It’s been eight years since Peter de Villiers coached the Springboks, and 3 995 days since Ricky Januarie scored one of the greatest tries in our rugby history, but PdV isn’t about to let his legacy be trampled by some of his former players.

Ahead of the release of Beast, Springbok prop Tendai Mtawarira’s new autobiography, some excerpts have been released to the public. One of those excerpts, in particular, has grabbed headlines, focusing on Beast’s description of de Villiers’ time in charge.

Before we get to the back and forth between the two men, here is the passage in question via IOL:

Mtawarira wrote: “He was a fantastic coach of the Junior Springboks, but I think at the high level, he was probably lucky that a very good group of players was handed over to him.

“His methods and approach didn’t really work with the Springboks, and as players, we had to be careful what we said to the media.

“What you said would get back to Peter and affect your place in the team. The media did not like Peter, and thought he was a bit of a clown.

“There’s no doubt that he was happy to be at the forefront of a team that could operate on its own steam. Most of the work was done by the players, with Dick (Muir) and (Gary) Gold (Bok assistant coaches) very influential.”

Look, no coach is going to take those comments lightly, but not many people get handed a largely intact World Cup-winning squad by the outgoing coach.

Also, what’s the point in Beast writing a book if he doesn’t speak his mind, or offer some insight into what he felt was going on behind the scenes?

During last night’s interview with Robert Marawa on the Room Dividers segment of the Marawa Sports Worldwide programme on Radio 2000, de Villiers hit back:

“If you look at how I fought to actually get him citizenship in South Africa, and how I fought to get him to be selected for this team, and how I fought for his teammates to accept him for who he was… It’s sad to listen and see this kind of stuff,” De Villiers told the Marawa Sports Worldwide Show.

“But then again, I understand it. I do understand that we allow ourselves to be controlled by either outside forces, or money, or power and all those kinds of things…

“He was a number eight, he had some ball-sense. Very quiet – you couldn’t use him as part of your senior group because he had that mentality of ‘submissiveness’, if you can call it that, coming from Zimbabwe. They always… everybody else is better than them.

“Some players weren’t actually happy that he was there, but I could see something in him. I could see that there’s a lot of potential that we have to fulfil. It took hard work and belief to get him there.”

…“I don’t want to say anything about what’s in the papers on this (Mtawarira), because I’m quite tired of black-on-black violence by now,” he said.

“We’ve all been used by some sinister force out there to divide us, so that we actually think that we owe them everything for our existence. So, things are actually not what you really see. People have been paid to say a lot of things in life.”

In other words, de Villiers believes that Beast should be thanking him, not maligning him. If you want more on those ‘outside’ and ‘sinister’ forces he speaks of, you can read de Villiers’ autobiography, Politically Incorrect, where he spells out every injustice he suffered in great, great detail.

De Villiers also shot down claims that he “inherited” a winning side from Jake White:

“…you won’t hear the same stuff from Victor (Matfield) or John (Smit) about me… All those guys, Bryan Habana – you won’t hear the same stuff about me. It is sad that he (Mtawarira) will say that.

“Everybody talks about the team we inherited from Jake White. Eighty percent of that team, I coached either at Under-19 or Under-21. So, if we go that route, he inherited that from us…

He has a point, and de Villiers was up against it the moment he took over the Springbok coaching role, with many in the media not backing his appointment.

On the other hand, he’s also shooting down what Beast has to say in his autobiography, after he went to town whilst writing his own.

With the excerpts grabbing headlines, Beast issued a statement via his publishers, saying that “a lot has been said/insinuated the last few days regarding my soon to be released book”:

Here’s the critical passage from that release:

It is disappointing that commentators have failed to look comprehensively at the full story, which details the support De Villiers has given to Mtawarira over the years and the respect Mtawarira has for the man who helped him on his Springbok journey.

“Peter was the coach who first picked me for the Springboks, and he stood by me through all the trouble with the Minister of Sport, so I’m really grateful to him,” says Mtawarira in “Beast”.

They say there is no such thing as bad publicity, and all of this has sure helped with the buzz around the release of Beast’s book.

At least nobody is calling anyone “cockroaches”, like Sharks coach Robert du Preez.

[source:iol]