Springbok coach Peter de Villiers was backed by the South African Rugby Union (SARU) on Thursday following his team’s dismal Tri-Nations tour.
Reuters
“We had an informal chat this morning and we intend to have a full review with him next week,” SARU president Oregan Hoskins said.
“We would normally only have a review at the end of the Tri-Nations series, but this time we see the need to have one in the middle of the competition given the gravity of the situation.”
Hoskins said De Villiers’s job was safe despite calls for him to be axed following the 32-12 and 31-17 losses to the All Blacks and a 30-13 defeat by Australia.
“It’s important that you don’t change management at this stage, although it is certainly a grave situation. After three losses, we need to take stock and try to rectify the wrongs,” Hoskins said.
South Africa’s recent triumphs in Hamilton (2009), Dunedin (2008) and Perth (2009) raised expectations back home but the Springboks’ overall record in away Tri-Nations matches is poor. They have won just six Tests in 14 years in New Zealand and Australia.
“History is one thing, but recently we’ve done better over there and we won the Tri-Nations last year,” Hoskins said.
“We want to improve rather than go backwards and we feel this year may be a step back.”
The Springboks returned from Australia this week to newspaper stories alleging there was a split between De Villiers and assistant coaches Gary Gold and Dick Muir over the team’s style of play.
Gold, however, said there was no truth in them.
“We believe we are all on the same page. We sit down every Sunday night after a game and decide, with the very senior players, on the way forward for the next game, and we always emerge with a united front,” Gold said.
“Of course our execution could have been better overseas and we will be doing an in-depth factual examination of where it went wrong for us in the last three games.”
The Springboks have also been criticised for appearing lethargic overseas.
“Where they lost the plot was in November when they dragged all the top players on the end-of-year tour to England,” Tim Noakes, South Africa’s leading sports scientist and a consultant for the World Cup-winning 2007 side, said.
“The guys appeared cooked in Australia and New Zealand, emotionally and physically drained, and the cooking happened there in England and in the pointless Test against Wales,” Noakes said.
“The more matches the guys play, the less training they can do, the less work they can do on their conditioning, and the classic result is that the players are less fit at the end of a competition.
“And it’s not just the physical demands that take their toll on the players. There’s all the travelling, the being away from home, and the mental exhaustion has a profound effect on the body,” Noakes said.
De Villiers was not available to comment and would not allow Reuters to interview the Springboks’ conditioning coach Neels Liebel.
One of the comments on the original article.
Now this statement will pee of some of the Div detractors.. Last year the kiwis were calling or Henry’s head after losing to the boks. Must have been a hard pill to swallow getting beat by a team coached by a third rate coach.. Nogal beat beat both the blacks and the aussies.
Go Divvies, skop gat
The big question is then, if de Villiers remain (and I am not necessarily saying he should go) what will they do to correct things.
I am no longer falling for the excuse of “the execution failed”
Where are new ideas going to come from?
How do they intend to fix the execution?
Why aren’t they admitting fatugue?
How are they going to fix the selections?
These responses are similar to what you get from a politician during a campaign, they aren’t answering the questions. Another thing, if the coaching panel and senior players have been wlaking out of their sunday noght meetings all on the same page, then I am really worried. Great minds think alike, but fools never differ.
When are they going to start listening to Tim Noakes, the guy is obviously not a fool, he said during the Super 14 that John Smit needs three months off, away from rugby mentally and physically, and that he needs this time to recover.
We could all see John is tired, why aren’t anyone listening?
latest news coming out of australia is that the pitch at the Etihad Stadium has been given the thumbs-up (or that is as much as i can gather … as the news coming from aus/nz are very confusing AND contradicting)
….
“IRB referees boss Paddy O’Brien wants the controversy around the turf at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium to stop. He has been working closely with the Australian Rugby Union and ground officials to ensure the issues are resolved.
O’Brien said while referee Craig Joubert had some initial concerns around player safety, they no longer exist and there is absolutely no fear for the ground at all. HE SAID THERE HAS BEEN FAR TOO MUCH SPECULATION AND THERE WAS NEVER ANY TALK OF MOVING THE MATCH BETWEEN THE ALL BLACKS AND THE WALLABIES THIS SATURDAY NIGHT” …. 😯 every newspaper quoted HIM saying that Craig Joubert CAN INDEED cancel/postpone/move the game if he felt the conditions to be unsafe!!
some spokesperson from the AFL
“There’s good grass coverage. It looks good when we do our ground inspections FROM WEEK TO WEEK – BUT OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE SOME ISSUES WITH THE WAY IT IS PLAYING AND WE SAW THAT LAST FRIDAY NIGHT” 😯 huh?
..
anyway, it seems like the game will go ahead as planned …
now
the all blacks were denied the chance of having a practice on the pitch
…
funny thing is … THERE ARE THREE MATCHES PLANNED FOR THAT STADIUM FOR THIS WEEKEND!!! 😆
AFL today
3n tomorrow
AFL Sunday!!
wtf?
…
anyway, think i’m gonna watch this game this game tomorrow
to see who gets injured and how severe the injuries are! 😀
Ash and to see how many cards are handed out hehehe, dink Richie moes nie sy bek oopgemaak het oor hoe hy die refs speel nie hehehehe, praat van skiet jouself in die voet!!!!
