By Ashfak Mohamed
Peter de Villiers has had an eventful time since being appointed Springbok coach. There was a dispute over his contract, he appointed John Smit as captain very early in his tenure, and he has seen the South African Super 14 teams experience mixed fortunes.
This week we asked him to reflect on his first four months in the job.
Question: How has it felt to be the Springbok coach?
Answer: Well, we haven't played at this stage, so for the moment I have put in a lot of structures for the road ahead. We know what we want to achieve. The fact that we don't have everything in place, in terms of the management team and all those things, does make it a bit difficult. But I think we are on course and looking forward to the first training camp on May 18 in Stellenbosch.
Continues Below ↓
Q: Have the contract problems affected you at all?
A: It never affected me. The focus is to get the best for rugby. There will be a few rocks on that road. And if you didn't bring climbing shoes, don't expect to be able to climb those rocks.
Q: There has been a long delay with the appointment of your management team. When will it be announced?
A: I don't know. I just hope it gets sorted out as soon as possible. I have been running around trying to get all the structures in place. We can then either focus on the fact many people have not been appointed yet and make a fuss of that, or we go ahead and do what we can. What is important is that there is a Test to be played and there won't be any excuses if we don't do our best. Nothing will get my focus off what I have been appointed for.
Q: How do you feel about Saru president Oregan Hoskins's announcement last week that you may pick overseas-based players for the Springboks?
A: I don't know if we are going to even use three, but all I want to say is that everything being said in the newspapers about me being able to pick as many overseas players as I want is totally untrue.
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
