1894 Bok coach against the lions?
30 Jun 2009, 00:53 am
bwahahahahaha
30 Jun 2009, 00:54 am
Gentlemen…some wit in your swords will turn them to rapiers..come on now WP and Skop!
30 Jun 2009, 00:59 am
PETERG123
Yes he sure fired up the Kings !
30 Jun 2009, 00:59 am
#725 wpforever: Skop is right, they, those blue=eyed devil faced coaches are history swept away in their white pea-brained awfulness by the tsunami of Snor’s gem like brilliance, sparkling like the finest Kimberly stones, as before him he pushes aside the debris of 105 yaers on dim white-witted clods who should all move to Australia and the sooner the bbetter the dumbwits…… etc etc etc..
Hey I can do it too..but admittedly not in Afrikaans.
30 Jun 2009, 01:03 am
punkass south african white supremicists are what they are, you can take the snot nosed ideologically driven delinquent out of the country, that you can do, but you can not take the denial driven debauched racist out of the south african that is bred with it in his blood, no way in hell, he will die with that poison in his blood. As he spews it here, it riddles his lily white racially bigoted mind, some will see it and others will not, but believe me its there, in all its hell bent fury of hatred it exists like in this WPforever ******** till it dies its debauched sickening death.
30 Jun 2009, 01:04 am
Sleep well Skop and WP. May the Boks deliver an almighty thrashing on Saturday
30 Jun 2009, 01:04 am
PETERG123….Sometimes one has to lower yourself to the levels of the rude and uncouth to get your point across…SNOTSKIET will get hammered in English,Afrikaans,Norwegian,Swedish and Icelandic….now i am just getting warmed up
Sorry for that little distraction,which team do you support Peter G
30 Jun 2009, 01:05 am
#728 peterg123:
thank you, they are history, thank the living god of progressive rugby, we on a winning streak to eternity here with PdV at the helm.
30 Jun 2009, 01:07 am
SNOTSKIET wipe your mouth….its brown covered in *****,dis lekker in die Vlaktes ne
30 Jun 2009, 01:08 am
Well I support the Bulls and Cheetahs but I am not a Saffer and live in nairobi..I will support any SA team but those I like
30 Jun 2009, 01:11 am
#733 wpforever: I think the Cheetahs can play great risky rugby and are a small union, so they have my heart, but the Bulls have become a great franchise and recently combine traditional SA power rugby with lethal open play and counterattacks. I have supported the Boks for many years and travelled to see my first test last weekend.
30 Jun 2009, 01:11 am
Peter G
The Kenyan sevens side seem to be doing well.Are you close to the rugby scene there,the vibe seems just magic
30 Jun 2009, 01:13 am
Good one PETERG,hope you had a great experience and hope you get to see many more games
30 Jun 2009, 01:14 am
#729 skopskiet: Are you a mnister Skop – because you spout the same meaningless nonsense that they do.
30 Jun 2009, 01:15 am
And for Skop’s benefit I was not the greatest JW fan. He lacked imagination but I admire that he only had one real aim, the RWC, and dammit he (and others) made it happen.
30 Jun 2009, 01:16 am
Yes PETER the Cheetahs have always played good running rugby,from way back when they were the Orange Free State,a smaller union with great schools
30 Jun 2009, 01:17 am
Media muppet by a media puooet. Rugby is a contact sport, full stop and good on Schalk letting the world know he played 50 tests for the Boks, what a guy!!
I was not a snor fan, but let’s face it, British media is in dirty mode like they always do, they want to win the last test by destracting what really maatters, farking bad loosers as usual, scorching earth is the next step isn’t it. Let’s face it, it is 2-0 for the springboks and we will make it 3-0. Go destroy the Lions this weekend Bokke!! That should be the sole focus.
30 Jun 2009, 01:18 am
#736 wpforever: I was a club chairman and juniors coach for many years. Yes the Sevens is doing so well, and all totally without help from outside..just kenyans doing their thing. The vibe at the Safari Sevens has to be experienced to be believed! The beer..the babes..the rugger. Kenya totally smoked the Emerging Boks 41-12, they have moved into the senior 7′s league and it can only go well…but it has taken years of work.
30 Jun 2009, 01:19 am
#151 Skabenga: But that’s great! At least the aholes pinned their true colours to the mast. Funny though, before reading some of the regular dicwad posters you just know which way they are going to dive. Very amusing! Proof that you can’t prevent a fool from expressing the fact – repeatedly!
Thanks for the entertainment boys.
30 Jun 2009, 01:20 am
#738 SjamBok: whats a mnister, if you asking whether I am a man of the cloth, heavens no, you got the wrong clod over here, only difference with me, is unfortunately racists are like open books, the minute they open their racially divisive indoctrinated minds up for scrutiny it gushes forth like the putrid filth that it is, pity I can’t avoid seeing it, but on here it is so forcefully obviously blatant, it is like simply standing agape and watching the garbage racial bigoted hatred come spewing like debauched indoctrination itself.
And they call themselves true South Africans this lot.
30 Jun 2009, 01:21 am
#741 Bospomp: The Britpress are scum..truly. They hope for a win on Saturday so they can say that the series was stolen by brutal boers. Same old story. However, I do admire the team. Brave and skilled players who have given it their all on this tour and come very close indeed.
30 Jun 2009, 01:23 am
#739 peterg123:
Piss easy World Cup that, any coach worth his salt would have walked that no contest thingamajig, Tonga, Fiji, Argentina, England, please man spin another one, that was a gimme second to none, nowhere near the class of a win in NZ or a 3-0 hiding of the BR.Lions, nowhere near in the same league ever.
30 Jun 2009, 01:26 am
Well I have to lead a safari to the bush tomorrow and earn back what I spent on this 2nd Test, so I had best say goodnight. I will not see the 3rd test but I think the Lions will try more of the same game, after all it has (nearly) worked..those that bare left standing, that is. I feel sorry for Bakkies..as an older rugby man his activity on the pitch seems very normal for a lock….but these are soft days. Burger should retire.. or go re-invent himself in Toulon or somewhere….
30 Jun 2009, 01:27 am
PeterG good to see your involvement with the juniors.I have seen a documentary about the rugger in Kenya,and as you say all without large funding and the locals doing it for themselves.It shows what can be done with belief,the real enjoyment out of playing and getting the game out there to the people.The future looks rosey indeed
Anyhow enjoy your early hours PeterG,i`m off to bed
Good night folks
30 Jun 2009, 01:27 am
Go listen to the live interview(on the BBC link that Bullit posted above).
I just did.
Twice.
This article is WAY off mark and not a true reflection of what the coach had said.
Hats off to PdeV for putting those British journo’s in place, somebody had to for once and for all, before they leave our hospitable shores, and the boytjie from Paarl is the very man to do it!
Respect, I say, well done PdeV! (en newwermaaind die Kaapse Engels, se hulle my bru!
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