@ Ashley:
Can’t believe al this nonsense about unsafe pitches…one of these days all the rugby players will be padded up playing on astra turf. Where’s the day’s of barefoot rugby on a rugby field with dead grass, full of duweltjies and stones.
trips @ 5
dnk daar gaan redelike klomp penalties (en hopelik sommer klomp kaarte ook) by die breakdowns wees …. ek hoop craig joubert saai confusion onnerie klomp ett … agge ekke bedoel klomp otters daar in nz/ aus!! 😀
@ Tripples:
lol…true dat about Richie 🙂
bos_otter @ 6
next youre gonna try and tune me that your community was so poor
that
you couldnt even afford grass, nê? 😀
@ Ashley:
lol…nope Ash…Vrystaat just get’s that cold….the grass die in winter mate 🙂
bos_otter @ 6
think the concern is around the fact that some parts of the pitch are “shifting” which can make
scrums
kicking out of hand
kicking at posts
running
changing direction whilst running etc etc
quite tricky if not dangerous!!
will see tomorrow if the pitch is as dangerous as its made out to be
@ bos_otter:
Ek is van die Oos Vrystaat…plekkie genaamdt Warden een van die 5 …kom kuier een winter by my. My ouers het dit weer so -16 op die plaas gehad die winter 🙂
(Warden/Bethlehem/Harrismithis is deel van daai vyf koudste plekke in die RSA)
bos_otter @ 10
😀
@ Ashley:
yes Ash…was just screwing with ya mate. I can totally understand why they want a nice soft place to land on 🙂 but times have changed. I remember walking of rugby fields bleeding like a gutted baber when I was in primary school.
Talking about being poor.
We were so poor as children, we lived in a town with no tarred roads, we had no shoes, had to walk to school in the mornings and hoem in the afternoons, both ways was uphill.
By the time you get back home, your feet are bleeding, but you leave it as there is no money for bandages. It helped to let the blood dry, the next morning the scabs would last untill you were halfway to school, only to start bleeding again.
On mondays we ate pap and pork, but left the fat, so tusedays we could have pap and tik, you tik the pap against the fat, thus getting some meat flavour. By wednesday we only had pap. The rest of the week we hunted. My favorite dish was cockroach and dishwater.
We didn’t have hot water, as the electricity was always off, so we would start the truck that my dad drove’s engine and recycled the radiator water, as he didn’t pay for the diesel.
The truck fan helped to dry us when the engine started overheating.
Don’t worry we survived, I now have electricity, except for “teel aand” which happens about every two weeks.
bos_otter @ 12
know how cold bethlehem can be
was at 2 Field Engineers Regt for a month or 2 … but that was in a previous lifetime of course
Have you guys ever stood guard at 1SAI in Bloemfontein from 2 to 6 in the morning during winter?
You can’t open your hand, so you literally have to pull your clenched hand off the blitsbreker of your R4
@ biltongbek: rofl
Funny you should say that….I did go to primary school barefoot. Not really in winter time, but the only time to were required to wear shoes, was on Mondays where we all had to assemble in the school hall. Other days you were allowed to go barefoot.
We also didn’t have electricity on the farm until I was almost matriek. We had one of them lovely coal stoves that used to heat up the whole house…mom always had a pot of moer coffee boiling on it…loved that smell. Used Coleman lamps and candles for light. Even today, we are still one of the small number of towns where you have to wind the telephone to get through to the switchboard.
We never owned a car…only bakkies, because car’s just don’t last on the 40km of gravel roads we have to drive to get to town. Oos Vrystaat has some of the roughest/worst gravel roads. We always had to sit in the back (the bakkie had a canopy)
@ biltongbek:
1SAI …we used to call is sifsaai
@ biltongbek:
….but yes, I know that feeling….also not fun sleeping under you bivy at De Brug in winter time….almost froze me fekking nuts of in that place 🙂
@ Ashley:
Ash…they are close to Bethlehem damm right?
18@ bos_otter:
Eastern Free State is beautiful…
My mom came from Clocolan… Oupa Bertie was a Prokurower there.
My dad’s mom (Ouma) was born in a cave just on the Lesotho side of the border, during the Anglo Boer war… near Clarens. They hid there, cattle and all from the British.
People who think the Free State is flat just do not know the Eastern Free State.
… but donner, it is cold there in Winter…. eishhhhhhhhhhh
biltongbek @ 15
lmao
i thought i was the only one that had to walk to AND back from school uphill 😆
hehe, not really, but when you guys started talking about being poor, I remeber I read this story I told somewhere and tried to put down as much as I could remember, wish I can find the whole story it was hilarious.
@ grootblousmile:
Clarens is darem maar mooi wereld. My vrou se voorouers het ook in die grotte in daai wereld weggekruip gedurende die oorlog. Ek dink amper n deel van Golden Gate het vroeer aan hulle behoort
bos otter, ek was saam met my “cruiser” buddies in Clarence gedurende maart, dit is bleddie mooi wereld daai.
Het selfs deur die Golden Gate gery, was n’ great naweek, lekker by “Friends” gedrink.
@ biltongbek:
Jis…hoe laat julle my nou terug verlang
25@ bos_otter:
Flok, as ons nie oppas nie is ons dalk nog vêrlangs familie… hehehe
Maar ek glo darem nie, my familie is ordentlike mense…… hahahaha. Is daar Viljoens of De Wet’s in jou familie… of dalk mense met my van?
Daar is baie holkranse naby Golden Gate en Clarens… in daai sandsteen berge.
Nee….is my vrou se familie….sy is a Potgieter. Haar oupa is Hendrik potgieter wat in die kabinet was
@ grootblousmile:…en lol, ja, jy weet nooit wat die ou oom en tannies alles in daai grotte aangejaag het nie. Gelukkig het hulle nie glas bakke en kar sleutels gehad daai tyd nie 🙂
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