Former Springbok coach Peter de Villiers was a guest speaker at an event where a group of supporters burned a Springbok jersey out of protest last week.
A new organisation, Supporters Against Racist Rugby Associations (Sarra), was officially launched in Mossel Bay last Friday, where the group burned a Springbok rugby jersey.
The group wants to see more players of colour in the Springbok team and feels not enough is being done to speed up the transformation process in South African rugby.
De Villiers, 58, attended the event as guest speaker.
De Villiers, who coached the Springboks between 2008 and 2011, has made headlines over the past few weeks for his scathing criticism of current national coach Heyneke Meyer.
He feels Meyer is not giving enough black players the opportunity to prove their worth and wrote in a column that the current Bok coach “underestimated the intelligence of black people with a dishonest selection”.
He has also said that Meyer has taken South African rugby “into the gutters”.
De Villiers will work as a rugby pundit for the SABC during this year’s Rugby World Cup.
The 2015 Rugby World Cup, to be staged in England and Wales, runs from 18 September until 31 October.
rugby365
What an utter ETTERKOPPIE!
He is an embarrassment to himself, our rugby and the Springboks!
look, I am a firm believer in freedom of speech and also freedom of association, so in essence, let Pdivvy do what he wants.
However, seeing as he is struggling to find a coaching job for 4 years now, he appears to be willing to commit career suicide or he is doing this in an effort to suck up to the establishment, either it is an incredibly risky move, I also do not know how he would get the general rugby watching South African to stand behind him now, surely he should have learnt from Luke Watson’s mistake.
2 @ MacroPolo:
There’s Freedom of Speech… and then there is Dim-wittedness… and Snorrie suffers from the last of the 2.
He is as stupid as they come… and stupid people irritate the shit out of me!
He’s as thick as 2 short planks!
It’s a bit suggestive to assume that he was aware that people were going to burn the jersey, and even partook in it.
Hardly a month ago most Bok supporters, and not those belonging to Sarra or whatever, were throwing just as big a hissy fit over the WC jersey and starting petitions telling all and sundry not to buy it.
Now it’s sacred again?
@ grootblousmile:
I wonder if he knew if there would be a jersey burning.
nortie wrote:
Oh if it was a protest against the “removal” of the springbok emblem, I may have gone as well 😆
5 @ MacroPolo:
I don’t give a flying hoot if he did or did not… when he saw it he should have spoken out against it.
Face it, he’s plain doff!
Hoe gaan die gesegde… “Meng jou met die semels, dan vreet die varke aan Snorrie!”
@ grootblousmile:
Wel kyk, dit is seker n bietjie dof… aan die einde van die dag sal dit n moerse briekmerk gooi oor enige afrigtings asperasies wat hy nog het in die toekoms.
Maar dalk voel hy ook dat na vuur jaar wat almal hul rug op hom draai moet hy maar sake in sy eie hande neem en om parliament agter hom te begin kry… dis nou maar net hoe dit it.
vier vurige jare 😆
8 @ MacroPolo:
Na hierdie kak… en na sy onlangse bittergal uitsprake teen Heyneke Meyer het hy hom heeltemal uit meeste Suid-Afrikaners wat vir rugby omgee se harte gehaal.
Hy kannie eers deesdae meer ‘n ou afrigtingspossie kry as Currie Cup First Division coach by Boland nie… kon nie eers ‘n afrigtingspos kry by a Varsity Cup span nie en moes maar tevrede wees met ‘n Varsity Shield posisietjie… waar sy span ook maar fokkol verrig gekry het.
As daar nou enigsins ‘n ou sweempie van ‘n goeie afrigtingspos hier of oorsee kon wink… het hy dit nou die nek ingeslaan.
Hy moet maar ander tipe werk gaan soek, want ek glo nie hy gaan rugby werk kry nie… sirkusnar sal pas… jy weet een van daai fokken dom sirkusnarre met die rooi neuse en geverfde gesigte… die happy of sad ene… ek gee fokkol om watter ene nie, solank hy net uit rugby uit fokkof!
This pratt had the cheek to recently call Meyer & Co for “criticising referees’ decisions”…or words to that effect.
Yet he was very quick with his “Bryce Lawrence cost me my job” whinging & crying.
Epos
Just watch PdV in an interview on Sport@10.
According to him he gave his speech and left. He was not there when the guy burned his Bok jersey.
Pathetic headline.
Whoever came up with it can not be taken seriously as a rugby journalist/author.Ban me for this if you like but this blog has lost it’s credibility as an objective rugby news source.It is now the poor man’s Keo.co.za
Posts 4 & 12 deserve applause.
Nama wrote:
I suspected as much
Whilst I in no way condone things like this, we as the public that actually give a rat’s arse about Rugby need to realise that the lack of development leading to transformation in SA Rugby is a major issue.
SARU have continually failed Rugby over the last 20 years by not taking steps to start initiatives that would lead to meaningful transformation, and it will come back and bite them.
IMO Div is and always has been somewhat naive and was in all likelihood used by this misguided, but probably p1ssed off group to gain more attention to their cause.
