He’s the most eccentric coach rugby has ever seen. When he looks back on his career,
Pieter De Villiers will have a catalogue of soundbites that could rival Jose Mourinho
or even Shane Warne.

His idiosyncrasies have prompted blasts at Springboks supporters as ‘unpatriotic’
and comparing his own battle with adversity to the plight of Jesus.

So throw in the car-park sex scandals, promising national transformations and admitting
the whole squad went ‘wild, wild, wild’ after beating New Zealand in Dunedin, then
South Africa’s first ever black rugby coach is certainly acting out his own bestseller.

What’s your priority, change or winning?

“Playing a good brand of rugby, so that we enjoy ourselves and live out the talents
that the good lord gave us. Winning and losing is the same, it’s just that winning
feels a lot nicer and is a lot better. Every win is good but if we lose, we must do
it with hard work. “

How would you describe your style of rugby?

“It’s really basic and easy. My mission is to empower people to take decisions and
for them to take ownership of them. That’s what you see from our players.”

“When you see Bryan Habana saving a try by coming off his wing with a three-man overlap,
he takes that ownership. This game is still just a game and there is uncontrollable
stuff that gives you a thrill to be a part of it and you must never lose that.”

Do you live and breathe rugby?

“Definitely. I believe that if you live by the sword, you must die by the sword. I’m
the kind of person that likes to live on the edge of life. I like life to be worthwhile
with the glass half-full rather than half-empty.”


What message do you send to the players?

“To enjoy getting hurt and to enjoy hurting people. That’s what the game is about
as long as it’s within the laws. That’s how you should want to play it and that’s
how it will be played many years after we have gone. It’s all about coming out all
guns blazing and accepting the challenge and taking it on.”

“If you look at 73,000 people watching a game of rugby, if something is wrong and
they aren’t enjoying it then you should fine-tune your game so that they enjoy watching
you.”

What’s the best thing about rugby?

“To think that I can make a difference and that is why i’m born. I have been born
for the Springboks and to use the character that the lord has instilled in me. That
is what I want to take back into the country, for the sport to unify the country and
make it a great country to live in and be proud of.”

“The same people who threw their robes on the ground when Jesus rode on a donkey were
the same people who crowned him and hit him with sticks and stuff like that, and were
the same people who said afterwards how we shouldn’t have done that, he’s the son
of God. “

“South Africans are normally great people and we’ll take the bitter with the sweet.
It’s only the guys who don’t feel part of that bitter or that sweet that will always
moan and groan and say: ‘Why do they go so wild?’ Join in, we’ve got enough stuff
to share with you.”

“I was appointed to make rugby decisions. I promised to be honest and focus on rugby.
We never said it was going to be a perfect world. If you look at the Bible, Joseph
started out in the pit and ended up in the palace.”

“I know dancing is also a contact sport, but rugby is far from dancing. If you want
to run with the big dogs then sometimes you have to lift your leg.”

“There will be late tackles, there have been for 100 years and the referee is there
to police that. But I was tackled late at school and in provincial games and that
was never mentioned in the papers.”

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.