Irrespective, SARU needs to wise up and get their house in order.
Don’t hold your breath though.
If the journalists responsible for the article have done their work they should have asked Div whether he was present when the jersey was burned and whether he condones it or not.
All that we have now is that he was a guess speaker at the event and that as such does not really not mean anything.
Whether he attended the burning or not, it was an ill advised thing to do.
I also think he may not have known about the Jersey burning, and unfortunately that is what people are focusing on, but he really did not think it through by attending this event, very poor judgement and a very bad situation to be in… and if he condones the actions he should say so!
I honestly have never seen anything like this before, has anyone’s coaching career ever disintegrated so quickly without doing something illegal or immoral? Merely from not thinking it through.
As a fellow human, I hope Pieter can somehow come back from this, must be tough on his family.
@ MacroPolo:
Yes.. the total disintegration of his coaching career is something that also could never figure out. He was after all quite successful…his record against NZ for example is amongst the best of any coach in rugby history…. how many coaches have for example managed to beat NZ TWICE in NZ during the professional era? He might even be the only one?
Is his fall from grace the price for a few bizarre statements he made … or is it political..? or does he speak too close to the truth….. Who knows?
Like it or not, these “people” have not only burned the Spingbok emblem they unwittingly burned another one as well…
To me, that is a slap in the face for the whole country.
So good luck to them.
By gutters does he mean a world ranking of 5th?
If this organization (Sarra) and the speeches at the meeting was established and meant to have a positive and constructive mission of transformation in a truly democratic way, it would not have resulted in a Springbok rugby jersey burning, of that I have no doubt.
If however this organization is inciteful and it’s mission is a continuation of the racial devide and a “Count the colours” excercise (which is completely racist in itself), then it stands to reason that the speeches would rile some people and factions up and in fact would have contributed to the burning of the jersey.
The fact that P-Divvie took part in this inciteful meeting, which so motivated attendees to stoop to burning the jersey, in itself is the indictment against P-Divvie… the snormonster.
You are known by those you hang around with… and he chose to hang around with the wrong crowd, simple as that.
So, whether he was present at the Springbok jersey burning or not is totally immaterial as far as I am concerned… totally!
For all we know or do not know is that his speech was part, even if only a small part, of what riled people up to the extent that they did what they did.
It speaks once again to his inability to make intelligent decisions, his total naivity and his inability to curb his wayward mouth and makes him that embarrassment to himself and rugby in SA that I spoke about in the 1st comments up here.
Snorrie is the architect of his own rugby coaching career demise, no one else is to blame. Nobody wants a clown and possible embarrassment as head coach. No one outside SA would give him a second glance as coach, no matter whether he is a good coach or not. It is his actions surrounding coaching… the side-shows, the comical media statements and interviews and thoughtless actions which makes him highly undesirable for any rugby position.
Same applies to him getting a position of any importance inside SA, in rugby circles… we South Africans may understand him and maybe his inherrent culture better than the outside world, but he remains a clown.
In recent weeks he has added to this embarrassment, with media publicized racially motivated vitriol against Heyneke Meyer’s selection scenarios. This Sarra meeting was just the icing on the cake as far as I am concerned.
Do yourself a favour and analize those who like Snorrie stukkend, no matter what colour or grouping they belong to, and you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that they are not people who put a huge premium on intellectual capacity themselves… how do they say “Soort soek soort”!
My estimations of Snor, which was already close to rock-bottom, has fallen to below rock-bottom, in fact he is digging to a whole new level of low, as far as I’m concerned!
Well, that is my opinion!
@ robzim:
Perhaps he should only have played against NZ 🙂 his record against other teams were average to less than average… anyway that is besides the point.
No doubt speaking before thinking has cost this man a LOT of money. Surely he would be a hell of an improvement on Gary Gold.
NZINCHINA wrote:
4th 😆
http://www.news24.com/Live/Sport/Meyer-keeps-Jean-de-Villiers-at-expense-of-black-players-Div-20150827
PdeV is vol driftige politiek deesdae, en ek het nogal van die ou gehou, maar nou is hy regtig in kuk geselskap daar tussen die klipgooiers, maak sy naam gat saam met Tony aan sy sy
Pietman wrote:
Die gaan nog n helse ding word.
26 @ Pietman:
Yeah, just look who Snor is sitting next to, that muppit Ehrenreich!
And to me he makes it quite clear by his presense that he is in the Cosatu camp now, which means that he is automatically not in my camp and has his own comical racial agenda!
So, getting back to the Springbok rugby jersey burning… this new Cosatu / Ehrenreich alliance just confirms to me that whether he was there or not at the jersey burning, is immaterial!
As jy jouself wil uitgee as ‘n toffie, moet jy bereid wees om gekou te word soos ‘n toffie!
Hmm interesting situation. It’s interesting to see Divvie making increasingly political statements in what seems to be an effort to stay relevant.
After all he was hardly a poster boy for transformation as Bok coach?
As for some Saru plot to deny him a job how come the Kings have never offered him work? After all Cheeky is the last guy to kowtow to the rutgby establishment?
I also thought he was supposed to be involved with Boland Rugby?
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